Moreover, according to a senior Democratic official, the party leadership would have much more control over choosing a replacement if Biden were to drop out after receiving the nomination than if he did so beforehand. Once a candidate is officially nominated, there is a process for the Democratic National Committee members to choose a successor. Biden is the dominant force at the DNC, and his preference for a successor would surely carry sway.

If Biden were to exit before that, his delegates might do what he asked of them — but they wouldn’t be bound in the same way they are now. In that scenario, the delegates could nominate anyone, and there could be a political brawl at the convention.

    • kromem@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      Maybe they both could and the US might have a return to a respectable election options?

      • Snowflake@sh.itjust.works
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        We don’t need respectable election options. We get on perfectly fine. We send billions and billions in supplies and aid to the other side of the planet either way. Much more than any other country with their ‘respectable elections’ does anyway. Our old dementia riddled leader does more for the complete other side of the planet than anyone did. On the brink of ww3 and here we are according to some with our less than respectable leaders doing the most to prevent it.

  • ikidd@lemmy.world
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    Well, lord knows we wouldn’t want anyone except the DNC leadership unilaterally choosing the candidate. When has that ever gone badly?

  • Zachariah@lemmy.world
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    I’m upvoting (especially) because you included a bit of the article instead of just a link.

    It upsetting though because only an Al would be a good replacement: Al Franken or “Weird Al” Yankovic. And that’s unlikely to happen.

    Otherwise don’t bother. We’ve already got a “not Trump” candidate who is good enough for now. Get Biden elected, and continue putting pressure on the administration. We’re going to need something like a general strike to make any big changes anyway. We cannot rely on those currently governing to do it for us. Let’s at least prevent a christofascist dictatorship this election.

    • return2ozma@lemmy.worldOP
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      We’ve already got a “not Trump” candidate who is good enough for now.

      That’s the issue. Is that really good enough to defeat Trump? For democracy being on the line, I think they really need to replace Biden. I think only Obama could convince Joe to step down. He would look Presidential and his legacy would be “fine”. If Biden stays in the race and loses to Trump, Biden’s legacy will be “his ego ended democracy”. The empire is collapsing.

          • FlowVoid@lemmy.world
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            The point is that Biden is no worse off than he was before the debate. Few people wanted him to drop out last week. So I don’t see any reason to change course now.

            Democrats need to chill. You didn’t see MAGA idiots calling for Trump to drop out after his felony conviction, and you won’t see that after his sentencing. They know those things don’t matter. The debates matter even less.

            • return2ozma@lemmy.worldOP
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              So the plan is just to gaslight voters saying Biden is perfectly fine until the election?

              • FlowVoid@lemmy.world
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                The plan is to remind voters that this will be a close election and every vote matters.

                However, the debate is irrelevant. On the one hand, you have a liar who hates immigrants and wants to benefit wealthy Christians. On the other hand, you have a lousy debater who respects the rule of law and protects women’s rights.

                Nobody faced with this choice is going to ask, “Hmm, just how lousy at debating are we talking?”

    • Empricorn@feddit.nl
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      We’ve already got a “not Trump” candidate who is good enough for now.

      False. We have a good enough president. Who’s behind in the polls and was already making people think he was too old, and that was before the debate. Then, he was freezing, saying the wrong thing, forgetting things, and appearing confused, while replying with an unconfident, raspy voice. Worst of all Trump offered him up softballs in the form of easily shut down lies and opportunities. Speaking of opportunities, this was the one as many eyes would be on him to see the difference between him and Trump. Any other competent candidate and debater would have eviscerated Trump.

      I truly believe Joe is good for the country, but that won’t matter if he can’t win…

  • callouscomic@lemm.ee
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    One bad debate and suddenly there’s endless talk of replacement? It ain’t happening. This is media fantasizing. Pointless.

    • fine_sandy_bottom@discuss.tchncs.de
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      I feel like the left is kinda cannibalising itself.

      The right has fielded a candidate who will end democracy, and we can’t even unite against them.

      • Final Remix@lemmy.world
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        We should… *rolls dice*… meet them in the middle! That’ll capture independents, undecideds, and less conservative conservatives!

        Someone help me push this overton window.

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        This is not the left cannibalizing itself. This is the democrat leadership taking advantage of a candidate who will end democracy and instead propping up progressively worse candidates election after election. Instead of going with a candidate that is even moderately popular with the left of the party, the democrats put in a candidate who is best known for compromising with the right.

        It’s, frankly, the result of the wealth of the democrat party stomping down anyone that would potentially raise their tax burden.

    • cogman@lemmy.world
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      Yeah, ain’t gonna happen because Biden would have to step aside. The time for him to do that was last November.

      This is going to be really bad and I blame Biden and the Democrats in 2020 that decided an 80 year old was a good pick.

      • lennybird@lemmy.world
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        A big part of this decision is happening right now at Camp David with his family, according to the article:

        President Joe Biden is expected to discuss the future of his re-election campaign with family at Camp David on Sunday, following a nationally televised debate Thursday that left many fellow Democrats worried about his ability to beat former President Donald trump in November, according to five people familiar with the matter.

        Let’s face reality:

        • Biden is TEN POINTS nationally below where he was at this time in 2020.
        • Biden is losing in every single battleground state.
        • Biden is losing a large chunk of black and Hispanic voters compared to his 2020 run.
        • Biden’s aggregate approval ratings for Presidency are 37.7% with 56.7% disapproval.

        … Biden asked for that debate because he was desperate to break the downward trend and reach these battleground swing-state voters. That backfired in the worst possible way.

        The time is now, before the convention, and with enough time for an alternative candidate to be selected and ramp up campaigning. There are half a dozen candidates who fit the bill and have a semi-national profile, are YOUNGER, and have enough charisma and debate skills to beat Trump — almost by default by being a fresh face and younger

        Anyone who says there isn’t enough time doesn’t understand just how much FREE viral media attention this would all receive. Every single person should be pushing for this to happen now. Because if Biden makes another gaffe like this in October or a medical emergency, then we are REALLY fucked.

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      I’m going to qualify this with the fact that I would vote for a corpse before I vote for Trump, I’m just frustrated the Democrats are actually making me.

      Nobody’s worried that he had a bad debate. It was a massacre. Trump would loudly answer some unrelated question with how we have to murder/deport all Latinos, and on Biden’s turn, he’d just say “I’ve never heard such Malarkey”, take a breath, mumble three words, take a breath, mumble three words, take a breath, mumble three words, and then get lost. That’s not a bad debate performance, that’s somebody’s lost grandpa. They’re worried- I’m worried- because he seems unfit to be a Wal-Mart greeter, let alone president. I keep being told that we have too much at stake this election, and it’s true, so I’m currently bewildered that we’re staking the whole ass future of our democracy to a man who might no longer be fit to even drive. This is the time to bring the best we have to offer, to go as hard as possible, because I’m reading Project 2025 right now and it reads to me that the republicans intend to enforce what they determine to be social norms with murder. Instead, we’ve got a guy that can hardly make a campaign ad without sounding out of breath with the DNC basically flashing back to Hillary and saying shit like “no, YOU’RE out of touch” and “well, you don’t have any choice; what are you going to do, vote for that Bozo?” And we all saw how that turned out. People have already, in fact, elected that Bozo once before. There’s no reason to think it can’t happen again. If the folks at the DNC aren’t already white knuckling the wheel, then they must be the most delusional people on the planet.

    • TempermentalAnomaly@lemmy.world
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      I can’t think of worse debate performance. Nixon profusely sweating? Pretty bad, but at least he was coherent.

      Mondale not being able to counter Regan’s age deflecting quip? Damn. That’s so tough one when the crowds turned.

      The Gore eye roll? Well damn that sucks.

      But this was a debate long fugue state. At best, some Trump previous incoherent ramblings are close, but still not as bad.

      This was seriously bad. And everyone failing to see that and trying to minimize it is attempting and failing to gaslight everyone else.

      There maybe no replacement available, but at least call a spade a spade.

      • III@lemmy.world
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        Stating Trump’s constant lies and not answering questions was “not as bad” and the following that with a racial slur.

        You are either a shitty bot or your Russian employer should fire you for sucking at this.

  • MindTraveller@lemmy.ca
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    At least he didn’t audibly shit his pants while answering a question

    …as far as I know

    • makyo@lemmy.world
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      I’m really torn on this because his debate performance really was shocking to me. But the incumbency is a point in his favor which is lost if he’s replaced. I’m going to stick with him but if something disruptive happens like a legitimate border crisis or the economy suddenly tanks - THAT’S when it would be imperative that he be replaced. If one or two of his other favorables disappear then the incumbency will start to become a noose.

    • SeaJ@lemm.ee
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      You just described replacing him at this point. I don’t think he should have been running in the first place but the primaries are already done and he won.

  • demizerone@lemmy.world
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    Just retire. A lifetime in politics, and the highest office you can get. It’s still not enough, he want to be a two term president.

  • dhork@lemmy.world
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    There is a third scenario which this article doesn’t address. The President has a natural understudy whose only job (other than to show up to the Senate a few times a year) is to take over in case a President can’t do his job anymore. So why are we all acting like it’s some big wildcard?

    If any President had a major medical, condition – say, a stroke or heart attack – during a campaign it might be prudent for them to back out not just from the campaign but from the office itself. In that case, there is no question who takes over the ticket because it will be the new incumbent President.

    Now, we all know Biden didn’t have any major medical episode. All he has is a sudden case of notgonnawinitis, complicated by inflammation of the opeds. But if he came out next week and said “I had a minor medical issue two days before the debate, my doctors said I would recover fully at the time but now they are not so sure, so I need to back out of all of it”, don’t you think the entire party would immediately (and enthusiastically!) hand the reins off to the vice-president, once they remember who she is?

    • conditional_soup@lemm.ee
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      I keep hearing how Kamala would be worse than Biden, and I have my doubts. Yeah, she did basically the worst in the 2020 primaries and the democrats have done almost nothing to promote her since then, but I assume she didn’t beat medicare and can speak in clear and complete sentences.

      • dhork@lemmy.world
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        In fairness, the job of VP is to keep a low profile. Support the President and be involved enough to take over in a heartbeat, but don’t be too visible or else people might think the VP is trying to overshadow the main guy.

        • SkyezOpen@lemmy.world
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          Sure but Harris is doing extraordinarily well staying quiet. Pence and biden were way more visible as vps.

  • MindTraveller@lemmy.ca
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    Hey Ozma, do you think we should let Trump drop bombs on the west bank on the off chance it pisses off Biden?

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    Just fucking die already so we can get a different candidate. If he wins, Elizabeth Warren will take over when he does die mid term and were all fucked worse than the other old piece of shit.

    Neither of them will live much longer in this world, why burn it down on the way out? Edit: to be clear fuck Donald Trump too. The fact that we are stuck with one old rich piece of shit vs the other means we have lost this fight. Trump didn’t even win the vote the people made last time he won, the electoral college made him win. But sure voting matters, and its not all stacked against us.

    • ImADifferentBird@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      Not sure why Elizabeth Warren would take over or why we’d all be fucked with her as president. Did you somehow confuse Warren with Kamala Harris?

      Also not sure how we’d be fucked worse with Harris than with Trump, if that is what you meant. The list of people who’d be worse than Trump is exceedingly short.

      • BobGnarley@lemm.ee
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        I thought he was running with Elizabeth Warren as his VP this next run instead of Harris. If its Harris then hell yes, I’d vote for team dementia but if its Warren I’d rather just not vote and let the electoral college call all the shots like it did when trump “won” the first time

      • BobGnarley@lemm.ee
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        Yes I thought he was running with her instead of Harris this next campaign. I really really hope I was wrong about that.