7/21: Biden "Stands Down". Should (Will?) President Joe Biden Drop Out of the 2024 Presidential Race? Poll & Editorials

[SuzieC]

14 million voters have voted. That says it all.

[Luke]

Carville is on the warpath. His opinion piece in the NY Times is behind the firewall. I canceled my sub a long time ago. Here's what's available.

OPINION GUEST ESSAY
James Carville: Biden Won’t Win. Democrats Need a Plan. Here’s One.
July 8, 2024 By James Carville
Mr. Carville is a veteran of Democratic presidential campaigns, including Bill Clinton’s in 1992, and a consultant to American Bridge, a Democratic super PAC.

Mark my words: Joe Biden is going to be out of the 2024 presidential race. Whether he is ready to admit it or not. His pleas on Monday to congressional Democrats for support will not unite the party behind him. Mr. Biden says he’s staying in the race, but it’s only a matter of time before Democratic pressure and public and private polling lead him to exit the race. The jig is up, and the sooner Mr. Biden and Democratic leaders accept this, the better. We need to move forward.

But it can’t be by anointing Vice President Kamala Harris or anyone else as the presumptive Democratic nominee. We’ve got to do it out in the open — the exact opposite of what Donald Trump wants us to do.

For the first time in his life, Mr. Trump is praying. To win the White House and increase his chances of avoiding an orange jumpsuit, he needs Democrats to make the wrong moves in the coming days — namely, to appear to rig the nomination for a fading president or the sitting vice president or some other heir apparent. He needs to be able to type ALL CAPS posts about power brokers and big donors putting the fix in. He needs, in other words, for Democrats to blow it.

We’re not going to do that.

We’re going to nominate a new ticket in a highly democratic and novel way, not in the backrooms of Washington, D.C., or Chicago.

We’re at the stage where we need constructive ideas for how to move forward. Representative Jim Clyburn and the Times Opinion columnist Ezra Klein have spoken about a Democratic mini-primary, and I want to build on that.

I want to see the Democratic Party hold four historic town halls between now and the Democratic National Convention in August — one each in the South, the Northeast, the Midwest and the West. We can recruit the two most obvious and qualified people in the world to facilitate substantive discussions: Barack Obama and Bill Clinton. They may not represent every faction under our party’s big tent. But they care as much about our democracy as our nation’s first president, they understand what it takes to be president, and they know how to win.

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/07/08/opin ... minee.html

[Dave from down under]

Biden as good as says “put up or shut up”..

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-07-09/ ... /103623490

[Slim Cognito]

Carville:

disappointment.png (260.91 KiB) Viewed 607 times

[bob]

We can recruit the two most obvious and qualified people in the world to facilitate substantive discussions: Barack Obama and Bill Clinton.

And when they pass on the opportunity to preside over your circular firing squad?

[SuzieC]

I love the "we can recruit" part. Sure, Carville, try to hang on to any shred of relevance.

[p0rtia]

Consider your words marked, Carville.

Carry on.

[neonzx]

Carville, 79, sayz what?

Get back to me with cognitive tests on James.

[Suranis]

Wow, who knew that someone could wind up with the Middle Fingers of a White AND a Black man up shoved up their nose.

[Frater I*I]

I luvs how the Dems seemed bound and determined to speed run losing this election...

[Dave from down under]

Bloody quislings...

[bob]

[RTH10260]

https://twitter.com/Theresa49500/status ... 9961745664

Jen "I dissent " Rubin Jul 8, 2024 @JRubinBlogger
Biden would benefit by deciding to release his entire medical record. A letter from his doctor cannot allay concerns about whether he has an underlying medical issue. Let the media paw through records and report if they find any indication of a heretofore “hidden” neurological…

BUT... But.... but... MD Dr Harold Bornstein did vertify with a simple letter that the future #45 will be the fittest and bestest impotus for evahhh

[p0rtia]

It's the vibes.

And the stupidity of the media that only care about vibes.

[AndyinPA]

At the beginning of his program, Lawrence O'Donnel read a letter from Biden's doctor explaining that the visits to the White House by a neurologist were to see other patients, not the President. It goes further to say that Biden does not have any real neurological issues.



Edited to add:

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/white-hous ... ns-doctor/

On Monday night, the White House released a memo from the president's physician, Dr. Kevin O'Connor, in which he said he had obtained permission from Mr. Biden and Cannard to share more details.

"Dr. Cannard was the neurological specialist that examined President Biden for each of his annual physicals. His findings have been made public each time I have released the results of the President's annual physical. President Biden has not seen a neurologist outside of his annual physical," O'Connor wrote, noting that Cannard has been the neurology consultant to the White House Medical Unit since 2012.

"The results of this year's exam were detailed in my February 28th letter: 'An extremely detailed neurologic exam was again reassuring in that there were no findings which would be consistent with any cerebellar or other central neurological disorder, such as stroke, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson's, or ascending lateral sclerosis,'" O'Connor wrote.

O'Connor also noted that Cannard has made regular visits to the White House Medical Unit "in support of the thousands of active-duty members assigned in support of White House operations. Many military personnel experience neurological issues related to their service, and Dr. Cannard regularly visits the WHMU as part of this General Neurology practice."

The president, adamant that he's staying in the race, has gone on offense in recent days.

[Luke]

As Addie used to say: OFGS.

Yeah George, who could possibly expect in the STREETS OF MANHATTAN SOMEBODY WOULD HAVE A CAMERA ON A NETWORK TV ANCHOR?

George Stephanopoulos Captured On Video Saying He Doesn’t Think Joe Biden Can Serve Another Four Years
July 9, 2024

ABC News anchor George Stephanopoulos was captured on video in the streets of New York telling a person that he doesn’t believe that President Joe Biden can serve another four years.

The video posted earlier today on TMZ, and showed him responding to a question from a person with a camera, asking him whether he thought Biden should step down. “I don’t think he can serve four more years,” Stephanopoulos said.

https://dnyuz.com/2024/07/09/george-ste ... our-years/

[Suranis]

I'd give pretty high odds that was a deliberatly constructed set up intended by all parties to "go viral." That is, old George there knew there was a camera and had a script.

[Luke]

Top fundraiser George Clooney abandons Biden: ‘The dam has broken’
BY JUDY KURTZ - 07/10/24 11:48 AM ET

George Clooney, who just last month hosted a star-studded fundraiser for President Biden’s campaign, is reversing course, saying Democrats are “not going to win in November with this president.” “I love Joe Biden. As a senator. As a vice president and as president. I consider him a friend, and I believe in him. Believe in his character. Believe in his morals. In the last four years, he’s won many of the battles he’s faced,” the “Ticket to Paradise” star, one of Hollywood’s most prominent Democratic supporters, said in an editorial published Wednesday in The New York Times. “But the one battle he cannot win is the fight against time. None of us can,” Clooney wrote of the 81-year-old commander in chief.

Last month, Clooney joined former President Obama and actor Julia Roberts for a buzzy and record-breaking Los Angeles fundraiser for Biden’s campaign. The event raised $30 million. But in his New York Times essay, Clooney acknowledged that he observed a difference in Biden at the glitzy fundraiser. “It’s devastating to say it, but the Joe Biden I was with three weeks ago at the fund-raiser was not the Joe ‘big F-ing deal‘ Biden of 2010. He wasn’t even the Joe Biden of 2020. He was the same man we all witnessed at the debate,” Clooney wrote.
***
“Was he tired? Yes. A cold? Maybe. But our party leaders need to stop telling us that 51 million people didn’t see what we just saw. We’re all so terrified by the prospect of a second Trump term that we’ve opted to ignore every warning sign,” Clooney, 63, said. “Is it fair to point these things out? It has to be. This is about age. Nothing more. But also nothing that can be reversed,” the Academy Award winner said. “We are not going to win in November with this president. On top of that, we won’t win the House, and we’re going to lose the Senate,” he said, citing “the opinion of every senator and congress member and governor” that he said he had spoken with privately.

“We love to talk about how the Republican Party has ceded all power, and all of the traits that made it so formidable with Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush, to a single person who seeks to hold on to the presidency, and yet most of our members of Congress are opting to wait and see if the dam breaks,” Clooney said. “But the dam has broken,” he said. “We can put our heads in the sand and pray for a miracle in November, or we can speak the truth.”
***
“It is disingenuous, at best, to argue that Democrats have already spoken with their vote and therefore the nomination is settled and done, when we just received new and upsetting information,” Clooney said. The entertainer argued that top Democrats, including Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (N.Y.), House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (N.Y.) and former Speaker Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) “need to ask this president to voluntarily step aside.” “Would it be messy? Yes. Democracy is messy. But would it enliven our party and wake up voters who, long before the June debate, had already checked out? It sure would,” Clooney said. Biden, Clooney wrote, “is a hero; he saved democracy in 2020.” “We need him to do it again in 2024,” he said.

https://thehill.com/blogs/in-the-know/4 ... ork-times/

[Luke]

Nancy Pelosi on Morning Joe. She said President Biden was "spectacular" in his NATO remarks yesterday. Interesting and lengthy column by her Chief of Staff (link below). Nancy is still amazing at 84 (March 26, 1940). She will support whatever President Biden wants to do.

Democrats Give Joe Biden Just Hours to Save His Second Term Run
Nancy Pelosi lifted the veil on the next move on Biden’s candidacy: waiting to see if he makes it through a press conference Thursday afternoon.
Updated Jul. 10, 2024 2:51PM EDT Published Jul. 10, 2024 2:36PM EDT

Democratic leaders in Congress are waiting until just after Thursday’s NATO summit in Washington has concluded before they make a fateful decision on how to approach President Joe Biden on whether and how he should end his candidacy.

Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), appearing on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” show Wednesday, said she has advised fellow anxious Democrats to hold their fire while Biden hosts leaders from around the world in the nation’s capital. But they will be gone late Thursday. Then it will likely fall to Pelosi and Rep. James Clyburn (D-SC), another veteran House leader, to meet privately with the president, who is a dear friend and former colleague to both of them. “I’ve said to everyone: Let’s just hold off,” Pelosi said on MSNBC. “Whatever you’re thinking: Either tell somebody privately, but you don’t have to put that out on the table until we see how we go this week.”

“Privately” is how Pelosi tends to handle important matters, especially when the future of her party and the country is at stake. Except, however, on “Morning Joe” Wednesday, when she became the most senior Democrat to suggest Biden should reconsider his candidacy when she publicly declined to say whether she still supports the 81-year-old Biden for president. Pelosi, 85, said “it’s up to the president” to decide but that “we’re all encouraging him to make that decision, because time is running short.
***
Pelosi’s former longtime chief of staff, John Lawrence, recently mused in his blog, Domeocracy https://johnalawrence.wordpress.com/, that First Lady Jill Biden and the president’s sister, Valerie, may conclude that the president’s legacy will be “irreparably shredded if his physical and mental capability become the singular issue of the campaign” rather than focusing on defeating Donald Trump.

More: https://www.thedailybeast.com/democrats ... d-term-run

[Foggy]

... before they make a fateful decision on how to approach President Joe Biden on whether and how he should end his candidacy.

Horseshit. He gets to make the decision, and he has made the decision, and they can fuck off if they want anything else.

... may conclude that the president’s legacy will be “irreparably shredded if his physical and mental capability become the singular issue of the campaign” rather than focusing on defeating Donald Trump.

Hey, yeah, Democrats. It's only Democrats trying to make Biden’s age the singular issue of the campaign. Why don't you try focusing on defeating Donald Trump for a change?

[sad-cafe]

Exactly

I cast my ballot for Biden.

[MN-Skeptic]

Biden may stumble. He may misspeak. He may lose his train of thought. He may doze off during a boring speech.

Trump may stumble. He may misspeak. He may lose his train of thought. He may doze off during a boring speech.

But WHAT they say differs and it matters. What they DO differs and it matters.

Biden will always support the average citizen. He will always look out for what's best for America. He will always have our allies' backs.

Trump may or may not support those who praise him. But he will always look out for what's best for himself. He doesn't care about allies, only about world leaders who praise him. Because he wants to be a dictator, he admires other dictators.

The number one goal of this election is to beat Trump. If that requires Biden running again, even if it would be nice to have a younger candidate, I will support Biden. Biden, at his worst, is still 100 times better than Trump on any day.

[Res Ipsa]

"It's okay for Joe to be president now, but he turns into a pumpkin on January 20, 2025, and we can't have that."

By the way, did Hillary ever recover from her terminal illnesses circa this time in 2016?

[AndyinPA]

[bob]

WSJ: Nancy Pelosi Signals Biden Should Re-Examine Decision to Stay in Race.

NARRATOR: She said no such thing.

No bias there.