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Obviously because he's a weak candidate (and has been from the very beginning) in what might well be the highest stakes presidential race in US history.
The debate didn't suddenly create some notion of his weakness as a candidate - long before the debate, his prospects were already shaky at best, and the Dem establishment had already had to resort to basically trying to guilt trip people into voting for him.
All the debate did as far as any of that goes is drive home the point that people have been trying to make from the beginning - that he is and always has been a weak and uninspiring candidate at best.
And I'd say that rather obviously, if anyone's repeating the mistakes of 2016, it's the Dem establishment.
And on a bit of a side note - in response to the author's smugly self-congratulatory view that the voters are mindless automatons who just blindly do as the media tells them, I would just like to offer up a hearty, "fuck you."
And Biden knew it too, it's why the man who wouldn't shut up for decades suddenly disappeared from the public eye.
He did less than a tenth of the press conferences as the last two presidents in their first term.
If they wouldn't have been hiding him, Dem voters would have seen how bad he's gotten.
Mans was sleepy! 4 years of jet lag.
I should also add that his ABC interview on Friday only intensified my concerns. To me, all it really communicated is that he actually IS so wrapped up in his own ego and hubris that he doesn’t actually get that this is an existential election, and that the consequences for failure are well and truly catastrophic. Like, there’s a good chance we won’t have functional democratic processes anymore if he looses. But he thinks that’s fine because “he will have given it his all”, ignoring the fact that “his all” is shuffling around, trying to compromise with fascists, and bringing a deck of cards to the gunfight that American politics have devolved into these days.
Really, it’s an evolution of the concerns I had in the 2020 elections, which have kind of proven out to be completely true: that despite some clear domestic policy successes, he’s more or less out of touch with the fact that he’s playing with an absurdly outdated rule book, and does not seem to understand that the rules have fundamentally changed. He doesn’t get that a lot of his old bipartisan negotiating tactics are straight up self-defeating these days.
I am genuinely and deeply worried at this point that his refusal to see past his own personal situation in all of this is going to lead to the conclusion of the American experiment in its current incarnation, and replace it with something far, far darker.
Edit: if you’re downvoting this, I am actually genuinely curious as to which parts of this you disagree with, or think are wrongheaded.
I'm glad you mentioned his interview increased your concern. I thought it was just me. I'll vote for whoever is the Democrat on the ballot - but I'm not the person the campaign should be worried about. They have to put someone on the ballot who can win (which, as damning as it is to America broadly, is probably a good-looking, smooth-talking white guy who will look better on stage than Trump).
He and the DNC and the Democrat establishment as a whole.
The voters made it clear in 2020 that they didn't really want him all that much, and arguably the only reason he got the nomination is because the Democrat establishment transparently engineered it by getting all the candidates other than Sanders to all drop out and endorse Biden essentially simultaneously. That gave the establishment the opportunity to push through Biden's nomination in spite of his glaring weakness as a candidate. They could've had a populist to rival Trump, and one that's notably sane rather than a delusional narcissist and compulsive liar with the emotional maturity of a spoiled five-year-old, but instead they doggedly stuck to the same playbook that in the past brought us such drab losers as Mondale, Dukakis and Kerry, and brought us another drab loser who only barely managed to not lose.
And now here we are, four years down the line, with a drab loser incumbent up against the greatest threat American democracy has ever faced.
The rules clearly changed in 2016. The RNC and the Republican establishment changed to accomodate them (or at least to provide a colorable appearance of doing so). The DNC and the Democrat establishment did not. And now we're reaping what they sowed.
I get so frustrated, and I'm sure others too, that I've been saying this for the entirety of the Biden presidency. Now that it's 10 minutes to midnight everyone decides to talk about it. My voice has been ignored, I've been shutdown and basically forced out of any discussion when I brought this shit up.
The problem isn't that the media changed. The problem isn't that the DNC changed. The problem isn't progressives changed. The problem is the voting public decided just now to actually show up. Democracy is dying not because the Republicans are political juggernauts it's because Americans can't get it up unless it's fucking a giant production.
So you mother fuckers better do everything you fucking can to keep Trump out because I cant fucking even with you guys anymore.
I would say that the fact that the DNC hasn't changed is pretty obviously the main problem.
With the exceptions of Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, they've been offering up nothing but weak, uninspiring establishment hack candidates for decades now. And 2016 was the year when the base finally said that enough was enough, and they wanted an inspiring candidate who actually shared their values and not just another establishment hack who happened to have a (D) after their name.
And instead of changing to accomodate the clearly expressed preference of the electorate, the DNC dug in their heels and forced the establishment hack on us anyway.
Then after that so deservedly blew up in their faces, they went ahead and did it again in 2020. And they only managed to get away with it that time because Trump had just spent the last four years proving that he's not just a ridiculous buffoon in clown makeup, but a grotesquely power-hungry buffoon in clown makeup who's ready and willing to destroy the US because daddy never loved him.
And I'd say that the last four years, and the fact that Trump is back and a bigger threat than ever, pretty clearly illustrates that in spite of the fact that he managed to win, the establishment hack still wasn't the right choice.
But as far as I can see, the DNC and the Democrat establishment still hasn't changed. They're still determined to go with an uninspiring establishment hack and count on some combination of resignation, desperation and guilt to compel enough people to vote for him to hopefully eke out a win.
The entire reason that Trump got support in the first place is that he gave a previously disillusioned and frustrated base what they wanted. The GOP was all set to nominate their own establishment hack - Jeb Bush - but when they saw the way the wind was blowing, they (eventually) got out of the way and let the people pick Trump instead. And it worked, entirely predictably.
There's a much larger base on the left, including the vast majority of young voters, who are currently disillusioned and frustrated, and the DNC and the Democrat establishment, specifically because they haven't and apparently won't change, are missing out on the opportunity they would provide. And this is NOT a time to be missing out on opportunities. This is NOT a time for business as usual. It's a time to inspire people.
You said it yourself, the issue was appernt in 2016 but all 2020 to 2024 no one did a god damn thing about it. I'm telling you, if you even tried to reason anyone away from biden, conversations were shut down. We cant just show up in the latter half of an election year and make demands. Change has to happen first. We took the W in 2020 when we should have said, "hey that was too fucking close let's fix this shit now."
If we survive 2024, it will only be by the skin of our teeth and the DNC will attempt the same shit. Uphold the status quo and ignore an ever more frustrated electorate. We need to secure democracy and then reform the party, and they will go out kicking and screaming.
The only reasonable explanation for all of this is the DNC and GOP are operating under the assumption of mutually assured destruction. Bidens going down with the ship.
golf clap.... Well said.
Biden only appears weak to those not paying attention. He has a strong record of achievements, some you may have missed., not to mention bringing chip manufacturing back to the U.S.. He has skillfully navigated the impending recession to a soft landing and his policies are preferred by both Democrats and Republicans by a wide margin. Many didn't see him as a great president but his results may prove them wrong. He will go down in history as under appreciated president. Biden is a successful president. Will that matter?
Biden's weak because he's got a low approval rating, a high disapproval rating, he's losing badly in every poll, and 80% of voters think he's too old to be President. Being a strong candidate isn't about how qualified or accomplished you are, it's about how strong your electoral support is. To those who've been paying attention, Biden's weakness has been apparent for years, and we've been raising alarms since he said he would seek reelection.
And none of that carefully manicured astroturf makes the slightest bit of difference.
The Democrat rank and file have been clearly telling the DNC and the rest of the establishment for eight years now that we want a real leftist - somebody who actually represents our values who we can and will rally behind rather than just another establishment hack who's sort of maybe somewhere to the leftish side of the extremely narrow establishment hack spectrum.
And for the same eight years, the DNC and the rest of the establishment has been alternately ignoring us and telling us that we're too stupid to understand what's best for us (just as you're doing now).
They fucking cost us the election already in 2016, and damned near did again in 2020. And now they're set to try to do it in 2024.
This election is unlike any other in US history. With overt fascists riding Trump's coattails, already with a roadmap to destroying democracy and instituting their dictatorship, this isn't just a choice between potential presidents, but a choice between destroying or saving the US.
So it really doesn't matter in the slightest what sort of policy achievements a Democrat candidate might or might not have. The ONLY thing that matters is whether or not the candidate will inspire enough voters to win.
That's it - this time around, winning literally is everything. NOTHING else matters.
And all the DNC and the Democrat establishment has to do to effectively guarantee a win is get the fuck out of the way and let the people choose the candidate they want - the candidate that they're going to rally behind. That's what the voters have wanted for eight years now, and it's long past time for the power brokers and their mouthpieces to back the fuck off and let them.
Now that said, I don't think the situation is as dire as all that. Trump and his fascist cohorts are such an obvious threat that I think that come November, if the DNC and the rest of the Democrat establishment have gone ahead and decided to gamble the fate of the country on clinging to a weak establishment candidate in spite of eight years of clearly communicated disillusionment from the base, just being "not-Trump" will be enough to likely win anyway, as it was in 2020.
But it's not a sure thing. A candidate that the people chose and the people rallied behind would be a sure thing, while an establishment hack is just someone who might manage to eke out a win because enough people will hold their noses and vote for them anyway, solely on the "strength" of them being not-Trump.
Breaking out his checklist doesn't mean anything, even average/working class people are struggling. If he was doing well as folks make him out to be, people would be singing his praises and be ready to stand beside him. He has gained a ton of apathy over 4 years.
Don’t forget he beat Medicare and has golf handicap of 6.