Yay! I will have a garbage plate in Joe Morelle’s honor the next time I am in Rochester.

(Although I do admit, I was probably gonna order the plate regardless)

My personal experience is that the current economy is every uneven. Some folks are doing extremely well (mainly the ones who had their housing sorted before the Pandemic), others are not seeing their wages rise to account for the increased cost of everything.

The overall average might be trending higher, but good luck telling that to the people that are getting the short end of the stick.

Thursday is July 4, I doubt Biden will announce that night while the fireworks are going off. But if things continue to be this bad, it could be Friday or Monday.

This can’t go all the way to the convention, because they made the convention so late. They actually have to make the formal nomination before the convention, in time to meet Ohio’s deadline.

The only path forward is for Harris to take over the nomination. This is far easier if Biden resigns totally. He can say he’s doing it for medical reasons, even if all he has is a chronic case of notgonnawinatall, complicated by inflammation of the opeds.

That’s exactly what I will expect him to say, right up until he leaves.

Too bad Taylor Swift is just a few months too young to be eligible.

I cannot see how Biden wins without some black swan.

Is that swan named “Kamala”, by any chance?

Harris is not an automatic loss, as long as the electorate is not composed solely of Lemmy users.

If Biden resigned, along with a direct endorsement of Harris, there will be no floor fight. The party will coalesce around the sitting President.

Shoot, I wanted to draft Polis! Now the highest one left on the board is Buttigieg…

I personally think Biden would have no choice to resign. How can go to the American people and say “I guess I can’t do this job anymore”, but still do it for a few more months?

It would have been different had he come to that conclusion 12 months ago, and allowed a contested primary for his replacement, but he didn’t. The only firm conclusion to come out of the Primaries is that most democrats want the incumbant. So, give Harris the benefit of incumbency.

It’s the simplest path to make the convention not a shitshow. And remember that they need to settle this before the convention, because of the registration deadlines in Ohio and other states. If they leave this to rhe convention, there a real chance the Democrat won’t be on the ballot in Ohio.

If Biden flat-out resigns, then Harris becomes President. Do you really think the party will choose someone other than the sitting President?

It will even make Trump have to change all his “45-47” hats to “45-48” .

He has absolute immunity from Prosecution for official acts. Impeachment is not a Prosecution (a criminal court proceeding) in that sense: it’s a legislative act which looks a lot like a prosecution, but is fundamentally different. So impeachments are not bound by this same rule. Presidents can be impeached for anything, even the color of their shirt, if a majority of the House thinks it’s a “high crime or misdemeanor”.

Nice one, but these conversations are actually going on. We can see evidence of it in Biden’s hasty effort to schedule an interview this weekend. There’s no way he does that if his party didn’t express their doubts privately.

Irs mainly only people who watched the debate live who are in a panic. But most of these donors and key Democratic politicians watched it live, and they are shitting their pants worse than Donald Trump does every day.

She is almost exactly 8 years younger than Harris. If Biden flat-out resigns over this, I expect President Harris to nominate Whitmer as her VP. I look forward to that hearing in the House (since they have to approve the appointment too, although they will likely just sit on it.)

Imagine Harris-Whitmer for 8 years, then Whitmer-someoneyounger for 8 more

I compare her more to broccoli or peas. Nobody’s favorite food, but gives you the proper nutrients to fight fascism. Now shut up and eat your peas.

It would also send the message to our allies that the USA no longer takes elections seriously, and it’s all just a popularity contest. TayTay/Beyoncé 2028!

(Edited because Rhianna was born in Barbados, so is ineligible.)

There is someone in office right now whose only real job is to step in if the President can no longer do the job. Remember her?

It’s very difficult for ambitious people to admit that they’re done. Once you reach the pinnacle, it’s hard to give up, because the only way forward is down. LBJ is held up as an example, but it was difficult for him, too:

On Inauguration Day (January 20, 1969), Johnson saw Nixon sworn in, then got on the plane to fly back to Texas. When the front door of the plane closed, Johnson pulled out a cigarette—his first cigarette he had smoked since his heart attack in 1955. One of his daughters pulled it out of his mouth and said, “Daddy, what are you doing? You’re going to kill yourself.” He took it back and said, “I’ve now raised you, girls. I’ve now been President. Now it’s my time!” From that point on, he went into a very self-destructive spiral.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lyndon_B._Johnson

Consider how screwed up the SC is right now. Yes, a lot of that is due to Mitch McConnell and Lindsay Graham playing games, but it’s also due in no small part to RBG not resigning when many told her she ought to. Now, it’s quite clear that she was capable of the job at the time, and would only be stepping down for political expediency, so Obama could have named a younger replacement. If RBG had retired, and the court was less of a clusterfuck, we might not have appreciated how important that moment would have been.

It’s hard enough to take the car keys away from Grandpa, it’s harder to take the keys to power away.