What if Joe Biden was the better candidate all along?

He is too old. The Hill is a right wing rag. Move it along toots.

I already said that this was going to start and OP is starting this shit already.

Let's not play this game.

[Quote] What if Joe Biden was the better candidate all along?

What if Joe Biden was the better candidate all along?

Yes, R3, they’ll be plenty of time for recrimination post-November 5th.

By the way, for a little context, I remember the author of this opinion piece, Harlan Ullman, writing a few weeks before the Ukraine War began that Russia invading Ukraine would be crazy and they’d never do it — it was all a bluff.

Are you posting from 2016 OP? Because I know you aren’t posting from 2024 if you have a brain in your head.

[quote]What if Joe Biden was the better candidate all along?

Then he should have proven that at the debate in June. And he failed to do that. He failed miserably.

The polling has been clear that Biden was headed to defeat but Harris has a chance. She also engenders a lot more enthusiasm. She’s without question the better choice for the Democrats between the two.

Nope. I don't think so, OP.

It's too late for all that.

Sexist bullshit. Fuck you Harlan.

He would not be able to campaign. Harris did 3 states yesterday. She will visit 6 states this week, doing multiple events every day. Biden would be able to do 2 per week at most. They would not be well attended unless he shared the bill with Obama/Clinton. Meanwhile Trump would be out there flooding the media with shit, winning every news cycle.

What Michelle Obama had won by a landslide in 2016 and we were waiting for her VP Oprah to sweep the election?

Notwithstanding Obama, this is still a racist country. Misogynist, too. If Harris loses, on the heels of Hillary’s defeat, it’s not a no-brainer to think that Biden, a white man who, alone, had the secret sauce to win over enough non-college educated white Rust Belt voters, could have done it again.

Seriously? "We're gonna beat Medicare?" Referring to Kamala as "Vice-President Trump"? Referring to Zelensky as "President Putin"?

R13, since we’re presupposing that Harris has lost for purposes of this thread, of what moment was it that she was able to campaign more exhaustively than Biden could have?

Seriously, r17?

[quote] Seriously? "We're gonna beat Medicare?" Referring to Kamala as "Vice-President Trump"? Referring to Zelensky as "President Putin"?

It made Biden more relatable to the voters living in memory care facilities, which Harris wouldn’t be able to do as well.

I’m not saying definitively that Biden would’ve won in this counterfactual, R18, but he sure would’ve had some advantages, perhaps dispositive, over Harris. I don’t know where you live, but I live in a swing state, & I’m besieged with ads about how liberal Harris is, dating back to her DA days. The campaign reminds me much of the successful campaign against Dukakis. Biden would not have been as vulnerable to this line of attack.

So? What is the point of that now?

How does one campaign exhaustively?

Yes!! Irling Haaland is Team Father Sir.

⚽️

R8 Furthermore even if he wanted to redeem himself afterwards, the week following the debate he was gaffing like crazy AND looking crazy in the face. He called Zelensky the President of Russian. It was non stop gaffes and nonsensical rhythm of speech. Enuff with this bullshit.

Any truth to the claims of some lip readers that Biden told Obama at the Ethel Kennedy memorial service that his numbers would be better than Harris? Let's not forget that Biden & his political team always thought he'd do better against Trump than she would.

If Biden would be doing so much better why did her poll numbers go down after she stated she would not have done anything different from his administration.

EXACTLY.

One critical advantage Biden would have is that he wouldn't be the undefined candidate. Being the undefined candidate allows the opposition to define you in the most negative way.

One critical advantage Biden has is that he is a white straight man. I doubt Elon Musk would come up to support Trump avidly if Biden was still the candidate.

R28 Isn't Elon's motivation (supposedly) that Biden didn't invite him to some WH gathering about electronic vehicles? Seems he'd be an avid supporter and wantonly cruel about Biden's physical decline.

But he wasn't a better candidate, was he? Even if he'd won, he's clearly not up to four more years of the Presidency, whereas Harris has surprised everyone with just how suitable she is.

If people vote for Trump, it's because they want to vote for a racist fascist. Neither Biden nor Harris can give them that.

[quote] Remember: voters are more likely to see Harris 2024 as too liberal vs. Biden 2020.

What absolute horseshit.

Harris’ numbers vs Trump are still way better than Biden’s on his best day. She raised a fucking BILLION dollars in two and a half months!! Biden was failing there. She is filling large venues packed with enthusiastic supporters. Biden was absolutely failing there. She has generated a surge in new D voter registration since July 21, again, prior to that, Biden was not. And apples to apples, their debate performances against Trump speak for themselves.

R29 Elon was pissed about not getting an invite to a WH meeting on vehicular tailpipe emissions. Bret Baier mentioned it in an interview with Secretary Pete who had to remind Baier that Musk makes Teslas that don’t have tailpipes.

What stands out for me are the huge lies people on DL and elsewhere told about Biden appearing mentally sound, when there was already abundant evidence to the contrary just from his public appearances. The hyper-partisans will say anything that furthers their political goals.

[quote] At a Chevy Chase fundraiser in June 2023, Bill Reichblum tells Woodward of Biden: “He never completed a sentence….He told the same story three times in exactly the same way and it meandered so much…Frankly, my impression was there were times…it was as though we didn’t exist. He was just rambling and talking as to what came into his head.”

Somehow the country is surviving with a president in this condition. I think we can also survive other difficulties in the future.

What r1 said

Two weeks to the election, OP. Be here now.