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Notes -
Ezra Klein saying BIden should step aside because of age, and a new candidate be chosen at the convention:
https://old.reddit.com/r/ezraklein/comments/1as537m/democrats_have_a_better_option_than_biden/
There's a link to the podcast episode in the (heavily downvoted) Reddit discussion above.
Quite frankly, that would be quite a stupid thing for Democrats to do. Last time that happened was 1968, with notable results. He then lists alternative candidates such as AOC, Newsom, Cory Booker, Gretchen Whitmer, and a bunch of randoms I've never even heard of, though his top pick is Kamala Harris.
What material does the GOP have on him to make him advise such obvious electoral suicide? Harris would never win, but passing over the black, female VP would come with tons of blowback. Plus all the infighting at the convention would make the DNC look like a party in chaos when they're trying to portray themselves as the stable, responsible alternative to MAGA craziness.
Getting rid of Biden this late in the game is simply not a winning move.
My advice: Get Biden's carcass over the finishing line in November, have Harris step in as replacement sometime early in 2025, and then start figuring out what to do about 2028 with four years breathing room, not a few months of lead time.
In this election, both candidates are pretty well hated by the public.
If you say to someone, "you can have Donald Trump, Joe Biden, or the what's in the mystery box", many people will answer "The box. The BOX!"
https://youtube.com/watch?v=XsNIFD7TxwU
In this environment, swapping in a cipher like Michelle Obama at the last minute starts to seem like a pretty good idea! Let's not forget that Joe Biden was sort of in that same position 4 years ago. People didn't know much about him, he didn't stand for anything, and that was good!
Of course, a 3rd Obama term would be just like a 2nd Biden term. All the same people would be running the show. But there are lots of Americans who (wrongly) think that the problem with the Biden administration is Biden. It doesn't take too many people to fall into this trap to move the needle. I think Michelle Obama would capture enough of the middle to win by 10 points.
Now, Michelle Obama might not do it because she's smart enough to realize her reputation will go from great to dogshit in 18 months. But they could find someone. Hopefully someone who just says buzzwords like "hope" without getting into the specifics of how they're going to raise your taxes to give more money to people who don't work.
Biden's been in office making bad decisions for decades. He tried to get a precursor to the Patriot Act passed years before 9/11. In my extremely biased view he had many decades of examples of how to be a bad Democratic politician.
Perhaps you should re-evaluate based on him ascending to the presidency? He is an example of an excellent Democratic politician, even if such a thing succeeding is bad for the country.
Right: he's a 36 year Senator, then two term VP and now President. He's the best of their best by some measure that accounts for extreme seniority.
He's an example of their worst by my biased accounting against the Democratic party elite. "Consistently wrong for decades" and also ascending to the highest offices. Great for him, massively enriching to his entire extended family, bad in some larger sense by my estimation.
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