Biden catch-all | Kamala comes out swinging

[EyeballKid]

I doubt many people are going to be lining up with Hunter for this squad

Fair.

 

[Duke Mu]

Another round of the Dem circular firing squad, coming up.

God, I fucking hate all these melodramatic, narcissistic asshats in office and/or in the political sphere for both parties (my one and only concession to a “bo-sides” stance).

Joe Biden was the nation's Ambien.

Time to move along and learn.

 

[tonman]

Joe Biden was the nation's Ambien.

Time to move along and learn.

From the crap that he inherited Ambien was the right medication.

 

[nycfan]

 

[nycfan]

 

[nycfan]

“… I am a loyal person.

During all those months of growing panic, should I have told Joe to consider not running? Perhaps. But the American people had chosen him before in the same matchup. Maybe he was right to believe that they would do so again.

He was, by some measures, the most consistently underestimated man in Washington. He’d been right about his tactics for pushing his agenda through a resistant Congress.

It was just possible he was right about this, too.

And of all the people in the White House, I was in the worst position to make the case that he should drop out. I knew it would come off to him as incredibly self-serving if I advised him not to run. He would see it as naked ambition, perhaps as poisonous disloyalty, even if my only message was: Don’t let the other guy win.

“It’s Joe and Jill’s decision.” We all said that, like a mantra, as if we’d all been hypnotized. Was it grace, or was it recklessness? In retrospect, I think it was recklessness. The stakes were simply too high. This wasn’t a choice that should have been left to an individual’s ego, an individual’s ambition. It should have been more than a personal decision.

Many people want to spin up a narrative of some big conspiracy at the White House to hide Joe Biden’s infirmity. Here is the truth as I lived it. Joe Biden was a smart guy with long experience and deep conviction, able to discharge the duties of president. On his worst day, he was more deeply knowledgeable, more capable of exercising judgment, and far more compassionate than Donald Trump on his best.

But at 81, Joe got tired. That’s when his age showed in physical and verbal stumbles. I don’t think it’s any surprise that the debate debacle happened right after two back-to-back trips to Europe and a flight to the West Coast for a Hollywood fundraiser. I don’t believe it was incapacity. If I believed that, I would have said so. As loyal as I am to President Biden, I am more loyal to my country.

… And when the stories were unfair or inaccurate, the president’s inner circle seemed fine with it. Indeed, it seemed as if they decided I should be knocked down a little bit more. …”

 

[nycfan]

“… I am a loyal person.

During all those months of growing panic, should I have told Joe to consider not running? Perhaps. But the American people had chosen him before in the same matchup. Maybe he was right to believe that they would do so again.

He was, by some measures, the most consistently underestimated man in Washington. He’d been right about his tactics for pushing his agenda through a resistant Congress.

It was just possible he was right about this, too.

And of all the people in the White House, I was in the worst position to make the case that he should drop out. I knew it would come off to him as incredibly self-serving if I advised him not to run. He would see it as naked ambition, perhaps as poisonous disloyalty, even if my only message was: Don’t let the other guy win.

“It’s Joe and Jill’s decision.” We all said that, like a mantra, as if we’d all been hypnotized. Was it grace, or was it recklessness? In retrospect, I think it was recklessness. The stakes were simply too high. This wasn’t a choice that should have been left to an individual’s ego, an individual’s ambition. It should have been more than a personal decision.

Many people want to spin up a narrative of some big conspiracy at the White House to hide Joe Biden’s infirmity. Here is the truth as I lived it. Joe Biden was a smart guy with long experience and deep conviction, able to discharge the duties of president. On his worst day, he was more deeply knowledgeable, more capable of exercising judgment, and far more compassionate than Donald Trump on his best.

But at 81, Joe got tired. That’s when his age showed in physical and verbal stumbles. I don’t think it’s any surprise that the debate debacle happened right after two back-to-back trips to Europe and a flight to the West Coast for a Hollywood fundraiser. I don’t believe it was incapacity. If I believed that, I would have said so. As loyal as I am to President Biden, I am more loyal to my country.

… And when the stories were unfair or inaccurate, the president’s inner circle seemed fine with it. Indeed, it seemed as if they decided I should be knocked down a little bit more. …”

“… In Selma, Alabama, at the commemoration of Bloody Sunday, when civil-rights marchers were attacked and beaten once they’d crossed the Edmund Pettus Bridge, I gave a strong speech on the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. Desperate people had been shot when they swarmed a food truck, and I spoke of families reduced to eating leaves or animal feed, women prematurely giving birth with little or no medical care, and children dying from malnutrition and dehydration. I reiterated my strong support for Israel’s security and called on Hamas to release the hostages and accept the cease-fire agreement then on the table. I also called on Israel for greater access to aid. It was a speech that had been vetted and approved by the White House and the National Security Council. It went viral, and the West Wing was displeased.

Their thinking was zero-sum: If she’s shining, he’s dimmed. None of them grasped that if I did well, he did well. That given the concerns about his age, my visible success as his vice president was vital. It would serve as a testament to his judgment in choosing me and reassurance that if something happened, the country was in good hands. My success was important for him.

His team didn’t get it.“

 

[Healing]

I think there’s likely truth to what she’s saying. Also, the framing sounds nakedly self serving and I don’t think will serve her political ambitions well.

Though, I have a hard time understanding the role of after office books, these days.

 

[nycfan]

I think there’s likely truth to what she’s saying. Also, the framing sounds nakedly self serving and I don’t think will serve her political ambitions well.

Though, I have a hard time understanding the role of post office books, these days.

Honestly, that passage doesn’t read like she has continuing political ambitions … that or she feels the need to burn a lot of bridges to try to have a political future.

 

[aGDevil2k]

Honestly, that passage doesn’t read like she has continuing political ambitions … that or she feels the need to burn a lot of bridges to try to have a political future.

Maybe the bridges she's burning needed to be burned.

The people who enabled Biden to try to run again and then clearly shit all over her for a long time need not be in politics any longer

 

[King Hippo]

Maybe the bridges she's burning needed to be burned.

The people who enabled Biden to try to run again and then clearly shit all over her for a long time need not be in politics any longer

Biden never should have ran for a second term. That was his ego and selfishness. The country needs a younger Dem who can really fight these fascist MAGA assholes. They should have had more time to run someone else if it wasn't going to be Kamala. But at least if they knew Biden wasn't going to run then they could have had time to pick someone else with primaries. Of course Kamala was a better choice than Trump. But MAGA people were never going to vote for a woman of color, and a lot of people that weren't necessarily MAGA that said they could ended up not doing so. Biden should have just been a stopgap to get rid of Trump from office the first time.