stevenkesslar

It seems now almost impossible for Biden to stay in the race. There was some recent poll Harry Enten was blabbing about on CNN a few weeks ago showing a majority of Democrats want Biden to stay in the race. Biden certainly used that to argue this was just about elitists picking on him, not regular Democrats. But there are now multiple polls, one Ipsos and one the AP/NORC poll above, showing 2 in 3 Democrats want Biden out. You can't win an election when two-thirds of your own party would prefer not to vote for you! Schumer apparently told him he should drop out this weekend, according to ABC. Pelosi seems to be kind of saying, "President Biden is dropping out of the race, and he needs to decide when he is going to decide that." Politics is a team sport. And if your team is increasingly making it clear they are no longer is with you, there's not much Biden can do. By the way, 51 % of Independents want Trump to drop out, too. If Biden does drop out, that becomes an immediate problem for Trump.

Thankfully, the cult has some taste and manners. I would almost have guessed the NRA would be pushing souvenir AR-15s. With a free American flag and iconic photos of Trump after coming within a few inches of being assassinated by a gun that was way too easy to get. But why would we talk about gun control, anyway? President Biden renews call to ban AR-15 rifles after Trump assassination attempt

What's interesting right now is that if there is no Donald Trump, there is no Republican Party. On the other hand, if there is no Joe Biden, most Democrats would go, "Great. Then let's move on with it." In the short term, I guess that looks good for Trump. But rumor has it the guy is pushing 80. MAGA should enjoy having a cult leader while it lasts. Meanwhile, in the long term, Democrats are gradually making the transitions they need to. Pelosi is out. Jeffries is in. If Biden were to step aside, at least the polls indicate Harris would do just as well. The Democratic Party is not acting like a cult. That may actually be why Biden wins. Independents overwhelmingly feel Biden is too old, Trump is too old, and they want neither. It may be that in the end they say, "Let's take the one that is too old, but at least is not a whack job cult leader."

I'm actually kind of glad Trump picked Vance. We've been hearing about nascent Republican working class populism for years. Vance is one of the people associated with these vague ideas. So why not give it a whirl? It's an interesting concept. We don't have to question why Trump picked Mike Pence in 2016. Trump got a lot of evangelical votes. And he personally picked the SCOTUS justices who killed a woman's freedom to choose. I am sure Mike Pence even prayed for those judges. What Trump and Pence did is deeply unpopular. But absolutely no bullshit there. Trump is a master of bullshit. So it will be interesting to see how it works to pick someone like Vance, who stands for the bullshit idea that the heart and soul of MAGA is the working class. Example: Vance likes working people. So he is against the PRO Act, the #1 priority of labor unions. Vance likes working people, not "corporate pigs". So he runs with the guy who passed the biggest hog feed tax cut to billionaires and corporations ever, who wants to get elected so he can do it again. Huh? Seems like an extra large slice of bullshit to me. Just like Trump is now trying to disavow grabbing and fucking with the pussies of women in every state, either with his gross old hands or his right wing judges. But let them shit it all out in public and see if America wants to buy what looks, smells, and (ugh!) tastes like a big ass Trump/Vance turd. J.D. Vance on Elizabeth Warren, Steve Bannon and What’s Wrong With the GOP If you have any level of tolerance whatsoever for J.D. Vance's (so far) vague and ineffective ideas, that is a good read. I will say this. He offers two things Trump does not have, or want. One, Vance is clearly interested in policy. Trump is simply a venal political animal. I doubt Vance will win any policy fights with Trump, though. Two, Vance is actually interested in how to work Congress and get laws passed. Trump showed no interest in that in his first term. Infrastructure bill, anyone? That said, Trump did give Paul Ryan, Mitch McConnell, and every billionaire and corporation who ever donated money to Republicans the deficit producing tax cuts they paid for. This could be at least a little interesting. That said, Vance's claim to political fame so far is a railroad safety bill he can't get passed. Because it is opposed by exactly the kind of monied corporate special interests that have bought and paid for most Republican Senators and House members. Meanwhile, Biden got an infrastructure bill, and a manufacturing bill, and a stimulus bill passed that all helped make America the leading economy in the world coming out of COVID. Vance talks about how he wants to do good stuff for the people left behind. Biden and Democrats passed a child tax credit that helped 50 million working class family members, and reduced child poverty in half. Until Republicans killed it. Because they don't have money for poor people, or Hispanic kids, or working class men in unions. But they do have money for billionaire and corporate tax cuts. Seems like the same old Republican bullshit to me. But it will be fun to watch Trump and Vance try to sell the same old turd as something fresh and new.

No. After carefully seeking medical advice, as well as consulting Mother, he apparently decided to abort his unchaste political party. Ironic, huh?

He tried. Republicans and the NRA stopped him.

That makes more sense. Trump no doubt thought it was a bullet. But it's hard to imagine if it struck his ear it would not have done more damage. Thank God the shooter missed. An assassination would have plunged us into true chaos. All the grown ups are denouncing political violence. Hopefully this cools down some of the violent rhetoric being used.

Okay. Let's have the facts. How many Russian criminals and ethnic minorities has Genocide Man processed into fertilizer? What did he have to pay their families to use them as human fertilizer for his genocide in Ukraine?

I will be voting for Biden and/or Harris. So as far as Russia goes, here is what I think my vote means. 1. Hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of Russians will need to be processed into fertilizer. The families of the criminals and ethnic minorities processed into fertilizer will have to be paid handsomely for providing bodies for Putin to process in the name of his genocide. 2. Young people will continue to flee the hell that is Genocide World, taking the future with them. 3. Putin will have to keep distorting Russia's economy away from the future, and back to the economy of World War I. Many Putin cronies will get rich destroying Russia's future. 4. All of this further cements the foundation of the breakup of the Russian Federation years or maybe decades from now. Democracy will do just fine. The Russian Federation won't. One wonders how much of the Federation Master Xi will end up owning? In a sense, all this does mean I will be voting for Putin. I hope he stays in power for a long time and continues to fuck up Russia and make it a place no one wants to visit, or live in. When he finally rots of his own old age (71 and counting) and weakness he will have proven that genocide doesn't pay. Nothing an aging Biden could do compares to how bad Putin has been for Russia.

On top of this genocidal bloodbath are a few clear facts. Putin and Trump are narcissistic liars. You can't believe a word they say. In Genocide World, it doesn't matter. If Genocide Man doesn't like you, or you disagree, he will kill you. If he wants your country, the solution is simple. Start a genocide. Kill hundreds of thousands of people FROM YOUR OWN COUNTRY and build a genocidal war economy that can only function when you kill hundreds of thousands of people FROM YOUR OWN COUNTRY. Genocide means never have to tell the truth, or say you are sorry. Trump does not have that luxury, and won't. Biden fucked up as badly as any candidate can in a debate. And America had a wake up moment where we mostly agree this guy just seems too old and can't be the leader of the free world for four more years. But neither can the narcissistic old pathological liar. So the polls haven't changed. And one new one Marist shows both Biden and Harris beating Trump. Several other new polls show Harris beating Trump. What will Genocide Man actually do in November 2024 when his loyal cock sucking gross old lying narcissist loses, and fucks up his plan to get away with genocide? One wonders how many more hundreds of thousands (millions?) of men FROM YOUR OWN COUNTRY Genocide Man will have to send off to be processed into fertilizer. Poor Vlad. This is why so many experts say in 10 years the Russian Federation will be toast. No one really likes genocide. Even if they have to pretend they do, since they have no choice. And since Genocide Man will kill you if you dissent. By turning hundreds of thousands of Russians into fertilizer, and building a war economy that gets some cronies of Genocide Man rich by promising to continuously turn criminals and Russian ethnic minorities into fertilizer. And you think the US is fucked up? This is why the best and brightest are fleeing to (name a place on the planet that is not the hellhole of Russia) and your genocide loving leadership is laying the groundwork for the breakup of the Russian Federation. Not the renewal of empire. Do the math. The US economy is ten times bigger than Russia. So If the US grows 3 % a year, Russia would have to grow 30 % a year to generate as much wealth. Sure, Genocide Man can distort the economy by building a clunky war machine that depends on mass murder of both Russians and Ukrainians. I just wouldn't count on that as a viable long term plan. Poor Genocide Man. What a sorry fucking evil loser. Trump and him deserve each other.

I think running Kamala would generate a ton of excitement. I think running her with Whitmer would be like Clinton/Gore in 1992 and Obama in 2008. It would symbolize hope and change. It would light a fire under people who are very turned off right now. That said, if it is Harris she might want to pick someone like Shapiro for the same reason Obama picked Biden: balance. Fun but boring fact. In 2008 Obama told Tim Kaine that his head was with Biden, but his heart wanted to pick Tim Kaine as Veep instead of Biden. In some alternative reality, you can argue that Kaine would have run and won in 2020, after Hillary lost in 2016. And he would now be running for a second term at a relatively young 66. Or you could also argue that Biden has had to endure more than his fair share of insults and condescension from Team Obama. Let's talk about Hillary and 2016. Lichtman predicted in Sept. 2016 that Trump would win. He argued that any generic Republican would beat the incumbent party, based on his Keys. He said, if anything, Trump would do a bit worse than a generic Republican. And he did, losing by 2 million votes and barely squeaking by in the electoral college. My guess is someone like John Kasich would have won much more decisively in 2016. So the point is Hillary was doomed. Not because she's a woman. But because the cards were dealt against her. The two specific things she could not control is that she was not the incumbent, and the party was torn in half. Lots of progressives either didn't vote or voted for Stein. Which is why she lost narrowly in three key states. If you buy Lichtman's model, 2024 is different. Lichtman is saying Biden has two of his 13 keys working against him: losing the midterms, and being uncharismatic. He'd have to lose four more. And in Lichtman's view there are only four in play: a military failure, a military success, social disorder, and the third party key. Biden would have to lose all four for Lichtman to predict defeat. And, again, Lichtman has been right 10 out of 10 times, in advance, since 1984. The one small blemish being he predicted Gore in 2000, who won the popular vote and lost the electoral college by a handful of votes in one state. So we can break that down. The issue about social chaos is the fear that we'd have protests about Genocide Joe and Gaza all Summer. Ain't happening. Lichtman turned that social chaos key against the incumbent party only three times in a century: 1932, 1968, 2020 (BLM/George Floyd). As far as the second key, Biden does not appear likely to have a military defeat (Lichtman already said Afghanistan doesn't count, and Ukraine and Israel are not defeats). So those two keys are unlikely to turn against Biden. Biden will not have a military success. And the third party key looks like a toss up. Right now the third party cabal gets about 12 % of the vote in the RCP average. Which is almost exactly the same as the third parties got in July 2016. By Nov. 2016 that was watered down to 5 %, which is Lichtman's threshold for a serious third party challenge that signals deep discontent with the incumbent party. So it's questionable whether that key will turn against Democrats. Especially if Kamala is the nominee, a lot of progressives that would vote for Stein or West will likely flip to Kamala, who they will view as far better than Trump. But let's just assume any Democrat loses both of these keys. That's a total of four against any Democrat: 1) losing the midterms, 2) no charismatic candidate, 3) no military success, 4) serious third party challenge. Lichtman's point now is that if Democrats trash their incumbent and invite a divisive party brawl, that takes away both keys that are their margin of victory, in his prediction system. It could essentially replay 2016, he fears. His Plan B is for Biden to resign, let Harris run as President Harris, and get the party unified behind her as the consensus candidate. Who, by the way, was the candidate Democratic Party primary voters chose to replace Biden if needed. She is the only candidate not named Biden that Democratic Party primary voters chose overwhelmingly. Lichtman has not predicted a divisive party brawl if Biden steps aside. He basically seems to be saying that if Democrats want to fuck it up, this is how history suggests you could fuck it up and hand the election to Trump. Have a huge party food fight. But I don't think 2024 is 2016. We did not have a bitter primary fight between Clinton and Sanders. Quite the opposite. Biden and Harris sailed through easily. The party is very unified around that idea that the horrific piece of shit named Donald Trump can not be returned to power. The question no one has the answer to right now is this: will Biden step aside? I think the chances have grown from maybe 5 % right after the debate to maybe 50 % now. Even most Democrats want something different, it seems. Independents sure do. My guess is if Biden listens to what party leaders are saying and steps aside, the party will unite around Harris quickly and with little dissent from top leaders. In this scenario it would be better if Biden resigned, I think. But that is likely a bridge too far. So my count is that Harris, running as the non-incumbent candidate, would have five keys against her. Which Lichtman says would predict a Harris victory. The sixth key that would be the decisive nail in her coffin would be if the party tears itself apart in choosing her. I just don't think that is going to happen. Everyone realizes the stakes are too high. And all these keys make common sense. Seeing Harris debating Trump would be a breath of fresh air. Yes, this is a real crisis. But what it would show, in practice, is that Democrats are capable of dealing with a crisis in their own party by putting forward someone we can all get behind who inspires hope and new ideas. Bottom line, Lichtman would argue Obama did not win because he is Black. And Hillary did not lose because she is a woman. If my scoring is right, Harris would win. But not because she is a Black woman.

In a word, YES.

Oddly, some version of that may be happening. I watched a Pod Save America interview of Jen Psaki yesterday in which she said Biden has never shone in press conferences or interviews. Put him around people and let him empathize and be Joe. Psaki says that is what he is good at, and what people love about him. I would not say the debate highlighted Biden's sympathetic kindness. It highlighted his decline and confusion. Regardless, his opponent's madness and lies shone through brilliantly. It is now clear it did not change the national polls at all. Biden was a few points behind, and is still a few points behind. The latest poll on RCP, Marist, shows Biden beating Trump by two points. People apparently can walk and chew gum at the same time. They can be shocked at Biden, and still think Trump is a nasty gross old liar who they don't trust or want to return to power. Also oddly, some version of democracy may be happening. What is happening on the Republican side is proof of theory that Trump draws in people who like authoritarian leaders. They have completely circled the wagons around their pathological liar. That's not working on the Democratic side. This is proof of theory that democracy is messy. That said, it is not a disorganized mess. If Biden were two years younger, and everything else played out the same, he'd be cruising to victory. At least according to Lichtman. He did essentially cruise to victory in 2022. After the red wave was stopped, people didn't say Biden was old and crazy. They said he was wise, and got it right. What's happening now is a complicated but serious discussion about a reality most of America now believes: Biden's time is running out. It seems like America is looking at the situation with appropriate alarm, but also sympathetic kindness. And, one way of the other, there will be a resolution. Heads it's Biden. Tails it's Harris. Psaki, who knows something about effective communicating, says Kamala is an undervalued and fierce communicator. I think she is right. Tell me this woman would not be better than Biden in taking on her opponent's madness in a debate. Eloquent. She has both sympathetic kindness, and sting.

The thread is about how Trump lies. It is about Trump's lies and treachery sucking the cock of Genocide Man and betraying American values. It is about how Trump encourages Genocide Man to attack NATO and kill, while Trump the loser basks in Putin's praise. The thread is about how Trump and Putin are both sick human beings.

And Putin, your beloved Genocide Man, wins. That's what you want. And Russian blood on the fields of Ukraine. Good thing Genocide Man can buy the still living bodies of Russian criminals and ethnic minorities for cheap. The Russian Federation will still collapse in the long run, as the GDP of the US outpaces Genocide Man's war economy by tenfold or so every year. But at least Putin can feel like he's winning.

Well, I will say this. Maybe Trump was serious when he disavowed Project 2025. That said, technically, pornography is not pussy grabbing. So Trump would still probably be safe to rape women. Especially of their rights. 🤢

Not sure I know what that means. But it would be an awesome name for a Randy Rainbow song. 😉 A pathological paradoxical bind calls for a paradoxical intervention To stop a narcissistic nattering nut named - you know, need I mention? Because the baffled debate blowing Biden ceases not to embarrass Ok, fuck it. Enough of this bullshit. Can't we just go with Harris?

Please! We've heard from George Clooney. We really don't need Meryl Streep to speak up, do we? 😉 A new poll from ABC says 56 % of Democrats think Biden should drop out. That contradicts a different recent poll saying 2 in 3 Democrats want Biden to stay as nominee. The same ABC poll says Blacks would overwhelming support Biden stepping aside for a ticket led by Harris. And the poll shows Biden and Trump tied. Harris is actually two points ahead of Trump in the ABC poll. Although in other polls she does a bit less well than Biden. So, as you said, it's a coin toss if polls are the deciding factor. One thing that is clear is that if Biden is the nominee age will be the issue for the next four months. And it seems quite possible - if not likely - it can only get worse. Kamala Harris is a risk, but the issue won't be age. Other than Trump's age. 60 % of Americans say Trump is too old. A campaign in which Harris prosecutes Trump's age and asshole behavior - and talks about actual issues - would be a change of pace, for sure. It's hard not to believe Democrats would be more energized. Almost every poll of every swing state or red state Democrat has showed them ahead of their opponent all year. As Brownstein argues above, that could change as the election gets closer, and the gravity of Biden weighs these incumbent Senators down. But what it mostly says is that there is no particular trend against Democrats, in general. It is against Biden, in particular. The generic Congressional ballot has been a toss up all year. A Harris/Shapiro or Harris/Whitmer ticket would allow all these Democrats to focus on explaining what is wrong with and old and extremist Trump, and what Democrats would actually like to do if we had the votes in the Senate and House to do so. The fact that even in a moment of darkness and crisis there are polls showing Biden is tied with Trump and Harris could beat him suggests this should be possible, when the coin finally lands.

And to further belabor your point, I think what is most telling is that the number of sitting Senators and Reps who "love" Biden, and who been staunch Biden allies, but who now say publicly or privately that he has to go just keeps growing. I think the first and most important job of any member of Congress is ensuring their own survival. And if they have managed to do that for decades, they probably know a thing or two about political survival. Biden, of course, belongs at the very top of that list. So I don't discount his political judgment. But this is unprecedented. And it obviously is hurting every Democrat. So the members of Congress who just won't shut up must really think they know something. What's also telling is that I don't think any front line Rep or swing state Senator has spoken up in Biden's favor. Quite the opposite. Tester, Brown, and Baldwin are all muttering things that don't sound like support for Biden to me. All three are perfect examples of politicians who are experts at messaging and campaigning. So they must think they know something. The people who have spoken up the most for Biden are the ones whose constituents are most likely to be sticking behind him. Namely, Black US Reps like Maxine Waters. One poll said a majority of Democrats want Biden to stay in the race. Even though other polls say a majority of Democrats think he is too old to govern. So there must be a lot of deeply conflicted Democrats. But if there is any part of his base that is ridin with Biden, it's likely Blacks. And the arguments they are making are weak. Waters is basically saying polls are not "absolute". Duh! That's true. But they are saying Biden has big problems with voters. How Biden’s 2024 choice could reshape the Senate and Supreme Court for years Ron Brownstein is now weighing in, although not taking sides. He is right that if Biden takes down a handful of swing state or red state Senators with him, Democrats are fucked for many election cycles to come. Losing incumbents like Tester and Brown will just make it harder to win states like Montana or Ohio when we have another shot at the seats - in 2030! Back to my argument about governing, rather than campaigning, when I read what Brownstein consistently writes about the deeply entrenched culture war, it actually is an argument for Biden rather than Harris, I think. But that's only true if you start with the assumption that either Biden or Harris has a roughly equal chance of winning, as the polls show. Biden said he would try to unify America. Just like every other POTUS who said the same thing, and failed. Even some progress toward unity was never likely while Trump spent four years in exile breaking laws and ginning up his base with lies. But Biden has gotten more done on a bipartisan basis than most recent Presidents. And if Trump is defeated, there is at least reason to hope "the fever will break", or at least wane, as Obama argued would happen after the 2012 election. As recently as 2018, Democratic Senators served in Indiana, Missouri, and North Dakota, as well as West Virginia and Montana. It should not be impossible to elect Democrats there in 2026 or 2028. But if that is the goal, it's not clear that having a liberal Californian Black Asian American female POTUS is the best way to do it. That's not me being racist. I'd say the same thing about a liberal Californian White male like Newsom. That's me saying that Biden made at least modest inroads into the White blue collar and rural voters who are currently solidly behind Trump. And who prevent Democrats from getting solid Senate majorities. Whether it is Biden or Harris, it would not be an awful thing if a Democratic President had to contend with at least one chamber of Congress that is run by Republicans. Ruy Teixeira is mostly right that Democrats can't have the majority they want unless and until they move toward the center, especially on cultural issues. In theory, that could be Kamala Harris. Part of her problem in 2020, at the height of Black Lives Matter, was a lot of liberals thought she was too tough on criminals. Her record as a prosecutor would play much better in 2024, both with White and Black conservatives. But if Democrats ever hope to have a solid Democratic Senate majority, the riddle is that Biden is in many ways the ideal guy to gradually make that happen. Other than that he's just way too old, and he's simply running out of time. It's not surprising that Democrats are having a very hard time figuring this one out. The good news is that at least Democrats are trying to think, rather than simply fall in line behind a cult leader.

Yes, but so did LBJ, and Reagan, and W., and Obama. And I mean that in the sense that Lichtman does: they got big and consequential things done, whether everyone agrees with them or not. And, for the most part, they ran on that record and said they wanted to do more. The exception is W., because by 2004 the Iraq War was starting to turn bad. If the election had been a year later, he would have lost. The fact that all four of those Presidents didn't meet the promise of their second terms is not auspicious for Biden. That article I posted about FDR argued this in his final year, and the few months of his final term, he made some big blunders due to his failing health. Biden's health is likely to keep failing. At least according to most voters, which is why he is having such problems. I repeated myself just to make it clear that we agree. The first and most important question right now is NOT about whether Biden can govern effectively in a second term. You and I agree that the most important question right now is can he campaign in a way that wins him a second term? That said, the whole point of winning is actually to govern. So what a second Biden term would look like, and what its limitations might be, is a great question that Biden and Democratic leaders should be asking.

The question on the table now is, "Can Joe Biden win?" And it seems to still be unsettled. If he can't win, everything about what he could do in a second term is wishful thinking. My Lichtman-centric mind is settled on two options that make sense: One, Biden stays. Two, Biden resigns so Harris can run as the incumbent with a unified party behind her. Anything else, including Biden completing his term but stepping aside as nominee, just seems like too big a risk, based on Lichtman's Keys. And polls that show Biden and Harris as running about the same against Trump. I hope Biden and leaders like Pelosi and Jeffries and Schumer are also looking at it from the perspective of, "Why should he stay, anyway?" In my mind, that would be the single best reason for Biden to resign, for the good of both his country and his party. What if Joe Biden stays? The US president’s team must face the reality of what a second term would look like now That is an almost impeccable argument. If we look at LBJ, Reagan, W., and Obama, their second terms ranged from disappointments to disasters. Lichtman argues that Obama's inability to get anything big done in his second term (thanks to Mitch McConnell blocking him) was a decisive factor in Clinton's 2016 defeat as heir apparent. The same could happen to Kamala in 2028. Even if Biden scores a hat trick and keeps the Senate and retakes the House, the chances of getting a mandate to do what he couldn't do in his first term seems unlikely. He'll continue to decline. With the constantly lingering question being when, not if, Kamala will need to take over. To put it harshly, many people will hope he either dies, or has some kind of decisive health event, that finally forces a resolution. And that's based on the more optimistic scenario that he will win. Probably the best thing about Biden winning is that it simply keeps Trump from doing bad things. Including cutting taxes for his billionaire donors and packing the court even more with MAGA right wing extremists. If Harris runs and wins, she will not be a lame duck. And she will likely bring new energy to an unmet agenda. If she could win the thinnest of Senate and House majorities, she would probably be able to win some incremental victories on Democratic priorities. Biden could of course do the same in 2025. But unlike with Harris the feeling would be stasis and decline, not building toward something bigger. Young people who feel disinterested and de-energized today won't somehow feel better about him when Biden is two years older. The one issue I'd take issue with the author on is Bill Clinton. He's right that the second term brought Monicagate. But it also brought a booming economy and a lot of incremental bipartisan success. Including a budget surplus. My argument for a successful Biden second term would be that he essentially becomes an avatar for what Ruy Teixeira is calling "the new centrism." Teixeira and his lefty partner in crime John Judis got it surprisingly right two decades ago when they predicted an Obamaesque "Emerging Democratic Majority." He may be getting it right again. Whether you buy that or not, I think it is true that people are sick of the divisiveness that is a hallmark of Trump's non-governing pathology. One can always hope that if they lose in 2018, 2020, 2022, 2023, and 2024, enough Republicans in the House and Senate will want to focus on the kinds of practical things that made Clinton's second term successful. Biden actually is temperamentally better than Harris at seeking the middle ground. Even if what that means in practice in a few years is his staff, and Kamala, do much of the work for him. That would be my blueprint for what could work about a second Biden term.

One or the other, but not both. I'd argue Scalia's seat was stolen thanks to McConnell. RGB stole the seat from herself, I think. Granted, by the time Republicans took control of the Senate in 2014 it was too late. McConnell would have probably come up with some excuse for leaving the seat vacant for two years. But it's the same lesson we will all learn if Biden stays on the ticket and loses because of his age, as many fear he will. Shoulda retired when you could. Had RGB retired in 2013 she would have served a deeply respected 20 years, and the SCOTUS right wing majority would be 5-4 today. It still probably would have meant the end of Roe v. Wade once Trump packed the court with his right wing MAGA extremists. But we don't know what Roberts might have done had he been the swing vote. Roberts seems to be the conservative who is most aware that when a felon and lying POTUS who is unpopular packs the court with MAGA radicals who made deeply unpopular decisions, it does not work well for them. There's a brand new poll out by The Economist saying that SCOTUS's disapproval rating is now -16 points, 36/52. That is unprecedented. Wonder why? Putin must be having a blast watching Trump systematically fuck up everything that worked pretty well about democracy before Trump.

Well, I'll give you this. That is factually correct. Sometimes you can get the facts right, even if you have zero ability to analyze what they might possibly mean. What's clear from a series of polls is that lots of people have no idea who Whitmer or Shapiro are. In a country where the MAGA faithful believe that unemployment is at a 50 year high and the S & P 500 is down for the year, what are we to expect? It's not reality. It's a cult. A lying, cop beating, crime loving, democracy hating cult. Murder and violent crime were down over 10 % in 2023 under Biden, who reversed Trump's 30 % murder spike in 2020. But these facts don't matter. Beating the shit out of cops to stop an election doesn't matter. It's just a cult. You'll believe whatever you want. The main difference between how Biden does against Trump and the other lesser knows in that way more voters are undecided about people they don't know, as the survey you posted but can't intellectually grasp demonstrates. Biden v. Trump is 46/43, with 11 % undecided. Biden v Shapiro is 46/38, with 16 % undecided. The difference is not that Trump does better against Shapiro. It's that many people have no clue who the Guv Of Pennsylvania is. Since you have a very troubled relationship with facts, @EmmetK, surely you can empathize. Here's another fact that matters. When Emerson pressed undecided voters to say who they are leaning to, the Biden-Trump race is tied 50/50. So much for Dementia Joe being demented, or politically dead. Even after a massive Biden fuck up, voters just don't want the stench of Trump. These latest polls have probably helped slow momentum to Kamala. In the Emerson poll you cited, Biden does 46/43, but Kamala does 49/43. A Redfield and Wilton poll shows Biden/Trump 42/43, versus Harris/Trump 37/44.  Meanwhile, Bendix and Amandi  shows Biden v. Trump 42/43, and Harris v. Trump 42/41. So Harris does either about the same or a little bit worse in horse races against Trump, compared to Biden. No reason - at least based on polls - to think that switching from Biden to Harris will make some dramatic difference for Democrats, either way. Although what's not clear is whether Harris has the same recognition as Biden or Trump. My guess is there's some voters who have no idea who Kamala Harris is.

Poor thing! You don't seem to know whether Biden is dead, or will be dead, or will be alive in mid-2025. Which is it? Or does the cult not know the right line yet? Let me help. Just read the words on the teleprompter, @EmmetK. "I AM A MAGA CULT MEMBER. I BELIEVE EVERY LIE DONLD TRUMP SAYS." There. That wasn't so hard, was it?

Oops! See? We're all a little demented now and then. I meant FDR died a few months into his final term.