Joe Biden is out - God bless him

[Mommybunny]

Put the country before himself - yes, finally, but he’s done it.

Please God let my country be ok.

In reality, that is not going to happen, Trump is just trying to win the election. Europe will step in and make up the shortfall. Ukraine will be safe.

I don't think it'll be as easy for the Russians as they assume. I do think in the end it'll mean a Russian victory but the Ukrainians and the Europeans won't just roll over, he'll still have an incredibly difficult time. He will then face a never ending insurgency from a battle hardened Ukrainian people that will never accept Russian rule.

I hope that’s right - and I hope even more strongly that it never comes to that.

But I wouldn’t be so confident about the larger European states being able or willing to supply Ukraine with what it needs if the US were to backpedal.

Wait, this doesn't even make any sense. The DNC hasn't even met yet. They don't even yet have a candidate. Biden wasn't even confirmed as a candidate, let alone his name on the ballot, to even be removed. How can you issue a legal challenge to remove from a ballot a name that was never on it, in the first place? Can any Americans explain this?

I reckon it'll be a Harris/Swift ticket. Get the youth vote out.

How do you figure that? This isn’t even just about Ukraine. For decades, people have complained about the US being ‘the world’s policeman’ in a disparaging way. But the reality is that they are a big, big player on the side of Europe.

As has already been discussed, the US withdrawing support will also give Putin the green light to invade other countries in Europe. It will also embolden other dictator regimes to start throwing their weights around, safe in the knowledge that America will do nothing to stop them.

But will Kamala want to assist Europe. In 2021 she said that she had never been to Europe. So there's no attachment there.

You think Kamala Harris will withdraw support from Ukraine just because she’s never been to Europe? Some people clearly need to read your history books.

She isn’t an isolationist idiot like Trump. She’s an intelligent woman, whatever the misogynists would have people believe, who will listen to and collaborate with allies.

She’s a vocal supporter of NATO and has said explicitly said she won’t deviate much from Biden’s foreign policy. She is also however harsher on Israel which will help in some states with the young and Muslim vote.

I’d be interested to know what the records of government frontbenchers are on attacking US involvement around the world, historically.

It used to be a reflex action for the whole of the British left that US foreign policy should be condemned. And I suspect it still is for those on the left of Labour. US support for Israel, for example, has attracted unpleasant comments on this thread alone.

Trump isn’t fit to be in politics of any kind, basically. He’s a thick, wannabe dictator.

I worry that he’s a thick, wannabe dictator who is surrounded by clever nasty individuals. For instance JD Vance is highly intelligent, even if he doesn’t seem it.(And actually his book is excellent!)

Sorry what I meant to say is that Trump doesn’t really compare with usual other candidates for presidency. Like other narcissistic sociopaths, he sees the world through a lens of magical thinking. Hence, his stupid ideas.

Yes, I agree! That has become the real problem now.

Joe Biden is a thoroughly decent man but it is his time to go. Such a shame Obama cannot run for a third term and too late for Michelle to take up the mantle. I find the support for Trump incredulous and I feel for America. I just hope it is not too late in the race for the democrats to field a candidate who can win. I like Kamila Harris but she will have her work cut out, Trump seems unbeatable at present. However the thought of Trump being beaten by a woman, and a woman of colour, is what I am really hoping for.

Trump gives a tour of his office

m.youtube.com/watch?v=BAKYvvM6IpE

It's also interesting that the "retirement" of the leader of the free world was announced by tweet at 1.30 on a Sunday afternoon, with no national address and no coherent plan for what happens next

To be fair it's not an imminent retirement, it's just a decision not to stand again. And he couldn't make a plan for what next because it's not up to him. The democrats are on it, clearly.

If we're blaming any country outside Iran for the Iranian Revolution then I would go for Russia and left-wing elements in other countries, particularly France. They were the ones who thought that women in western clothes was a result of pernicious western influence and they were the ones who fostered the revolution which ended up with a horrible theocracy running the country and promoting terrorism elsewhere. Well done, Russia.

Its not Americas to give! I don't know how people are ignoring Bidens illegal and negative part in this awful, awful war. He was around in 2014 making sure the democratically elected leader was gone, he was around throughout making sure the right commissioners were hired, he is deep in the war but its not up to America what happens in Ukraine and if that had been the case from 2014 there wouldn't be a war happening right now.

That's good news. In the UK she's been pretty invisible media wise I haven't seen coverage of her generally. It's like they put her into office and shut her down hard. Is it because she's a woman do you suppose.

She's got a lot of catching up to do so the Americans get to know her in the next three months.

Yanukovych was Putin's puppet, he was expelled as a result of the Revolution of Dignity and good riddance.

You're right of course it's not the US' to give but be under no illusions the result of a Trump presidency will be negotiations that force Ukraine to give up its sovereign territory and that's a catastrophic outcome.

A complicated issue with so many nations involved, but an all too frequent approach is to flick the Vs to the US with one hand while holding the other one out for money

This is something which many Americans get very, very tired of, and for all his many faults it's a concern which Trump connects with skilfully

Among the left it means he's called a protectionist demagogue and they've got a point, but given they'll say that anyway it's not where his core vote lies - and while many of his supporters have their reservations too, they're not all the knuckle dragging racists some would have us believe

I have read my history books. I've yet to find a woman president in the White House.

You're right about the retirement, Zonder, though I'm not quite so confident the Democrats are fully "on it" - if they really were then this whole mess could have been resolved long ago given that Biden's sad decline was so obvious

It's also true that he wouldn't even have been the formal nominee until August, but I'm still surprised about the Sunday afternoon tweet