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.

It is not only the ‘left’ who consider Trump to be a demagogue at this point.

I should also imagine that many people who voted for Trump in 2016 were horrified about his conduct in the face of the 2020 defeat, which included trying to overturn a democratic process and inciting Americans to riot.

At this point, Trump no longer represents any kind of democracy.

The problem is the Americans do know her. She was chosen as VP to counter the optics of an elderly white male president. She doesn't have much of a background in politics and she hasn't produced the goods in any of the briefs she was handed. Border control was a high-profile brief and she has failed on it. Trump is already using that as his main line of attack on her. She's mainly known for being a really terrible public speaker. Apparently Gen Z-ers have warmed to her ditzy style of speaking because they find it endearing or funny but to everyone else it makes her come across as severely out of her depth. Obviously she isn't a stupid woman but she is a poor communicator. They need to find an Obama to counter Trump. Someone with star power and gravitas. They should have spent the last four years finding and grooming that person.

To be fair the border was a poisoned chalice, she was pretty much set up to fail in that respect.

They should have spent the last four years finding and grooming that person.
Yes, this, a massive failure on the part of the Democrats.

Will Biden be fit enough to struggle on until a new President is elected and sworn in?

I should also imagine that many people who voted for Trump in 2016 were horrified about his conduct in the face of the 2020 defeat

You don't need to imagine, Emmanuelll; many have been honest enough to say so, and not just about Trump's reaction to losing in 2020

I agree too about him being no advert for democracy, but not with the overblown remarks some have made about him destroying it. Fortunately the system - though far from perfect - is better than that, and personally I'd rather focus on reality than hyperbole

Basically I agree with *EsmaCannonball *that, knowing what was so obvious, the Democrats should have been preparing a suitable candidate long before this.
But they didn't, and here we are

Will Biden be fit enough to struggle on until a new President is elected and sworn in?

That's a very valid point, @Butwhybecause. Obviously he's now relieved of a gruelling campaign, but he job still needs doing even if they need to keep him mostly out of public sight

Just as well there are countless staff to shoulder the work and keep the machinery of state grinding on, and the same applies if he actually dies between now and the next inauguration - though then they'd have little choice but to give Kamala a turn

For anyone who thinks a second Trump administration won’t be as bad as he’s making out, the latest episode of the Deep State Radio podcast (a well thought of US political news podcast) is an interview with ex-Trumper talking about the fact that he is everything he claims to be and more. He articulates the fact that the rhetoric isn’t campaign speech or playing politics, this man truly believes and will implement everything he’s promising/threatening, well worth a listen.

Remember this is the man who promises to round up ‘illegals’ and put them in internment camps…. remind you of anyone?

Judging by his response Trump is extremely rattled at this latest turn of events.
He is a person who cannot conceive of ever backing down, of ever giving up power and he assumed that biden would be the same. Trump thought his win was guaranteed and now the rug has been pulled out from under him.

I’m just trying to understand why KH would be less likely than any previous president to ignore traditional allies? I would think she’d likely to follow a traditional route.

Trumpists seems to be a cult of their own and don’t even bear a resemblance to the republicans of the past.

My impression of Biden is that he is a seasoned political operative who is well capable of doing the quiet work of being president but he just was no longer up to doing the shallow, bombastic presentational stuff. I don't think he is senile, just frail and a bit slow. I thought he was going to have a disastrous presidential campaign but I don't have any particular worries about him continuing as president for a few months. I have immense worries about Donald Trump entering the White House. I think what Trump will do within America is the least of our concerns. It's his foreign policy and isolationism that is the big worry.

He's far from rattled. Kamala polls worse than Biden in the rust belt. They should have stuck with Biden instead of forcing him out.

Europe is a mid-20th century priority. What opportunities does it offer the US?
The focus in on Asia - and the State department under Biden has made a pig's ear of that.
The US Ambassador to India said, in India that India cannot expect to have strategic autonomy.
Blinken made a speech in China calling out the Chinese for their deplorable human rights record.
Japan, Taiwan and the Phillipines among others represent more pressing matters for direct US interests.

Reporters are stating that he is rattled though. This was him wanting to beat Biden because he didn’t beat Biden last time. And now the trajectory has changed.

Why?

I was mainly referring to the situation in Ukraine.

My brother worked at a top university in China they thought Biden was gaga four years ago. Their leader is strong and full of vigor which apparently the Chinese think is a plus.

I only get the dirt when he visits the UK. All media is scrutinized

🤣
Who are you trying to kid, Donald Trump is a rattled as a lorry load of maracas🥳

why on earth would Trump be rattled. Do you really think middle America is going to vote for a WOC with a Sanskrit name?

Belatedly, people like Chuck Shumer have raised the issue of the $13 trillion dollars of minerals and rare-earth metals underneath Putin-held Ukraine. That's the largest concentration in Ukraine and Russia and (mostly) China have stitched up much of the supplies in Africa.
The most recent round of funding included US mining companies having easy access to Ukrainian resources.
Ukraine has paid a terrible price for a US proxy war and EU gameplaying. The country once had 52 million citizens and is forecast to have 1/3 of that in our children's lifetimes.
I believe final stages will be predicated on whether the US sees big profits with a decade, if not, the EU will be expected to pick up the slack - possibly irrespective of who's President.

@user1484056932 I really don't think they could "...have stuck with Biden..."

I was amazed he and his advisors thought he should run as the Democratic candidate in the first place.

@justasking111 China has a very large planned economy. To me, they are planning for the population collapse now, factories will be highly automated, the vast majority of new cars sold are electric, every major and come minor cities have dozens of very high speed trains stopping each hour. They have become used to the kind of infrastructure changes and improvements that British cities enjoyed in Victorian times.
They see a country that put a man on the moon in 1969, but can't fifty years later. They see shanty towns and disorder in cities across the Western world that appears to be ignored. Why would they be afraid of us or have any unearned respect for our leaders?
Your brother is quite right.

Okay you're going to have to translate this for me as a UK citizen.

What's a WOC?

Why is Sanskrit bad?

Woman of colour.
Sanskrit isn't bad. But much of the US will think it is.

What is Sanskrit? I've always understood it to be an ancient language in the UK.

Re woman of colour. Obama had two full terms and is still popular across the world.

One of the oldest languages in the world? From which many others are descended. But I could simply say a 'foreign' non Christian name if that's simpler.
Obama was a much better politician and speaker than Kamala Harris. Also a man.