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.

I note that the right wing racists and evangelists are already out against Usha Vance, though her husband is pretty racist himself, because she's a Hindu immigrant too. She will be a useful decoy.

I understand it as an ancient language. Barrack Obama not a western name, nor is Rishi Sunak in the UK.

So all we're left with is she's a woman. Was that why Hilary Clinton lost. Are Americans not ready for a female president?

Really @justasking you think race and sex have no role to play at all in the US? I disagree.

I may be wrong but I think that Hilary Clinton was tainted by some of what people perceived of Bill's behaviour. A lot of people never could understand why she didn't leave him for starters. There were also rumours about how much money she was making from dodgy schemes as well.

Hillary had a lot of baggage.

I'm not American so how would I know. We've many female leaders in Europe past and present. I'm trying to understand a mindset.

America has female governors, senators, judges. So why not a president?

Most glass ceilings seem unbreakable until they are broken.

Wow Hindu. My SIL is Hindu what have they done wrong in the USA?

"Usha Vance - Wikipedia" https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usha_Vance

She's better educated than most of us.

The people who want anyone but Trump will vote for Harris. Or anyone who replaces her as nominee although I am increasingly skeptical that anyone else will want to stand and anyone who does will likely be dissuaded by senior Democrats. With 107 days to go there isn't time for too much infighting and internal campaigning.

Calling her unintelligent is an insult. She is a qualified lawyer and has held high office in S.F., California and the US for over 20 years. If she was unintelligent she would have been found out and her career trajectory stalled many years ago. Yes she may have made gaffes and mistakes and may not be a polished speaker but she is going to have the democratic machine behind her now writing her speeches and tutoring her for off the cuff interviews and personal presentation.

Trump actually donated to getting her re-elected in California a decade ago. She can do hard questioning of other lawyers / judges. She is a woman and woman of colour so more likely to appeal to undecided women and non whites. I predict that after her first couple of appearances as a candidate / the nominee, Obama will endorse her to give her campaign the appearance of momentum. As will Pelosi and other senior democrats.

Trump should fear her because he has spent the last few weeks campaigning against the wrong opponent and calling him old and now he is the old, past it candidate.

There is a large portion of the US, particularly in some of the swing states, that are deeply misogynistic and racist. I think for many outside of the US the difference between for example California and the rust belt states is quite astonishing. Education and literacy rates along with extreme poverty play a pretty significant role. Just for the sake of illustration, the average literacy rate in Texas is only 81%, whilst the average literacy rate in Europe is 98.76%.

If that’s the case then I presume those people wouldn’t vote for him again. So how come he’s predicted to win?

Because he still polls better in the swing states. It's likely he'll lose the popular vote by a significant margin.

It's interesting reading about Kamala and Usha both well educated women. So I decided to read about Melania. Who despite an abysmal education perhaps has nous hence her covering herself financially and keeping her mouth tightly shut so we can't guess whether she's very smart or dumb. She's playing a blinder either way.

The key to the US election is in the swing states. Not many States sometimes vote red and sometimes blue. Many are always red or always blue. Seven states are thought to be where the election will be decided. Pennsylvania is one of them which is why Trump was there when he nearly got assassinated.

news.sky.com/story/seven-crucial-battleground-states-could-decide-us-election-heres-what-the-polls-say-13182999

It's also one reason for picking Shapiro for her VP.

I'm thinking that the democrat manderins have done a great disservice to their voters by not sorting this out sooner. They've been so blinkered in their rarified atmosphere. As are the UK. It must drive their grass roots supporters mad

I thought Melania can speak several languages? I remember being impressed and a bit withering towards myself, for judging by appearances and thinking her nothing but pretty fluff.

What on Earth do you mean by "as are the UK"......

TBF over half the world's population is bilingual so being able to speak several languages when you are an immigrant from a small peripheral country isn't as big an achievement as it might look.

In 2022, the Texas foreign-born population was 5.1 million, 17.2% of the Texas population

Relevant to literacy and the other factors you mention. Also, brought to you by people that encourage people to enter the US illegal for rather obvious reasons.

I know a large number of people who immigrated to the US from other countries. Mostly legally. Not one is ignorant and every single one is quite amazing in their resolve.

Trump should fear her because he has spent the last few weeks campaigning against the wrong opponent and calling him old and now he is the old, past it candidate.

"He's too old for the job" very quickly becomes a sellf inflicted wound because now he is only 3 years younger and likely to be, by far, the elder of the two candidates.

Biden has degraded quickly in the last 4 years. Who's to say the same degradation is not going to happen to Trump in the next four? Surely the country doesn't want to face this same issue again with a different old man?

I see the point, but it’s a bit contrived.

Biden’s pulled out of the race for re-election. That couldn’t apply to Trump after another term.

If the concern is that Biden is in fact too far gone to govern, surely the Dems, Jill or the executive should be forcing him out now?