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 am not saying Melania is unimpressive, I am sure she is a very canny operator. Just saying speaking more than one language is not evidence of it per se.

Donald Trump is a rattled as a lorry load of maracas I think this too.

His SM post after Biden stepped down was the ranting of anger. Why would he be angry? Because he WANTED to run against Biden and have the attacks easy ones to make.

Now he needs to tackle a new opponent and develop a whole new game plan for it. He doesn't want Harris and he doesn't want another Dem. He wanted Biden.

Usha Vance is a really odd fish.Her entire persona is at odds with her husband;s views. And I am of Indian heritage myself, so please no accusations of racism etc etc. www.vox.com/culture/361850/usha-vance-wife-rnc-2024-sexism-racism

Now that Joe Biden has dropped out of the 2024 race, Mr Trump, 78, is the oldest nominee of the two major parties to ever run for president.

That's not contrived. Who knows what state Trump will be in during the next presidential term. Earlier this year Nikki Halley said whichever party dropped their 80 year old candidate first would win the election. Well the democrats have now dropped / lost / got rid of Biden so...

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?

If they had a really strong candidate to replace him the executive may well have done exactly that long before now (not sure about Jill)

But they'll know perfectly well that they don't, so the best they'll get is to keep Biden largely out of public sight and big up Kamala - or whoever - hoping that they can make some kind of polling impact in the time left

And that won't be easy in 100-odd days, even if people insist every squeak and gribbet's like the second coming out of an understandable fear of Trump being elected

Agreed. Melanie is savvy and has worked all her 'assets' to rise to the elite after a childhood under communism in Yugoslavia. I have never heard her speak much to know if her English is very good but most immigrants would (or could if they integrated) pick up enough English to get by in a new country.

Trump is bonkers now and was when he won. His voters don’t care about that.

So long as he doesn’t make like a resident of the Springfield Retirement Castle before the election he won’t suffer the consequences that Biden has.

Trump's die hard fans won't care about his age. But some voters in those swing states might. You only need to convince a small percentage of undecideds (or reluctant Trump voters) to give a younger, female, woman of colour a vote to change the election. A few good appearances could get some real momentum behind Harris that could last for 107 days till election date.

Trump is bonkers now and was when he won. His voters don’t care about that.

His supporters don't care, no. I agree.

But his supporters are not going to win him the election - he needs the swing states to do that. Previously those swing voters were going to have to choose between very old Biden or slightly less old Trump. Now they are choosing between bonkers old Trump and a younger Harris (most likely).

That's a different choice and the age thing may well come back to bite Trump if swing voters fear voting in a 78 year old who will be 82 by the end of his term is going to cause deja vu.

I think this coming down to semantics.

Trump’s ‘voters’ are those that will or might vote for him, whether die-hard MAGAs or persuadable voters in swing states.

Either way, these people know what Trump is like. His age - absent obvious mental decline - is not going to matter in the election.

I accept it could matter for his tenure if he becomes as hopelessly mentally incompetent as Biden has become, during his (last possible) term. But I don’t see any reason to think that his age will make any difference this side of the election.

It’s certainly not semantics. Many of the non-MAGA base would have held their nose and voted Trump because of Biden’s age and apparent cognitive decline. They won’t make the same calculation now so they’re there to be won. His base would vote for him regardless but they are not the people who will make the decision on this election.

His age absolutely matters and will become a key issue if the person on the Dem ticket is young and vigorous.

Harris is going to speak shortly, will be interesting to see what she says.

@FinalCeleryScheme I think you are making sweeping statements about Trump's voters. Some are out and out cray, cray. Some are 'storm the capitol' die hards. But some just want what's best for their family and might not vote for him in all circumstances. If one of their reasons for not voting Biden was his age and not knowing Harris much, well she has a chance to let people know her and win back those votes.

Swing votes are up for grabs. They each have 105 days to set out their stall and win the minds and votes of the 2-3% of voters in those swing states who really decide the election. Harris is behind now but one or two great moves from her and a couple of missteps from Trump could change all that.

I agree, I think that there is a pretty good chance that the polls will change in the days ahead to at least within the margin of error.

Well it's going down to the swing states then perhaps.

It was always going down the the swing states, that’s how US elections work.

According to this only 2/3 of eligible voters voted in 2020.

www.pewresearch.org/politics/2023/07/12/voter-turnout-2018-2022/

That's a lot of new votes that Harris could tap into. Plus the photo shows how close some of those swing states were. If she can motivate a few hundred thousand people who live in swing states but didn't vote in 2020 to vote for her she can win.

Maybe some people who thought politics was all about old, white men might go and vote for a young, non white woman.

When is Kamala Harris speaking? Is there a published time?

I agree with all of this.

Thank god. He should have never been in office. Trump 2024 🤘🏻🤘🏻

I remember reading when Obama stood the first time, Americans registered to vote for the first time such was the optimism he created.

He's been incredibly selfish and irresponsible not standing down earlier! It's been obvious for months that he was losing his grip. He should have allowed plenty of time for the Democrats to select a proper replacement to take on Trump.

I didn't know that. That's so interesting.

It is easy to get despondent when we've had all this populist nonsense, the world over involving people who continually get away with terrible things no matter what (Farage is another Teflon example).

I think we should try to be hopeful. I don't see Trump's assassination attempt being on people's minds by the time they go to voting, certainly. I think there are a lot of Americans who won't vote for him ever again based on past behaviour.

He's done the right thing for the party to have a chance. He was getting increasingly doddery and confused . However I doubt America will have a female president so probably Trump will win unless someone else steps up apart from Kamala

Part of me wonders if the wheels were quietly put in motion weeks ago for him to stand down. But first they would let Trump waste time calling Biden old and shooting himself in the foot as he is now the old candidate.

Kamala may have been quietly being prepped behind the scenes and a campaign plan already mapped out. People thought they didn't want Harris but when push comes to shove most democrats want Trump less than they want Harris. So they now all get behind her and give her a good push towards the White House. She gets less scrutiny as there is only 105 days left so less time to have to keep the momentum going. She seems fresh and vibrant next to a 78 yr old man who has been either campaigning, being president or causing controversy for a decade now.