To find it hard to believe that the US can find no better presidential candidates than Biden or Trump?

[DisquietintheRanks]

33 million adults and that's the choice? Really?

I am well aware that a country who ended up with Truss as PM is in no position to cast the first stone and Americans must vote as they see fit, but am I the only knew who finds the thought of another Biden/Trump face off profoundly depressing?

The unemployment rate in US is 3.6, at its best under Trump it was 3.5, was 6.7 at end of 2020 with covid, so rates are pretty much back to where they were.

I don't even know where people get some of this! Biden didn't bar student loans. My oldest is headed into US college in the fall so I am quite sure. He was going to forgive some debt. That's all. And the armed forces have always had to get vaccines and follow orders, that's how the military works.

Biden is a poor candidate.

However, he isn’t a wretched criminal traitor who tried to end democracy.

Agree that it’s disappointing that they’re the two likely nominees though.

Biden is doubtless underwhelming, but Trump is a MONSTER OF PURE EVIL!!! Sadly, Ron de Santis may be even worse than Trump. And Robert F. Kennedy is also an evil disgusting monster even if he's a Democrat (all anti vaccine campaigners are POISONOUS SNAKES!!!!) I can't really think of who would be better than Biden, who's actually likely to run; but maybe someone will emerge.

Only wealthy people can run , a campaign costs millions. Old white men are the most likely to be able to afford it.
Biden doesn't seem mentally sharp and Trump is insane.

Honestly politics is so divisive in the US more so than here. I really wouldn't be surprised if the US splits into two separate countries in the following decades.

Obama did show that's not always the case, but maybe he's the exception that proves the rule.

Biden's not as sharp as he was, and he's always been prone to gaffes, but i think the dementia thing is ridiculous. He's certainly got the better of the republican congress - his SOTU address was pretty on point, and his recent visit to Ireland showed he's still got plenty of energy. Even if he's lost some steps, he's still way ahead of Trump, who's own cabinet members stated he's a fucking moron and unfit to be president.

IMO, Biden’s big mistake was choosing a weak Vice-President. Given he’s 80, turning 81 this year, serving one term would have made sense, then retiring so that Kamala Harris could be the first female President. But she’s gaffe-prone underwhelming so she’s too risky to run.

It’s a real shame. I’ll be voting next year so I’ll have to vote for Joe and hope he staggers on until he’s 86!

I agree with this, they can't skip over Kamala without pissing off a huge % of base and looks terrible to try and pass her over, although I'm not sure how much it's bad press because she's a woman, compared to what are usual expectations of VP's.

@DetMcNulty I’ve found some of her speeches painful, tbh. I want to support her, but she comes across as out of her depth, imo. It could be different by 2028 though, after eight years in the WH.

I can’t believe that Trump’s trying to run again though, it’s madness.

American here. I’ll leave out my specific thoughts, but you are not being unreasonable. 😆
To add though - I can understand why Biden and Trump receive more attention globally, but nationally we regularly hear about more than only those two.

DeSantis is getting a lot of coverage and he will most likely win is my guess. Unfortunately.

Not sure where in the US you are but here where I am there’s a lot of discussion about several candidates.

DeSantis had not officially announced hus candidacy yet.

Nikki Haley is probably the one that’s causing the most discussion, positive and negative. Larry Elder will be heavily discussed also. Vivek Ramaswamy caused a big stir on CNN the other day.

He hasn’t even announced his candidacy yet. Let alone get through the primary.

Those statistics are more than a decade out of date and irrelevant now. The current figure is around 56%, including 85% of Democrats.

Well, to be fair, many of us were rather astounded when Boris became your PM and asked the same question.

Yep, sadly it’s not much better over here.

Biden won because Trump was so bad, but don’t I think this makes Biden credible.

I think there are better options, but what has Biden done that makes him terrible? He's managed to get a significant infrastructure bill through, Chips act will help derisk supply chain, he got the biggest climate reduction act through, lowest black unemployment in history, has handled Ukraine well. Afghanistan was a disaster, ill admit, but there were certain constraints put in by previous administration there too.

Boris Johnson, Liz Truss - I think this country is equally bad

I will be shocked if trump doesn't get back in next election. he definitely does have enough backing from the Republican Party, not sure where that idea came from.

Backing is not sufficient: Trump would need to win the primaries.

The problem is his base is 35 to 40% of the republican party, and they want him and nobody else. The rest of the non-maga votes are going to end up split between the other candidates, and he'll win again (unless 1 of the 4 potential indictments have an impact, but I doubt it).

A couple of posters are either on glue, or have seriously disappeared down the conspiracy rabbit hole!!
A key issue which will make it v difficult for any Republican to win has not been discussed up-thread. When the Supreme Ct overturned Wade v Roe, it energised women to vote out Republicans in the mid-terms. Women and all pro-choice voters, continue to be energised & this will be v significant in the next election.
To put it bluntly, women dislike white middle-aged men (looking at you, Republican congress, governors & Supreme Ct) telling them what they can and cannot do with their uteruses. And they will use the ballot box to get that message across.

Abortion was a massively losing issue for the GOP last year. So now what they're doing is trying to make it harder to vote directly on it.

The last two presidential elections where the GOP won the popular vote were 2004 and 1988. This is the problem with the electoral college, and the further problem is that small numbers of votes can completely flip it but only in the right places. If Trump had got 75,000 fewer votes in 3 states (Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin), we would have had President Clinton. She got 3M more votes than Trump.

Ron DeSantis excites the culture warriors but he has no charisma and he's fixated on this fight with Disney. The base that turns out in primaries loves the extremists but they flop in the general unless it's a state that bleeds red. Pennsylvania nominated a Christian nationalist and the Democrat absolutely cruised to a victory. Maryland had a Republican governor, a moderate... but the GOP went and nominated an election denier and he lost.