Joe Biden ist just like many octogenariens.....

[KekseKekse]

.....who doesn't realise that he is past his prime and needs to leave it to someone else in the Democratic Party to run for the US presidency. Just like an octogenarian car driver, who insists that they are fit to drive, when everyone around them can see otherwise and it's up to their nearest and dearest to take away their car keys or report them to the DVLA.

Unfortunately, in the case of Joe Biden, he is wilfully refusing to listen to everyone telling him that if he tries for another term against Trump he will lose and give that awful man more power.

Today Biden said in an interview that only if a doctor told him he wasn't capable of standing would he listen. So, just like a lot of elderly drivers whose reflexes and reaction times are seriously on the decline , but won't listen until they have an accident, or worse, kill someone. I just despair!

I think MO is far too clever to campaign to be president. She's seen it all before from the inside and probably recognises how awful a job it is.
She would be crazy to jump back into that and I don't blame her.

I don't disagree but for the greater good she is probably the only person who commands enough recognition and respect to turn this shitshow around.

I hoped that.

They are both too old - Biden and Trump.

Not sure about generalising about all octogenarians though.

MO didn’t even want to be First Lady, I doubt she wants to be president.

MO started along with Obama the path to polarisation. She doesn’t want the job anyway and was in fact happy to leave it all at Obamas’s last term.

Exactly. And there's still several months before election day.

"Brace yourselves for a whole lot of ugly coming at you from a never-ending parade of stupid." (Hairspray)

Yes, possibly (I'm no expert on any alternatives tbh).
When I look at MO though I see a fellow 'backroom person' ie someone who works very hard in the background to make things work/support her family/do her job but who doesn't feel comfortable at the front, in the limelight.

Trump is only 3 years younger than Biden. And has been acting irrationally for years. Doesn't seem to have put enough people off.

As an American (longtime UK resident) Biden is already doing the job, and whilst I don't agree on everything at all, most of the policies pushed through by the Biden administration have been very good for the American people. The alternative is christofascism pushed by billionaires. Read Project 2025, so very scary...

Rampant anti-Semitism, the sterilisation of gay children, men in women’s sports and bathrooms, institutional discrimination against whites and Asian-Americans, out of control crime, uncontrolled immigration, capitulation to China, the industrial scale murder of babies in the womb, etc, are all just fine with you then I guess. But not the majority of Americans who’ll thankfully vote Biden out.

The Democrats have really blown this. They thought the criminal cases against Trump would be enough to turn off the public to Trump once they had him convicted as a felon. That was their election strategy.

They tried to remove him from the ballot in some states,Colorado, Illinois and Maine, eventually found unconstitutional by high court.

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/01/02/us/politics/trump-ballot-removal-map.html

Prosecusions for holding onto documents which he had not declassified which has now been deemed illegal because Jack Smith the prosecutor was appointed incorrectly
https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/in-trumps-documents-case-aileen-cannon-tells-jack-smith-to-go-away

The January 6th charges have been dented by a presidential immunity decision and may be finished off by the fact that it was also instigated by Jack Smith

The only one that stuck was the hush money case which will not be appealed until after the election but the sentancing has been pushed back.

While Blue state prosecutors went after Trump in an over the top and unnprecidented way I think that they were unaware that quite a lot of Americans were alarmed about how abnormal this approach was, and also that they gave Trump an underdog persona, also pages and pages of free press exposure. He started the campaign as a weak, beatable candidate and they breathed life into his campaign instead of getting decent articulate smart dynamic candidates and good policies.

Biden is being so stubborn, he (and other democrats) need to look at the bigger picture - is it more important he stands for president or Trump isn't president. This situation should never gave been allowed to happen, it's handing Trump a victory. The Democrats should have been planning a succesor years ago, but they now urgently need to make Biden step down. It's crazy that there's no way of making this happen. And even crazier that in the whole of the US with all the millions of people that the choice is Trump or Biden!

I think those close to Biden are telling him he can and should stay in power ie his wife and son. I don’t believe they are arguing otherwise, which is bolstering his delusion, and of course he is closely surrounded by yes people who will be telling him the same

its sad, trump is only 4 years younger and clearly as sharp as a pin , irrelevant of how much of an arse he is

thing is it is clear he is going to lose, he will not win another term, trump will get in, so what’s the bloody point in hanging on, it’s so selfish against his party who have no chance.

its just unfortunate that politics in the us means they have no mechanism to remove a sitting president if he refuses to go. He wants to stay and those c,lose to him urging him to stay it’s all over for the democrats.

thats simply many people don’t agree with his thought process or politics, he isn’t losing cognitive ability and very frail mentally and physically. They are two very different animals health wise. Surprised you can’t see that.

In three years time things could be very different ,,
Just going off my own parents things can decline very quickly when people get into their 80,s .

I wondered the same, but with Trump ahead in tthe polling in most key states I worry it's just too late for the Democrats to come back now

Obviously Biden's not to blame for being old and sick, but for me the party's judgement in hanging onto him for so long would be reason enough not to vote for them - a view shared by many American friends

Totally agree.

I despise Trump, I think he's an awful, incompetent human being and a terrible terrible choice for any kind of leadership position, let alone a world leader.

But could I really blame anyone for voting for him this time round with Biden as the alternative? I'm not sure I could. They are both appalling candidates in very different ways.

I just can't understand what the democrats were thinking.

This situation should never gave been allowed to happen, it's handing Trump a victory. The Democrats should have been planning a succesor years ago ...

Absolutely, but the party didn't and since they're wholly responsible for that, they and everyone else will now probably pay the price

I'm reminded of visiting a county fair electioneering booth when Biden's decline first became obvious and being told "Oh we'll certainly have someone else by the 2024 election"
You have to wonder what happened ...

From mid 70s really.

I agree with you.

Trump is an old man. He is ridiculous, he just looks "young" in comparison with Biden.

After 70, hell, after mid 50s (2 of my firends just died suddenly in their early 50s) who knows what can happen?

Agree. Very bizarre situation.

Whatever ppl think of Uk politics the US mentality and present situation is way worse.

More "dinosaurs" like this need to "go".
Sorry.
Some people at productive age actually want to start to live their own lives.

But a lower age limit is ok ?

This isn't just any job though - its one of the most responsible and difficult jobs in the world.

I agree, he really is much the same as the guy I was driving behind yesterday - hat on, steady 25 mph everywhere whether 40, 30 or 20 limit apart from when going round corners when we slowed to a mind bending 5 mph. Difference is this bozo is in charge of the USA rather than just an i10.

It’s off topic for this thread perhaps, but J. D. Vance seems more impressive than anyone the UK right has produced.

I’d have loved the chance to vote for a young and dynamic, protectionist, anti free trade, anti immigration and anti woke candidate if there’d been one in the UK. But I couldn’t vote for Farage or Sunak because they’re still cut from the failed globalist free trade cloth.