Has Biden just lost the election?

[EmmaGrundyForPM]

I've just watched the news and seen Biden forget Trumps name. Not just a quick slip of the tongue and corrected, but calling him George and not knowing how to correct himself.

I absolutely don't blame him - I often struggle to remember something, or call ds1 by ds2s name. We all do it. And Biden is presumably very tired in the run up to next week.

But Trump is of course making huge capital out of this and I'm worried that voters who are wavering will swing back to Trump.

Please tell me I'm wrong!

@Wnikat

The guy interviewing him is called George so it’s not that weird a mistake

But that's not what comes across if you just see the clip. What you are presented with is an elderly man who is struggling to remember what his opponent is called.

I know there are all sorts of good reasons why this happened, I'm not disputing that. What I'm.worried about is this clip- presented without context - may be enough to dissuade some voters from voting for him.

@blueangel19 You would vote for Trump because Biden forgot a name? Have you never said the wrong name before? I call my cat by my son's name and visa versa, alllll the time. Plus he has a stutter - it would be very hard to get yourself back on track while trying to overcome that as well, in the spotlight as he was.

So all of you saying Biden shouldn't be the candidate, who should have been?

There is not some magic candidate factory. All the other possibilities had drawbacks too. If anyone else were the candidate, we would still be sweating right now.

The problem is not Biden, the problem is 40% of Americans have lost their damn minds and will vote for a deranged fascist. You can't sway that base. All you can do is try to get out the vote against Trump, and Biden is bland enough to allow that to happen. People may not love him but you don't have that big well of hatred like people had for Hillary, or for Bernie.

No I don't think it will matter I think you are literally dreaming as your username suggests, of course there are millions of swing voters that will not decide until the last minute. There are also plenty of voters that will be too scared to vote for someone that clearly seems extremely fragile at a time when we need strong leadership during covid, china tensions and all the rest. Right now people are looking for direction and strength, and I am not sure Biden has either quality.

It is a shame, because ten or twenty years ago he would have been ideal. I am not sure he will even see out the term, and a strong team might be helpful but he is the one making the hard decisions, and he has the nuclear codes. It is a huge responsibility and burden.

It is not that Biden forgot the name of the president and called him the wrong name, that can happen at anytime to anyone whats it is the fact he did not seem to even realise he had made a mistake.

It indicates a far bigger problem with his faculities.

My FIL had dementia, and it was just like that, he could not remember people's names, and when he made a mistake he could not correct himself. Biden's wife Jill is clearly saying trump under her breath, one has to wonder how many times she has had to do this, the poker face whilst doing so made was painful to watch.

@Friendsoftheearth

No I don't think it will matter I think you are literally dreaming as your username suggests, of course there are millions of swing voters that will not decide until the last minute. There are also plenty of voters that will be too scared to vote for someone that clearly seems extremely fragile at a time when we need strong leadership during covid, china tensions and all the rest. Right now people are looking for direction and strength, and I am not sure Biden has either quality.

It is a shame, because ten or twenty years ago he would have been ideal. I am not sure he will even see out the term, and a strong team might be helpful but he is the one making the hard decisions, and he has the nuclear codes. It is a huge responsibility and burden.

Disagree. Polls showing only about 5% of voters are still undecided. Of those, many are not truly undecided, and not all of them will vote. Yes they matter but the impact of undecideds will be much less in this election than the last one.

And if your main concern is 'fragility' then surely you can't vote for Trump either. He is clearly mentally unfit to be president.

A huge chunk of the vote for Biden has already been cast. 60 million Americans have already voted and data suggests that Biden voters are more likely to have voted early, in person or by mail. That 60m is likely to be more than a third of the total ballots cast, potentially quite a lot more than a third. The potential for last minute news stories to change the outcome of the election is therefore reduced significantly. A lot of swing voters have already swung. I’m not saying that this doesn’t have the potential to be damaging and I’m not 100% confident that Biden will win, but if he loses I think it will be about more than this moment.

IMO the poles say what they want them to say. The poles in our last election predicted a labour win or at best.a hung parliament. nobody predicted a Tory landslide.

How many people do they pole? VS how many people are in the US.

TBH I think Trump has already won. While there are people saying that they won’t be voting for him, everyone I know in the US says that while they won’t be voting for him, they struggle to understand the pole outcomes because everyone else they know is going to vote Trump.

And if he doesn’t win I fear for the stability of the US. He is not going to go quietly, and is perfectly capable of whipping up civil unrest.

Either way the US is fucked for the foreseeable.

I came onto this thread thinking oh yes he's stuck down a well isn't he?
I'm struggling to keep straight which bits are news and which bits are satire.

I think he is too old sadly .Be very surprised if DT doesnt get in again really .A younger and fresher candidate would be a much better deal!

I don't think there are many Americans choosing between them. They are either Trump supporters, and WILL vote.
Heavily anti-Trump and WILL vote for Biden to get Trump out.
Or disengaged and unlikely to vote at all.

It is the third group that Biden is targeting to try and get votes. There is a big problem with people not voting in America.

we need strong leadership during covid, china tensions and all the rest. Right now people are looking for direction and strength

And you think people will look at Trump and think yes, he's the guy to deliver all of that - after the last four years? After how he's handled the pandemic? Wow.

I'm not an American but it's my impression that the US has often elected people who aren't really up to the job intellectually but mostly they've had the good sense to surround themselves with more able people and to listen to their advice. I would expect Biden to do that. One of the many alarming things about Trump is that he doesn't recognise how limited his capabilities are and he can't stand to be told no, so he's sacked people over and over again and been left at the mercy of the unscrupulous chancers who see him as a golden meal ticket.

I think at this stage, those who would discount Biden for being fragile probably already did so. I think those will use this as more fodder to prove their point, but with such a large early voting and mail-in turn out, I don't think this will be the cause if he loses.

I don't trust the polls, but I think a lot of the perspective about Trump voting is the social incentives in some spaces to be visibly seen as not liberal, not one of them. That does exist in Democrat spaces, but not in the same way and I think it's more acceptable to say one is voting tactically for Biden, but prefers someone else - which has far less enthusiasm than those voting actively for someone.

And yes, out of the candidates available in parties with enough candidates to get 270 electorial college votes needed to win, our youngest contender is the Librertarians with a 63 year old. I was disappointed when Yang (45) and Gabbard (39) were knocked out of the Democrat primaries though not at all surprised - it seems the Presidency has become something some try to tack onto the end of their career rather than an actual aspiration.

I think people will still want to vote to end the Trump nightmare...but I think Biden was not the right/strongest candidate to put forward though. Too old, not inspiring and probably won't do a full term. Still better choice than the Donald though...pretty much anyone would be.

No I don’t think he lost it at that moment. We know he’s frail, forgetful and yes, possibly suffering from dementia. Isn’t trump as well? He’s made the most awful clangers.

I do agree that he’s not up to the job though. Gasp0de has it right that he will use advisors wisely. Unlike trump. The comment about sacking people over and over is as true about him as it is about Bozo unfortunately and we seem to be some way from getting that buffoon out of offic e

all whatswithtodaytoday I will never vote for somebody who is unfit to run to give to the least favourite candidate of the Democrats the chance to take over. ( Kamala) The video could just the cherry on top for the people who have been concerned about his dementia.

Here is a shock for you not everybody is a Trump hater so may be some people look more into this. Rather than whoever but Trump. I also would look at his party policies and how it will be affect middle classes. The extra 3% tax in the US for house owners specially in places like California where the house are so expensive and they are already on their knees.

George was the presenter. This is why there is so much misinformation floating around - one person sees a cropped clip and it spreads

dont forget hilary actually won the popular vote its the stupid system that put trump in the white house

its not over yet

@ChaChaCha2012

It's not a job for an old man I'm afraid.

Trump is 74, Biden is 77. Is there a particular cut off when someone becomes an old man?

Fgs they’re old men. In the U.K. both of them would have been drawing their pension for a considerable amount of time. Months shy of a decade for Trump and he’s the younger of the two. The average life expectancy of a white male in the US is 75.3 and 69 for black men. Statistically neither of them will see the end of their term. I’d say on the stats alone both of them are rather too old.

I can't believe that after four years of Trump's bigotry, hysteria and general ignorance that anyone should be equally worried about Biden using the host's name, George, in an out of context clip.
In my opinion, Trump's dementia is out there for all to see.

Yes, both candidates are in their seventies but I would at least trust Biden to listen to advisors when he goes wrong, unlike Trump who just fires everyone.

Polls showing only about 5% of voters are still undecided

And even if the polls are correct (and that is a big IF) that is enough to swing behind Trump.

You might feel Trump is morally unfit to be president, but he is still capable of holding rallies and interviews and being able to convey his message powerfully - even if we don't agree with the message dreaming You sound pissed off, and I don't blame you. Sunday was a god given gift to team Trump, and may end up being the deciding factor.

One thing that is obvious, the polls are much tighter than they look. We are not considering again, how many will silently vote for Trump because they believe he has their back - and rightly or wrongly do not think Biden can even remember the word back.

The democrat party and members have made a massive mistake.

George is a very common name so the presenter was called George, George Bush, George Washington who knows but he is not running against a George so BS really.

Trump is many things but he definitely does not have dementia, he definitely is a powerful communicator and is a great hulk of man quite frankly looks anything but frail! Now he has 'beaten' covid, he looks even stronger unfortunately.

So I do think there is a chance, a good chance he will win. On the outside looking in, at a boxing match of mental agility he would be winning hands down right now in my view.

If you want to blame someone, blame those that voted for Biden, you can not put forward a frail old man with onset dementia and expect them to win, not matter how charismatic.

also ive called my sister my nieces name does that mean im unstable

the presenter was called george

I think the big thing currently in Biden’s favour at the moment is that people still believe that Trump can win. The turnout in this election looks like it will be extremely high. People don’t want to risk being complacent in case the polls are out by as much as they were in 2016. Polling companies and analysts of polling data appear to have responded to some of the problems faced in 2016 but it’s still an imperfect art and it’s good for Biden that people don’t really believe that he’s heading for a landslide. The reality is that this race will likely be a lot tighter than his 9 point lead might suggest it will be and so people need to vote.