Joe Biden drops out of election, upending race for White House
www.bbc.com
President says decision is in interests of country, but endorsement of vice-president to take over is not a done deal.
  • samus12345@lemmy.worldEnglish
    0·
    4 months ago

    I’m nervous. Biden was a flawed candidate, but he already beat Trump once and had the incumbent advantage. Harris was a very unpopular candidate in 2020, and it’s unknown if any other candidate will do better against Trump. But since Biden chose to do this, there’s no doubt he made the right decision for him.

  • Rentlar@lemmy.ca
    0·
    4 months ago

    Biden must have received some sign from the Lord. I am confident he would have made for a great 2nd term, but I would also feel bad for his final legacy to be that he handed the election to Trump despite his 1st term successes.

    This is your moment, America. It’s in your hands now to see it through in November, kick Trump out no matter who the Democratic nominee will be.

    I’ll be keeping an eye on those particular accounts on Lemmy that were constantly calling for resignation, whether anyone as presidential nominee will satisfy them.

  • ceenote@lemmy.world
    0·
    4 months ago

    It was like pulling teeth for awhile, but Joe Biden deserves to be recognized for his humility. That’s not common in politicians at that level.

        • Heikki@lemm.ee
          0·
          4 months ago

          He was literally doing the job and doing it well.

          Some of the accomplishments:

          Lowering Costs of Families’ Everyday Expenses. More People Are Working Than At Any Point in American History. Making More in America. Rescued the Economy and Changed the Course of the Pandemic. Rebuilding our infrastructure. Historic Expansion of Benefits and Services for Toxic Exposed Veterans. CHIP Act

          Here is the full list of his accomplishments.

          • TacticsConsort@yiffit.net
            0·
            4 months ago

            You’re not wrong, but the comparison I like here is Ruth Bader Ginsberg. She wasn’t just doing her job well, she was one of the best Supreme Court Justicies EVER.

            She didn’t resign when the time was right, and as a result she died under Trump, a republican got her seat, and all the great things she did were swiftly demolished, wrecking decades of work over one single mistake: Not knowing when to step down.

            Now I know the situation isn’t perfectly comparable. But if Trump gets in, then every good thing Biden has done will be swiftly undone. This was a hellish dilemma, but if Biden wants to do his job well, he needs to do that by not letting Trump into the White House again.

            • JoeBigelow@lemmy.ca
              0·
              4 months ago

              My mom doesn’t like when I talk about how badly RBG fucked the people she legitimately worked so hard to uplift and protect, in my opinion because of her ego. I hold very little resentment because I understand wanting to personally preserve your legacy, but that motivation seems to fail more often than allowing someone else to preserve it for you.

          • towerful@programming.dev
            0·
            4 months ago

            IMO, as an outsider, he has done a great job.
            Among many successes that have drifted across my news feeds, he has also excelled past the really low bar of “not making a mockery of the US”.

            That statement is not exclusive from the statement that “Biden should not run again”.

            It’s 4 years later. And he would have to do another 4 years if he won.
            I know presidents are more than just a person in the same way a ship can’t sail with only it’s captain. But strong leadership is going to make everything easier.
            And Biden is old.

          • rsuri@lemmy.world
            0·
            4 months ago

            Except he was failing at the most important job - stopping another 4 years of Trump. And yes, that’s partly the media’s fault, but it’s mostly Biden’s fault. Trump’s debate performance matched what could’ve been predicted pretty closely, and Biden failed to rebut Trump effectively and often seemed to help Trump argue against himself. For example, they should’ve easily foreseen that Trump would do the weird brag about his cognitive test scores. Why was there no response to that? Why not demand that Trump produce the results instead of just brag about them, or point out that nobody asked or is impressed by his ability to read a clock? There were like 50 opportunities during that debate for Biden to end Trump’s whole campaign, he missed each one.

            Clearly this was unacceptable, and I hope the next candidate dispenses with the vast majority of Biden’s election team.

    • Kroxx@lemm.ee
      0·
      4 months ago

      Fuck yes you mean! I’m joking, I can see how this is scary and it is risky to an extent( although way less than Biden staying in imo). Here is what I would consider about this though as a positive:

      I think this will at least partially reinvigorate the voting population

      I don’t know this of course but personally I haven’t been excited about pretty much anything happening in politics in a while. I am actually excited and they haven’t even picked a new nominee yet. Harris would be my least popular pick but if they pick her I will be way more happy/motivated about voting. I hope this pumps some blood into voter turnout.

    • Snowclone@lemmy.world
      0·
      4 months ago

      It’s really a good move. At this point any person under 70 could mop the floor with trump, he’s still the worst possible candidate from any position, and the GOP has had zero time to poison whoever gets the nomination.

      • cogman@lemmy.world
        0·
        4 months ago

        Yup. Kamala is also not a bad pick because republicans are almost certainly going to start with racism/sexism as their first attacks “Oh, she’s DEI”. Given trump has been trying to court the black/Latino vote, this will play against him.

        Further, Kamala will be able to excellently push him on abortion. Biden really sucked at advocating for women’s rights even though that’s been a winner pretty much every time it’s been the focus of a campaign (there’s a reason Rs have backed away from mentioning it).

        It’ll still be close and there’s still a lot of unknowns. However, I for one think this is the right move.

        • Snowclone@lemmy.world
          0·
          4 months ago

          It’s pretty hard to argue against the same reasoning that pushed Biden off the ticket. He IS too old, and clearly struggling, you put someone in their 40s and 50s across from Trump, he will look as badly as Biden did.

          • ImpressiveEssay@lemmy.world
            0·
            4 months ago

            Well… at minimum to anybody who publicly complained about bidens age.

            Now is there chance to not be a hypocrite. I hope Americans are calling it hypocrites this week. There will be many.

            • Snowclone@lemmy.world
              0·
              4 months ago

              Dosen’t matter, if you convince people to say a old candidate who can’t speak reasonably well is absolutely a danger to the country, you aren’t unconvincing them of that now that Trump is the old confused rambler on stage.

              • ImpressiveEssay@lemmy.world
                0·
                4 months ago

                You don’t have to convince them. You just have to ask them to behave the same way. And if they don’t. Then call them a hypocrite. To their face.

                Good luck!

      • merc@sh.itjust.works
        0·
        4 months ago

        He definitely didn’t have zero chance, nobody knows what his chances would have been. This is all uncharted waters.

  • blazera@lemmy.worldEnglish
    0·
    4 months ago

    I was not turning out for Joe. Even if its Harris im voting now. Id prefer it not be Harris, but a much younger president, starting a first term of hopefully 2, we’re definitely taking back some Court seats.

  • ImpressiveEssay@lemmy.world
    0·
    4 months ago

    Well guys… Have you seen Trump’s mental decline since he last ran?! How old is he now?

    Surely nobody would be dumb enough to vote someone that old into office now… That is… What we have been saying? Right guys?

  • Xanis@lemmy.world
    0·
    4 months ago

    I’ll say just one thing:

    Every single one of you assholes who wouldn’t shut up about him stepping down since the dude missed the toilet bowl fifty years ago after a particularly wild night out better sure as fuck step up now that Old Joe has stepped down.

    A sitting god damned President of the United States has stepped aside less than half a year before reelection. Make no mistake: The man swallowed his pride and ego HARD to make this decision. Let’s honor that by creating a wall of votes so god. damned. thick. Riley Reid would gasp.

  • Draedron@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
    0·
    4 months ago

    This just shows that both political parties in ameria are insane. The dems just gift Trump the office. They deserve the 2nd Trump term. Just sad for the rest of the world that doesnt deserve it.

  • ThatOneKrazyKaptain@lemmy.world
    0·
    4 months ago

    Just FYI so you don’t get ‘gotchaed’, Trump isn’t the oldest nominee ever. Neither was Biden. Record is still held by Peter Cooper from the reconstruction era who was 84 when nominated.

  • XNX@slrpnk.net
    0·
    4 months ago

    Its extremely worrying he didnt announce who is replacing him. This election might wnd up being decided by the supreme court after republicans challenge the replacement in the courts