All undecided voters in a U.S. swing states focus group hosted by pollster Frank Luntz said President Biden should be replaced as the Democratic nominee after watching his first presidential debate against former President Trump.
Newsweek is tabloid-adjacent.
Biden is underperforming his 2020 run by pretty much every metric. It’s time to try something different while we still have time.
Ah yes, right-wing authoritarianism that helped cause mass immigration from regional instability thanks to ignoring climate change and sowing global conflicts… Let’s just give the fox the keys to the henhouse.
That’s a fair point but just consider these points:
That’s an insane polling for someone who has not once threw their hat in the ring and actually campaigned nationally outside of California.
We’re already starting with a President who is predicted by polling to lose to Donald Trump.
Key to note, Biden’s numbers are generally baked in. Everyone knows everything about Biden, and the law of diminishing returns suggests nobody is going to find out something they dont’ already know.
Whereas just the opposite is true with the likes of Whitmer & Newsom: months of viral media attention, actual national campaigns and speeches, debates, interviews – have the opportunity for someone to familiarize themselves with such alternate candidates and see the contrast of, “Wow, this guy can actually talk coherently and is far younger…” So you have to tell me with a straight face that once committed to be the nominee their name-recognition and approval skyrocket overnight.
Mentioned weaknesses of candidates can be offset by a VP pick, as they always are.
In truth, we really haven’t been through this already. To conclude otherwise is to suggest that Joe Biden is literally the best candidate Democrats can field, which at his age and with his debate performance, is an incredibly low bar.
Well said. I wish Bernie was 20 years younger and I’d agree on that as well. Personally, at this point, I just think they need to be young-ish, and half-ways charismatic and they’d ride off the viral media energy of being a fresh face in what is an American idol popularity contest. Whitmer at this point would be my preference.
This is such a huge opportunity for Democrats to take back the narrative and steal all the energy in the room.
I’ll agree that it’s a dilemma for sure. To me I think both situations carry baggage. At this point, things are looking so atrociously bad that I think the risk is worth it and any candidate nominated at convention who may have baggage will probably running off the highs of being a fresh face before the baggage becomes a serious issue (and sad we have to talk about baggage when Trump is the opposition). Realistically it would probably be Whitmer or Newsom.
The thing to me is that this debate isn’t a one-off. It’s the culmination of what people have seen and been warning of and what’s been reflected in polls for quite a long time now.
I’ll be clear that I didn’t vote for Biden either during the 2020 primaries but I did ultimately vote for him in November. I’ll vote for him again if it comes down to it. But I’m not who you need to convince, unfortunately.
Edit: Let me also just say that it’s better now than later. What if Biden has a medical emergency in October? At the rate of his decline and age that is a very real possibility.
I think it’s funny how folks think a sore throat causes one to jump from Abortion to an anecdote on Immigration mid-sentence. The copium is astounding.
I’ve thought this through for quite some time and I think you’re missing the opportunity for Democrats to seize the narrative.
“We listened to voters who were unsatisfied with either candidate, a large majority who said age is a real concern for them.”
"Joe Biden stepped down for the American People to let a younger generation lead."
FREE VIRAL MEDIA TIME for months on end about the fresh face of the Democratic party.
A complete lack of developed right-wing talking-points to disseminate.
With perks like that who needs donors and TV ad time? This isn’t the 80s. Elections aren’t won on television ads.
All we know is what doesn’t work, and what doesn’t work was shown last night. It has been showing in poll after poll after poll despite people burying their heads in the sand: a President with approval ratings in the 30s, and a Presidential candidate who is FAR behind in every data-point compared to where he was in 2020.
I’ve listened to Jon Stewart, Katie Couric, 2 different NYT podcasts, post-PBS analysis, Pod Save America (former Obama/VP Biden staffers) – and they are all echoing the same fucking thing:
Really. You want me to show polls for something that hasn’t happened yet? In 2020, what are you talking about? Half these people I mentioned didn’t even run in the 2020 Primaries, forgetting the obvious logical fallacy that “Who does well in the primaries predicts who does better a year from then in the General Election.” In 2020, Joe Biden was 4 years younger and far less senile than he shows now while Trump’s support was lower mostly thanks to a botched handling of covid at the time.
There is not one data-point where Biden isn’t performing worse than he did at this time in 2020.
In the event Biden voluntarily steps down and either an open convention occurs or he endorses, is it really that inconceivable for you to believe overnight polling for such a candidate would skyrocket as both grassroots and establishment and MASSIVE widespread media press inundate such a person with coverage…?
These are all fair points and points I’m sure to raise in the months ahead should Biden remain the nominee, but the way I see it is that polls haven’t budged; aggregate approval rating for Biden continues to decline. We can argue how much this debate hurt Biden, but we can all agree it certainly did not help. And if it didn’t help, what else can be done and said that hasn’t already been done and said over the past years? Polling isn’t just hard to budge positively, but it’s actively trending opposite to what we need, relative to Biden’s position in 2020. If the case of saying, “look it’s between the old guy, and the fascist twice-impeached convicted felon with 3 more trials to go and who tried to overturn a free and fair election” hasn’t worked yet, what makes anyone think it’s going to work in the coming months? Hel this desperation is what led the Biden campaign to accept this debate in the first place – a risk gambit that simply did not pay off. A tough sell.
So what do we do?
Well, in my view Democrats restore some trust by Biden publicly and voluntarily acknowledging the situation head-on, stepping down, and opening up the convention. Democrats nominate someone half-ways young and charismatic – Whitmer, Booker, Newsom, Buttigieg – I don’t particularly care – and I think the freshness of a face and the addressing of youth will be enough to sway swing voters.
Agreed. The cold thing doesn’t cause one to jump from abortion to immigration mid-sentence, either. Blaming the cold makes Biden look weaker, considering Trump had covid during the 2020 debate and still did comparatively better.
With all due respect I appreciate the attempt at spin-doctoring what happened and giving an outlet for Biden, but I cannot conceive of how a cold warrants that performance for anyone who suffered through watching that. Even Trump did better while actively having COVID on stage back in the 2020 debates.
Many of us have been sounding the alarm of events like this that were matter-of-factly non-existent during, say, then-VP Biden’s debates with the likes of Paul Ryan. I get why there’s incumbent inertia behind Biden, but now is very little data that portends a good end to this election for Biden, relative to his standings in 2020.
In order to viably attain the “undecided” swing-voters, we need to meet them half-way and give them an outlet that doesn’t place them into a dichotomous situation of voting for two people they clearly do not like.
Listening to more of the analysis and clips from the debate, Biden’s performance reminded me of high school and college presentations where students over-prepared by following a very rigid, memorized script but derail because they forget a single key word or trigger. This isn’t a very robust presentation strategy that can easily fail even with younger minds, let alone someone in their 80s.
Biden sucked last night and I have serious concerns about his physical and cognitive faculties to run the country.
But I’m still voting for him for reasons you mentioned.
That won’t stop me from advocating for him to step down and put someone else up for the election, but if it comes down to it, I will still vote for Biden.