What does a BIDEN Presidency look like?

[Barrister]

Perhaps the best thing Biden should do would be to stop campaigning then? It kinda worked in 2020 when Covid forced them to stop.

But again - he's behind.  Trump is up on average 3 points.

https://www.realclearpolling.com/polls/president/general/2024/trump-vs-biden

Trump was trailing in both 2016 and 2020.  He pulled an inside straight in 2016 to win the electoral college despite getting fewer votes, but doesn't seem like he'll have much trouble this year.

[crazy canuck]

Is it a given that having someone else step will improve things?

The polling done after the debate showed Trump ahead by 9 points.  That shows how volotile the electorate is.  Can he can recover from that.  Probably not.  Is there a chance he continues to display his mental incapacity during the rest of the election?  That is a certainty.

So yes, it is as close to a certainty that another candidate would do better as there can be in politics.

[Valmy]

Biden just barely won in 2020 and that was an anti-Trump vote and the other main reason he won is because of how he represented the Obama years. What seemed like good old days in 2020.

Well the Obama years are now four years more distant than they were in 2020 and Biden now is in a position to be saddled with responsibility for the economic fallout of Covid and the wars in Ukraine and Israel/Palestine. And he is not doing a great job showing how his policies are going to lead to better times in the future.

We need a more dynamic leader who can promise new policies to solve the current issues if we want to beat Trump and Project 2025.

[Admiral Yi]

There are no new policies that can solve inflation other than what the Fed is doing now.  There are no new policies that can solve climate change other than the ones people are already unwilling to do.  And there are certainly no new policies that can solve Ukraine or Israel/Palestine.

More rousing (and comprehensible) stump speeches sure.

[Oexmelin]

I think this sentiment that nothing can be done is part of the general move towards authoritarianism

[Admiral Yi]

I think this sentiment that nothing can be done is part of the general move towards authoritarianism

And calling what we are doing "nothing" is part of the general move towards imbecile populism.

[Habbaku]

I think this sentiment that nothing can be done is part of the general move towards authoritarianism

100%. One of the best moves the fascists can make is to convince anyone who opposes them that fascism winning is inevitable.

Fuck that.

[Oexmelin]

It's not only that. It's people getting fed up by those college-educated elite technocrats saying things are so complicated that nothing can be done, while authoritarians insist that they, at least, can get things done.

[Sheilbh]

It's not only that. It's people getting fed up by those college-educated elite technocrats saying things are so complicated that nothing can be done, while authoritarians insist that they, at least, can get things done.

Or college-educated elite technocrats saying the only way things can be done is by them and through their agencies (we all know examples from our working lives, I'm sure), rather than through and by democratic politics. By disempowering our democratic institutions we're opening their takeover by people who loath them.

[Admiral Yi]

Or college-educated elite technocrats saying the only way things can be done is by them and through their agencies (we all know examples from our working lives, I'm sure), rather than through and by democratic politics. By disempowering our democratic institutions we're opening their takeover by people who loath them.

I don't know of any examples of this.

[frunk]

100%. One of the best moves the fascists can make is to convince anyone who opposes them that fascism winning is inevitable.

Fuck that.

It also goes hand in hand with "nothing is getting done, and nothing can get done.  We are the way to get things fixed" which conveniently ignores how often these fascist movements are the ones making it difficult to get things done.

[Habbaku]

100%. One of the best moves the fascists can make is to convince anyone who opposes them that fascism winning is inevitable.

Fuck that.

It also goes hand in hand with "nothing is getting done, and nothing can get done.  We are the way to get things fixed" which conveniently ignores how often these fascist movements are the ones making it difficult to get things done.

Bingo. They use every ounce of their power to resist meaningful and progressive change, then claim that what has been "tried" has failed. It's immensely cynical and self-serving and seems to work entirely too much for my comfort.

Anyway, restore the Stuarts, Charles I did nothing wrong, etc.

[garbon]

People seem addicted to permitting mass shootings.

[The Minsky Moment]

There are no new policies that can solve inflation other than what the Fed is doing now.  There are no new policies that can solve climate change other than the ones people are already unwilling to do.  And there are certainly no new policies that can solve Ukraine or Israel/Palestine.

Different things here.

1. Inflation - yes, this is a global phenomenon, and the Fed has done about as well as could be done. It is possible in theory to deliberately push deflationary policy, but that would be nuts.

2. Climate Change - recognizing that there are powerful forces constraining effective action, that still leaves quite a lot that could be tried. At the very least, the Democrats in the Biden era have not done a great advocacy job of pushing back on the Overton Window - this is one area where a Gavin Newsom type might do a bit better.  There is also more that can be done to harness the politico-economic zeitgeist and link pro-climate policies to economic nationalism and national security, playing up the competition with China on key technology development and roll out.  The latter has been Biden's approach, but he hasn't sold it that effectively.

3. Ukraine - It is certainly well within American capacity to provide more money, more guns, more support.

4. Israel-Palestine : just because America cannot "solve" the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, doesn't mean that it completely lacks any policy options.  There are a lot of things America can do to impact realities on the ground.

[crazy canuck]

Biden just barely won in 2020 and that was an anti-Trump vote and the other main reason he won is because of how he represented the Obama years. What seemed like good old days in 2020.

Well the Obama years are now four years more distant than they were in 2020 and Biden now is in a position to be saddled with responsibility for the economic fallout of Covid and the wars in Ukraine and Israel/Palestine. And he is not doing a great job showing how his policies are going to lead to better times in the future.

We need a more dynamic leader who can promise new policies to solve the current issues if we want to beat Trump and Project 2025.

I think all of that is accurate.  And raises the question - why didn't somebody step up to the plate to take him on in the primaries.  It can't be a shock to those in Washington that he is not lucid.