Why Biden finally quit

[Rubyshoo]

In addition to presenting new concerns from lawmakers and updates on a fundraising operation that had slowed considerably, they carried the campaign’s own polls, which came back this week and showed his path to victory in November was gone, according to five people familiar with the matter, who, like others interviewed for this article, were granted anonymity to discuss private conversations. Biden asked several questions during the exchange.

The only other people with Biden in the residence when he arose Sunday were first lady Jill Biden and two other trusted aides: deputy chief of staff Annie Tomasini and assistant to the first lady Anthony Bernal. At 1:45 p.m., he notified a somewhat larger group of close aides that he had decided the night before to end his quest for another term, reading his letter and thanking them for their service. A minute later, before any other campaign and White House staffers could be notified, he posted the historic letter from his campaign account on the social media site X.

The announcement, which shocked the political world, almost immediately flipped the narrative around Biden: His own party, after three weeks of deriding him privately as an isolated, deluded lion in winter dragging other Democrats down with him, was showering him with loving tributes, praising his record, career of public service and a selfless decision they said put his country first.

It wasn’t that the president had grown tired of the drip of defections from within his own party — although he had. Rather, it was that Biden himself was finally convinced of what so many other Democrats had come to believe since his poor debate performance last month: He couldn’t win.

https://www.politico.com/news/2024/07/21/why-biden-dropped-out-00170106


Archive: https://archive.ph/5g6Rz

[Bev54]

1. Politico? really?

[cilla4progress]

2. Poor debate performance?

Really?

Kamala was my 1st choice in 2019. I hope she cam win. The last 24 hours is encouraging.

I hope Dems aren't jumping from the frying pan into the fire.

[gab13by13]

3. It's over

Why do we need to know why Joe stepped aside?
Let’s move forward

[meadowlander]

16. The why is important because:

1. if you call it a coup or Biden being backstabbed/ratfucked/forced out it calls into question the legitimacy of the process going forward. Why should people rally around the next person if the process that led to their nomination wasn't "legal" or was predicated on some deep personal betrayal of someone they previously supported?

2. we're less than two weeks out from an assassination attempt on a major party candidate. There are crazy people out there and we need to be tempering our language and insisting on accuracy. Because if it *is* a coup, what do "patriotic right-thinking Americans" need to do in response?

I'd love to move on and just be excited about a new nominee as much as anyone, but I think we have to be really careful about messaging and how we frame our understanding of what happened in the current political context. The Republicans will call it a coup to shit-stir and we need to have a clear and agreed counter-narrative to that.

People can feel how they feel. But not every thought needs to be expressed when it's not in our strategic best interest to do so.

[Rubyshoo]

18. Heard A Great Line Just The Other Day...

I´ve learned not to believe everything I think.

[meadowlander]

19. Love it.

Words to live by

[krkaufman]

30. Boot-up Messaging

I feel like that should be the boot-up screen on every Internet-connected device.

[ITAL]

5. I felt like that Pelosi interview was the key

And this piece said as much. It looked like Biden was going to survive previous to that.

[Wicked Blue]

6. Privately?

They were deriding him publicly.

[MustLoveBeagles]

17. That's what made me angry

[wnylib]

21. That's the part that bothered and annoyed me most.

I expected media harassment of Biden. They've been doing it for 3.5 years. But did not expect or like the political use of leaks to the media to be aired nonstop over and over. Bad politics and bad psychology. It only made Biden dig in harder in self defense, prolonging the issue in public. It was tacky.

But what's done is done. Time to unite against the orange old guy.

[Bettie]

22. They were working to humiliate him

and now they are acting like they never did that. We saw it.

[Wicked Blue]

23. The public comments, and now the gaslighting

[MustLoveBeagles]

25. I can't unsee it

[femmedem]

8. A belated welcome to Democratic Underground!

Sorry some of the posters are being snide with you. I appreciate learning that his decision was based in part on internal polling.

[Rubyshoo]

9. Thank You

I understand everybody is upset... me too.

But Ive gone from Ridin With Biden
to
Kruisin With Kamala

(I just saw that here at DU.)

And to be honest, Iḿ starting to get excited about the next several months.

[Trueblue1968]

20. Thank you. I used your Kruisin With Kamala on facebook !!!!! Anyone on FB ?? Invite me to be friends.

[tulipsandroses]

10. As Steve Koranacki said yesterday, re: " The path is gone" - That's an unknown. trump thought his path was gone in 2016

. The fact is, we will never know. How can anyone say that 100% certainty with over 3 months to go?
I think the reason he quit, is the reason he said - for the country, for the party. It's hard to fight trump, your own party, and STILL do your job as president. I do believe he asked for polling to see how VP Harris would do. Once he saw that she wouldn't be worse off then he made the decision to step aside to UNIFY the party so that it would not be a distraction. I am sure he was concerned about how the party seemed to be fracturing and how much damage it would do to the party. Not just his campaign.
That is the kind of man Joe Biden is.

[GreenWave]

11. He got perpetual hate, lies and fear mongering from day one from wrong wing sources.

The alleged good guys did not really come to his aid.

Instead lame stream was fawning over T. "Look! He picked his nose!" "Listen! He farted in court!"

[wnylib]

24. Seems legit to me to go after the media, not just for

The past several weeks, but for the entire 3.5 years.

What if people posted videos on social media (but not here) of every TV host's verbal flubs and gaffes and started a non-stop online movement for them to resign? After all, they are ignoring the orange dictator's mental state, so they are not competent to do their jobs.

I saw a Justice Matters video with Glenn Kirschner visibly angry over the media blitz. He said firmly that he did not want to hear one word from them denigrating Kamala's chances, appearance, etc. If they disparage her, he said we will know where they stand politically.

[Iris]

12. What a shitty thought that didn't need to be expressed.

Joe has cemented his legacy and we owe him absolute respect

[GenThePerservering]

13. Biden chose country over

Party and over ego. Furthermore, he and his team chose the exact right timing to announce it.

[usonian]

14. When you're that old, as I nearly am, always doing your best is a given

Last edited Mon Jul 22, 2024, 07:42 PM - Edit history (1)

to make the most of your time on Earth, but the hate, threats and sadism, for you and especially, for others, weigh down on you.

We seem to be in an age when no good deed goes unpunished. Buddhists have a term for it, mappo in Japanese.

I am sure Joe conversed with advisors, some we don't see, whom many claim to follow, but don't. (You know EXACTLY what I mean) and he is doing what is best for himself, his family, the country and the world, and for the compassionate teachings he believes in, as manifest in his behavior, rather than, and even opposing, the blasphemous misuse of them.

It's a whole lot. His job is not a "desk job". He's all about the globe, and might be almost as effective, and a bit safer, and safer from Putin's poison, in a less arduous setting.

His opponent, OUR opponent, is past his prime, past senility and doesn't have the brains to realize that he never would have been shot if he were behind prison walls where he belongs, but that can be arranged.

[Blue Full Moon]

15. Sounds like conjecture

[bullimiami]

26. Yeah. They don't know.

[choie]

27. And we should believe a rag like Politico why?

n/t

[elocs]

28. Reality is a harsh master and the night of that debate, Biden knew he was not ready to go on,

but he was determined to fight and no matter, it was a disaster because there comes the time when determination is not enough. That debate and its outcome set the stage for everything that happened afterwards and the irony is that it may just have save democracy in America for now at least but that battle will continue and it's up to us to do our part and be ready for what Trump and his maga cult deluded followers will do after Trump loses if we fight the good fight and win.

[ArkansasDemocrat1]

29. Welp, that was the last time I vote in a primary

They should have been planning a graceful transition a year ago.
Damn the "progressive elites"