Did Biden's reluctance to bow out of the race help create/fuel Harris's momentum?

[skip fox]

Biden waited three weeks after the debate to bow out.

I understand his motivation for staying in, and I love the man, but we should remember how our prospects looked. I, for one, was very depressed. Many people I talked to then and talk to now speak about the malaise and darkness of the period

So when he bowed out and endorsed KH it was like a blast of fresh air, and since we all remember that period, the blast was even stronger and therefore more sustaining.

It was the beginning of the great wave we may be riding.

(Great honor to Joe Biden, a man who loves his country so much he would give up the prize the worked so hard for all his life.)

****************************

Moderators, I am not bashing Biden but trying to make a historical observation about the strength (and potential endurance) of Harris-Walz wave.

[GreenWave]

1. I believe he did it for maximum Trump crushing.

Well played Mr. President.

[dlk]

31. Indeed

[pwb]

2. It was a plan.

Joe knows how to do things.

[JI7]

3. I think it helped with the amount of support which was needed this late

but the support would still have been there earlier on but more spread out over time such as the money raised. The VP process would have seemed less intense becsuse they would have more time also.

[HelpImSurrounded]

4. Historians will debate this for decades.

[skip fox]

6. Let's hope, because that implies she'll beat Trump.

[KPN]

5. Who knows? It certainly caught tsf's campaign

off-guard and put it, as well as him, what actually appears to be permanently (knock on wood) on its/his heels.

[tinrobot]

7. He waited until after the Republican convention

He announced once they picked their VP and at a perfect moment to steal any momentum they had.

He's good with politics. When he steps back, he does it for maximum impact.

[The Unmitigated Gall]

8. Probably the best judo move of the American Presidency.

The surrendering of power in the name of the greater good. Trump and his power-grubbing fascist scumbags will NEVER understand it.

[karynnj]

9. We may learn when he really made the decision after the elections or when he writes a memoir

I think that even if he decided that it was better to pass the torch, the way he used the time between the debate and the announcement is important. He had a very important DC based NATO summit that he led beautifully. Had he announced before that, the summit would have been very impacted with Biden unable to be as effective. Add in the NATO press conference that while there were minor flubs, he demonstrated his incredible insight on foreign issues. That was all in public for all to see.

Given the smoothness of the announcement with a second announcement that strongly endorsed Harris, it was clear he understood the importance to history of the first and to Harris and the party of the second. This was then followed with detailed endorsements that all seemed well written and from the heart by every powerful Democrat I can think of. The endorsements came quickly, but more as a cascade than all at the same time. Then we started hearing of entire state delegate groups unanimously endorsing Harris. I suspect that we will learn that at least some of the biggest players had a heads up.

It is absolutely incredible that what could have been a chaotic mess became the graceful transition that has greatly elevated Harris.

[skip fox]

12. Great point! I wasn't remembering NATO.

[MacKasey]

10. President Biden is a Mastermind!!

His timing of dropping out was perfect !

And don't you think VP Harris had prepared herself in case something could have happened to President Biden
She hit the ground running
She was the last one in the room when President Biden was making decisions, She has been taught by the best.

President Biden will go down in History as one of the greatest and unselfish Presidents

Now my wish is Naomi Biden, Joe's granddaughter, gets into politics and runs for Senate from Delaware!!

[Sympthsical]

11. Polls made one thing very clear - for years

Voters did not want a replay of 2020.

People denied this, tried to shut down conversation about it, closed their ears to all obvious evidence pointing towards it. You didn't even need polls to know this. You merely had to be vaguely observant of pop culture.

Sometimes obvious things are screamingly obvious.

I hope, once this election is over, that people really sit down and study how the first six months of this year worked and their own reactions and behaviors associated. How any information contrary to what people wanted to be true was shut down, scrubbed away, and closed off.

Denying reality could have lost us an election.

Fortunately, we are led by people who understood what the reality was - up to and including President Biden. Now, I firmly believe we will win this one. We cannot be complacent - no 2016 this time - but we are now moving forward with a favorable wind.

[dlk]

13. President Biden was finalizing the prisoner swap

If he had stepped down earlier, what then?

[skip fox]

15. Another great point.

[arlyellowdog]

30. Yes, this is the answer!

That’s what was reported. Biden did it right after he finalized the prisoner swap. Biden is a patriot. He’s not intimidate by tfg

[Johnny2X2X]

14. So I think it was a backup plan

But a backup plan that was being actively worked. So maybe the people whow were talkiing to Biden said to him, "Well, we know you haven't made a final decision, but if you were going to drop out, here would be the perfect moment to do so."

I'll repeat it, the Right thinks this had been planned going back to last year. That it was all a set up because Dems knew Biden couldn't beat Trump. That's malarkey because up until the debate, Biden was favored to beat Trump. I think there were constingency plans for a long time, and the ground work was being laid, but it wasn't until the debate that they knew they were 100% going to be used.

[skip fox]

16. I don't believe it was so intentional

but your discussion of a "plan," indicates we're on the same page in terms of its effect. (I,e. nobody devises a plan that will fail.)

[moonscape]

26. I also don't think it was a master plan, but that

Biden was struggling with the decision. A huge tell for me was yesterday when Tapper asked Nancy if she had spoken with 'Biden since he withdrew and she quietly said no but then added that wouldn’t be unusual not to speak for a couple of weeks. Well sure, but not in these circumstances.

Biden is a grown-up who deeply lovess this country and wants to fight off fascism, maintain democracy, and he sees he made the right decision, but I still suspect it’s hard. Things weren’t handled great behind the scenes, but can they be in this circumstance with such a short window? One can know it’s right but smart at the same time.

[Johnny2X2X]

28. I doubt anyone thought the "plan" would go this well this early

They probably were thinking it was the lesser of 2 evils type deal and it was going to be a slog, but they were hoping by October the country would have warmed to Harris enough to give her a good chance in Novemeber. I don't think anyone dreamed she'd have a clear lead less than 3 weeks after Biden dropped out.

[Demsrule86]

23. Harris and Waltz have created an amazing campaign and deserve the credit.

[Irish_Dem]

17. No he did not.

The turmoil created a lot of problems.
Joe did not do this on purpose.

I won't say more.

[Doc Sportello]

19. Think there was a lot of bottled up emotion to beat dump

People hate him and hate what he wants to do to this country that they love. When Biden stepped aside and a new, younger, charismatic candidate (most people don't follow politics the way we do and the base was demoralized) stepped forward she poured jet fuel on that emotional tinder. Kamala has been absolutely amazing in every way. Then you add an appealing dad dude who also has a great resume and BOOM!

I don't think Biden planned it this way, but boy has it turned out great. Hopefully that will be enshrined in November.

[Irish_Dem]

20. No he didn't plan it this way.

But he knew it was for the best in the end.
Took him awhile to get there.

[pat_k]

18. Candidate Biden had a problem that pre-dated the debate.

As another poster said, we'll probably be debating what was going on for decades, but as wonderful as President Biden is, Candidate Biden had a serious problem. The debate certainly exacerbated things, but at least in my little bubble of the world, the problem predated the debate.

I don't know if folks remember, but before he announced, there were many, many Democrats wishing he would pass the torch -- and voicing it. And we had a deep bench in the wings. People were speculating about this or that person emerging from an open primary.

When he announced, the party does what it does and got behind the incumbent. But enthusiasm was muted. Over the months, fears grew. And grew. Hopelessness seeped in. Many felt the primaries were just a rubber stamp on a done deal and weren't happy about it, but put on a brave face, and looked for the lackluster approval ratings and match up polls to improve as the campaign moved forward. But the needle wasn't moving in the right direction.

I heard from others in the 50-70 age group about their kids talking about the number of people their age who wouldn't be voting at all because they felt so demoralized by the two old guys who don't have a clue about them or what they are up against. It may be shocking that Trump wasn't seen as an existential threat, but from their perspective, they had lived through Trump and the nation didn't collapse, so he wasn't seen as the existential threat he is. They just knew that trying to get a life going -- a paycheck that covered the insane rents and other basic expenses and a hope in hell of saving a little something -- sucked



The debate brought all the pre-existing fears into sharp focus. His fantastic determination is perhaps his best quality, but being determined to stay in was the wrong quality to bring to the fore in the moment. It fed the hopelessness.

I think he realized the real challenge he had to overcome was not the challenge of bulldozing ahead in the face of naysayers. The real challenge was recognizing he needed to withdraw his candidacy. And he met that challenge. Joe did the truly hard thing, like he always does.

I think the result would have been little different if he had opted to drop out sooner. The muted support was there across the Democratic electorate. And the level of enthusiasm in the under 30's had cratered long before the debate.

[RidinWithHarris]

21. Deliberate or not, it's hard to imagine better timing

Any later and election filing deadlines would have been at risk.

Any earlier and Democratic challengers for the nomination might have decided they had the time to mount such a challenge.

I nevertheless think the most likely scenario is that Biden had every intention of staying in the race until sometime after the bad debate, and didn’t think about dropping out until the calls to step down and the media frenzy showed no signs of letting up.

I think people here put way, way too much stock in hearing Biden say he wasn’t going to step down. It’s not that I don’t trust Biden, but even the most honest politician has to “play the game” to a certain extent, so of course he was going to adamantly say he wasn’t stepping down until the very moment he was ready to do it.

I would guess that once Biden decided he might step down, he didn’t announce it until he got solid assurances that Harris would be widely accepted and no one would challenge her nomination.

Without that assurance he would have very rightly decided that staying in the race was the safest bet for beating Trump.

[skip fox]

24. Both intelligent and right,

or so I think as well.

[Demsrule86]

22. You are bashing Biden actually. What is the purpose of this post?

And how about giving Harrs and Waltz credit? I think they deserve it. They have put together an amazing campaign.

[skip fox]

25. I asked because I have wondered about it.

I wondered about how things might have gone differently. I think we've had an intelligent discussion, and as a retired teacher, that remains important to me.

And I give Harris and Waltz all the credit in the world. I only asked if it helped crate/fuel the movement we're seeingLet's hope they keep doing what they been doing!

[LakeArenal]

27. Maybe his reluctance to quit because he knew how people like me were going to react.

I was livid.

Having said that, Biden has ALWAYS been underestimated. I think he was in on a longer range plan that was calculated and well planned to have the maximum effect.

And as all his plans, that is exactly what happened.

Personally still reeling by how the optics played out, whether well thought plan or pushed out.

[Racygrandma]

29. After the debate Trumpers were celebrating

My husband goes to a card game on Thursday night. After the debate they were celebrating. Remember I am in KS. They even had the TV turned to Fox. Hard to be there. They are no longer doing that. Hmmmm