Key quote:
Rep. Pat Ryan (D-N.Y.), a vulnerable House Democrat, is calling on President Biden to step aside in the 2024 race, becoming the eighth lawmaker in the lower chamber to publicly urge the incumbent to withdraw.
Ryan — who represents New York’s 18th Congressional District — told The New York Times in an interview published Wednesday that he does not believe Biden is the strongest Democrat to take on former President Trump in November.
“I’d be doing a grave disservice if I said he was the best candidate to serve this fall,” Ryan told the Times. “For the good of our country, for my two young kids, I’m asking Joe Biden to step aside in the upcoming election and deliver on the promise to be a bridge to a new generation of leaders.”
I’m gonna take the opportunity to channel the takeaway from Jon Stewart’s Daily Show episode this week and encourage everyone to unify on the most logical way forward here: let’s actually have the damn convention, instead of just slotting Biden into the nomination in a perfunctory manner.
This is a shitty situation for a lot of reasons, but we can find a good outcome if we’re pragmatic about it.
- Biden doesn’t need to remove himself from the race - nor should he (personal note: this is despite how deeply dismayed I’ve personally become by how he’s handled the last few weeks)
- Biden MUST, however, stop just insisting that he’s the nominee. There should be a reasonable evaluation of the possibilities, and the best candidate should go on the ticket. That might be Biden, but it also might be someone else.
I agree with you, but there will be no drama at the convention. There will be an early roll call vote to meet Ohio’s deadline. by the time the actual convention starts, the nominee will have been selected.
The delegates have the only say in the matter now, and if Biden is still in the race, they are pledged to vote for him. The only way out is for Biden to back out and endorse someone else, in which case she gets Biden’s delegates (and the nomination).
Biden is insisting he’s the nominee because he is, unless he can be convinced to back out.
Biden is insisting he’s the nominee because he is, unless he can be convinced to back out.
This is my sticking point. Id honesty prefer Biden step aside at this point. But there’s exactly one person who can make that call and there’s been no evidence he’s going to do so. Until that changes this entire fight is moot.
But George Clooney just told him to quit, maybe Whoopi Goldberg is next. He has to listen to Guinan, right?
Unfortunately it seems like everyone is listening to Q right now. We’d probably be better off just trying to have John De Lancie erase someone from reality.
(Disclaimer: I don’t actually know what powers Q has, but my understanding leads me to believe the answer is: “Yes”)
And the reason I’m not satisfied with that answer is that that’s real fucking similar to the situation that occurred in 2016, and we all know how that turned out.
I have zero trust in Democratic Party leadership at this point. If it was a normal job, they’d all have been fired for cause by now. They very clearly have no idea what they’re doing. And yet somehow, they still maintain an iron grip over who we’re allowed to actually vote for in the general.
I have zero trust in Democratic Party leadership
We’re on the same page. They maintain that grip because Biden (or any incumbent POTUS) is the head of the party and decides how it’s run.
We need a firewall between party officials and the incumbent until after the primaries. It should be a level playing field until the primaries are over, and THEN the winning campaign and the DNC can pool resources. That would be in everyone’s best interest, including the incumbent. I don’t want the DNC ever campaigning against one of it’s own party members.
I agree, but there needs to be an acknowledgement that any kind of meaningful primary was prevented by the DNC coupled with this.
Biden MUST, however, stop just insisting that he’s the nominee. There should be a reasonable evaluation of the possibilities, and the best candidate should go on the ticket. That might be Biden, but it also might be someone else.
The same goes for Biden’s surrogates and apologists here and elsewhere. We can’t forget the constant drumbeat from Blue Maga here, insisting that Biden is the nominee when he isn’t and wasn’t and doesn’t need to be.
