For whatever it's worth, I think Democrats are once again forming a circular firing squad at the first sign of trouble and allowing the MAGA/GOP to set the conversation, instead of rallying around the already selected candidate.
I don't care if Biden can sprint to the finish line or if he has to walk or stagger to get there. He has done an excellent job thus far, and he understands that a government is the sum of its parts and not simply the figurehead. He's put together an excellent team and done much good. Trump is just as he always has been--a despicable liar and con man/felon and an anti-democratic authoritarian. Thus we should be rallying around the person who beat him once already rather than infighting.
No one-myself included-can positively say what will happen in the future, but as long as the solid Democratic constituency turns out in force, Tr**p will lose again, and we can all move on to keeping the ball rolling in 2028.
Good post and I hope you're right. But this is not a circular firing squad at the first sign of trouble. This is a vital, ongoing concern that we have been trying to raise for years for a party that, unlike the Repugs, can and should actually have a constructive, thoughtful debate about who the best candidate is and who will make the best president for the next four years.
I take your point. Unfortunately, there are many reasons why it is so difficult to mount a candidacy at the national level. Some are structural and party based, some are media driven. Occasionally a talent like Obama comes along and catches lightning in a bottle, but those examples are very rare, just as Obama is a vary rare combination of talent and insight.
I readily admit that Biden was not my first choice in 2020, although he has far exceeded my expectations in every way. I would love for a young, dynamic, charismatic, intelligent, honest, responsible figure to rise to the top in the Democratic party and set us up for years of progress. (Andy Beshear or Gretchen Whitmer, perhaps?) Unfortunately, politics is often a messy, ugly business which, just like policing, often attracts exactly the wrong kind of person to enter the profession. All we as voters can do is pick the best possible choice given the available options, and support them as much as we are able...and hope for the best.
Nope. Don’t need to hear more opinions. Everyone is a pundit. We are in a terrible loop; a circular firing squad. I appreciated your reasonable response. Biden is the nominee and this pressure is unseemly from the press. They are acting like not only do they decide who should be the candidate but what “tests” Biden needs to pass and apparently there are none. And Trump gets a pass, always the democrats are held to a different standard. It’s media malpractice.
Well, everyone has an opinion. I agree with your post and it resonated with me. But I’m just a woman voter, so what do I know? I’m supporting our nominee, the one I voted for.
I often love how insightful reader posts occasionally are, but I value your insight more. As for me, I still think Biden has the wisdom, home and abroad, for governance more than any other Democrat. His weakness is campaigning and this is where I wish our party could mobilize fierce support for our chosen candidate against the feral press and even more feral opponent.
I am just very suspicious of and unimpressed by the sudden and seemingly orchestrated movement in MSM and some corners of Capitol Hill calling for him to resign based on one debate (and barely a peep about Trump's outrageous and unethical performance.). On the other hand, it has not been orchestrated enough to make the Dems seem like they know what they're doing or that they're in control at all. It was a sudden and unorganized reaction. Which goes to David's point about "doing something," OK, fine but be thoughtful about it. Take a breath, think, talk, and organize.
I am suspicious as well. I'm old enough to remember Nixon and Watergate, and the outcry for his head was nothing compared to the people, especially in Congress, who are ready to throw Biden under the bus. Conservatives own the media, and dark money is pouring into social media. The reaction to Biden's debate failure was sudden and severe, way out of proportion and sociopathic.
Thank you for reading these comments so we don't have to. "We're just tired of fighting" "need someone with a constructive solution" "in four years, we'll have someone worse than Trump" etc make me want to scream into the void. Because whether the candidate is Joe or a turnip, these things don't change. We will be fighting till we stop breathing. There are a gazillion constructive ideas and a Congress who won't allow them and a SCOTUS who is working to undo past constructive ideas. There WILL be someone worse than Trump guaranteed. And our job now is to hold the line and buy more time to change enough that the worst damage is forestalled and maybe progress starts to be possible again.
Pelosi is out just now saying Biden should reconsider. The theory you pose, David, now makes it all make sense to me: people want a do-over, an electoral hail mary pass. I think it's more doomed than keeping Uncle Joe but I have no say in it. And I'll vote for a turnip over the demon felon.
I just ask my fellow readers here to come to grips with the fact that, if we care (and we must, or we wouldn't be here), the worled we want to see is something we will and must fight for. That's not gonna change. Gird your loins, see the big picture and whine some other time.
For what it’s worth, I think your post was completely accurate. I also believe that calls for Biden to step down are calls to hand the White House to Trump. The idea that someone new could take over a presidential campaign less than four months before the election (when campaigns normally have a year and a half) is ludicrous to me. Not to mention, if Biden drops out, every single news story in the media from now until Election Day would be about how Democrats are in such disarray that they can’t possibly be trusted with the Presidency. The idea that we could replace the nominee now and somehow still win the election is such wildly magical and outlandish thinking
Biden is the candidate we have. He’s the only person who even has a chance of winning. And every second Democrats spend attacking him (and yes, I’m sad to say, this includes the time commenters spent arguing this on your post yesterday), they’re making a free donation to the Trump campaign. It’s gotta stop.
I had the same reaction. To hear someone say, essentially, “Biden has no policies to help people” is just…jawdropping. Are people really that checked out? I mean the people on our side. 🤯
I don't think the people wanting Biden to back out don't understand all of the implications. Unless Kamala Harris would take his place at the top of the ticket, all of the money donated to their campaign stays there. A new nominee would start out with exactly zero dollars. And a new nominee would have to get on the ballot in every state. That doesn't transfer either. I've been a Biden fan since I lived in Delaware many decades ago. That won't change because he had a bad night. Democrats are fighters and problem solvers. We can beat Trump if we all work together.
And you know that the extremist party has been stockpiling racist, sexist venom on her for a decade. They have already been releasing some of it for a couple of years.
What I find interesting in some of the criticism I read was a giant lack of a “Big Picture”. To cry about Biden not projecting strength or seeming old should be absolutely secondary to choosing any path that allows Trump a second term. Trump has from day 1 of Biden’s four years demonstrated the absolute worst of what politics entail. He is a manchild who cry’s and rants when he doesn’t get his way. He is only about himself and is willing to use whatever means necessary to become “President for life”. He doesn’t care one bit about Americans or America, he cares about Trump. Anyone who believes in Democracy, Democratic principles or this nation as the leader of freedom in the world should not and cannot sit back and think that something Biden did to “disappoint them” is worth moving on from his Presidency or backing this chaos stoked by the corporate media. Wake up folks; project 2025 is real. Trumpforce 47 is real. Just read the “platform” the GOP put out and then tell me old sleepy Joe can’t beat Trump. He must. We must make sure he does by countering every argument by wishy washy friends and colleagues with the absolutes that Trump is chaos, Trump is a liar and Trump wants to be Putin.
THAT is the cause, not that our candidate is old or seems cognitively impaired or lacks some type of vibrant spark. It’s Democracy vs hypocrisy folks, plain and simple.
Please do NOT solicit and/ or post the commentary of other persons. I just skipped through / did not read all the critical posts from unknown-to-me persons. I'm not paying for that. I'm paying for YOUR analysis. I go to a lot of trouble to find competent thoughtful trustworthy commentary. Right now, I'm considering unsubscribing from another Substack author who I have followed for years and cannot easily replace BECAUSE he is caught up in the feeding frenzy.
Gary Hart couldn’t be elected because he held a woman on his lap, Howard Dean couldn’t be elected because he screamed to vehemently, John Kerry couldn’t be elected because he got Swift-boated, Fani Willis had a boy friend and so Trumps trial is stopped.
Democrats are susceptible to dirt-digging fascists. The media blows up stories. What alternative to Biden is so pure that vote-denying dirt couldn’t be found? I am cynical about propaganda’s effectiveness, we voters have had opportunities to deviate toward progress but seldom do.
This is the first of your newsletters I have read. You ask if I want to see more subscriber comments in this newsletter. That is not what I came here for. I am here because of the good things I have heard about TPM, and those do not include your commenters. Direct me to your website where I can read these comments if you wish, but I don't want reader comments in this newsletter. Thanks for asking.
Can I just say as someone who has been working in Hollywood for 40 years that you should avoid paying attention to the Hollywood Bourgeois Bolsheviks, especially those in the Wanker's Guild of America, West, Inc. , of which I am pretty sure "SF" is a member? These are the activists who managed to destroy the goose that laid the golden eggs with their three idiot strikes (1988, 2007, 2023) Their ancestors managed to trade the possessory credit "a film by" for a rule that the screenwriter should get first class airfare if he is called to the location set of a movie to revise the script back in 1961 - one of the truly dumbest things any group of artists ever did)\. There's about 10 percent of the WGA membership who have the talent and brains to find their pants in the morning (as witness the majority of what they create); the rest are various degrees of people I cross the street to avoid if I see them coming. SF is one of the latter. A self-important twit who probably doesn't know who his congressman is.
Morning Memo being "devoted" to reader comments - no, not devoted, but maybe once a week, as suggested, and esp with the critical comments, as here. Keep up the good work!
1. I don’t need to hear more reader opinions. The entire internet is awash in reader opinions. I come here to read opinions of actual thoughtful people. 2. I really enjoyed yesterday’s column. I’m *so* tired of Dems completely freaking out and self-destructing every time something goes wrong. 3. I don’t trust the polls. Look at elections. We keep saying the Dems are “overperforming” in elections. IOW, polls are consistently wrong and yet we keep taking them at face value. Polls are just someone’s opinion about what’s going to happen in the future. Trump has never won an election. He’s not more popular now that he was in 2016.
Thanks for providing the reader feedback! I don’t agree with these perspectives but I was happy to read them. I think I’d prefer to see reader feedback on a case-by-case basis. If you see something noteworthy, please share it.
For whatever it's worth, I think Democrats are once again forming a circular firing squad at the first sign of trouble and allowing the MAGA/GOP to set the conversation, instead of rallying around the already selected candidate.
I don't care if Biden can sprint to the finish line or if he has to walk or stagger to get there. He has done an excellent job thus far, and he understands that a government is the sum of its parts and not simply the figurehead. He's put together an excellent team and done much good. Trump is just as he always has been--a despicable liar and con man/felon and an anti-democratic authoritarian. Thus we should be rallying around the person who beat him once already rather than infighting.
No one-myself included-can positively say what will happen in the future, but as long as the solid Democratic constituency turns out in force, Tr**p will lose again, and we can all move on to keeping the ball rolling in 2028.
When we vote. We win. And we already had a democratic primary.
Remind me, what were our choices?
Marianne Williamson and RFK, Jr.
Exactly.
Good post and I hope you're right. But this is not a circular firing squad at the first sign of trouble. This is a vital, ongoing concern that we have been trying to raise for years for a party that, unlike the Repugs, can and should actually have a constructive, thoughtful debate about who the best candidate is and who will make the best president for the next four years.
I take your point. Unfortunately, there are many reasons why it is so difficult to mount a candidacy at the national level. Some are structural and party based, some are media driven. Occasionally a talent like Obama comes along and catches lightning in a bottle, but those examples are very rare, just as Obama is a vary rare combination of talent and insight.
I readily admit that Biden was not my first choice in 2020, although he has far exceeded my expectations in every way. I would love for a young, dynamic, charismatic, intelligent, honest, responsible figure to rise to the top in the Democratic party and set us up for years of progress. (Andy Beshear or Gretchen Whitmer, perhaps?) Unfortunately, politics is often a messy, ugly business which, just like policing, often attracts exactly the wrong kind of person to enter the profession. All we as voters can do is pick the best possible choice given the available options, and support them as much as we are able...and hope for the best.
Nope. Don’t need to hear more opinions. Everyone is a pundit. We are in a terrible loop; a circular firing squad. I appreciated your reasonable response. Biden is the nominee and this pressure is unseemly from the press. They are acting like not only do they decide who should be the candidate but what “tests” Biden needs to pass and apparently there are none. And Trump gets a pass, always the democrats are held to a different standard. It’s media malpractice.
Well, everyone has an opinion. I agree with your post and it resonated with me. But I’m just a woman voter, so what do I know? I’m supporting our nominee, the one I voted for.
I often love how insightful reader posts occasionally are, but I value your insight more. As for me, I still think Biden has the wisdom, home and abroad, for governance more than any other Democrat. His weakness is campaigning and this is where I wish our party could mobilize fierce support for our chosen candidate against the feral press and even more feral opponent.
I am just very suspicious of and unimpressed by the sudden and seemingly orchestrated movement in MSM and some corners of Capitol Hill calling for him to resign based on one debate (and barely a peep about Trump's outrageous and unethical performance.). On the other hand, it has not been orchestrated enough to make the Dems seem like they know what they're doing or that they're in control at all. It was a sudden and unorganized reaction. Which goes to David's point about "doing something," OK, fine but be thoughtful about it. Take a breath, think, talk, and organize.
I am suspicious as well. I'm old enough to remember Nixon and Watergate, and the outcry for his head was nothing compared to the people, especially in Congress, who are ready to throw Biden under the bus. Conservatives own the media, and dark money is pouring into social media. The reaction to Biden's debate failure was sudden and severe, way out of proportion and sociopathic.
Thank you for reading these comments so we don't have to. "We're just tired of fighting" "need someone with a constructive solution" "in four years, we'll have someone worse than Trump" etc make me want to scream into the void. Because whether the candidate is Joe or a turnip, these things don't change. We will be fighting till we stop breathing. There are a gazillion constructive ideas and a Congress who won't allow them and a SCOTUS who is working to undo past constructive ideas. There WILL be someone worse than Trump guaranteed. And our job now is to hold the line and buy more time to change enough that the worst damage is forestalled and maybe progress starts to be possible again.
Pelosi is out just now saying Biden should reconsider. The theory you pose, David, now makes it all make sense to me: people want a do-over, an electoral hail mary pass. I think it's more doomed than keeping Uncle Joe but I have no say in it. And I'll vote for a turnip over the demon felon.
I just ask my fellow readers here to come to grips with the fact that, if we care (and we must, or we wouldn't be here), the worled we want to see is something we will and must fight for. That's not gonna change. Gird your loins, see the big picture and whine some other time.
For what it’s worth, I think your post was completely accurate. I also believe that calls for Biden to step down are calls to hand the White House to Trump. The idea that someone new could take over a presidential campaign less than four months before the election (when campaigns normally have a year and a half) is ludicrous to me. Not to mention, if Biden drops out, every single news story in the media from now until Election Day would be about how Democrats are in such disarray that they can’t possibly be trusted with the Presidency. The idea that we could replace the nominee now and somehow still win the election is such wildly magical and outlandish thinking
Biden is the candidate we have. He’s the only person who even has a chance of winning. And every second Democrats spend attacking him (and yes, I’m sad to say, this includes the time commenters spent arguing this on your post yesterday), they’re making a free donation to the Trump campaign. It’s gotta stop.
Well, that was depressing: long-time TPM readers are unaware of the policies and accomplishments of the Biden administration.
I had the same reaction. To hear someone say, essentially, “Biden has no policies to help people” is just…jawdropping. Are people really that checked out? I mean the people on our side. 🤯
I don't think the people wanting Biden to back out don't understand all of the implications. Unless Kamala Harris would take his place at the top of the ticket, all of the money donated to their campaign stays there. A new nominee would start out with exactly zero dollars. And a new nominee would have to get on the ballot in every state. That doesn't transfer either. I've been a Biden fan since I lived in Delaware many decades ago. That won't change because he had a bad night. Democrats are fighters and problem solvers. We can beat Trump if we all work together.
And you know that the extremist party has been stockpiling racist, sexist venom on her for a decade. They have already been releasing some of it for a couple of years.
Kamala is unpopular always was. She cannot possibly win.
What I find interesting in some of the criticism I read was a giant lack of a “Big Picture”. To cry about Biden not projecting strength or seeming old should be absolutely secondary to choosing any path that allows Trump a second term. Trump has from day 1 of Biden’s four years demonstrated the absolute worst of what politics entail. He is a manchild who cry’s and rants when he doesn’t get his way. He is only about himself and is willing to use whatever means necessary to become “President for life”. He doesn’t care one bit about Americans or America, he cares about Trump. Anyone who believes in Democracy, Democratic principles or this nation as the leader of freedom in the world should not and cannot sit back and think that something Biden did to “disappoint them” is worth moving on from his Presidency or backing this chaos stoked by the corporate media. Wake up folks; project 2025 is real. Trumpforce 47 is real. Just read the “platform” the GOP put out and then tell me old sleepy Joe can’t beat Trump. He must. We must make sure he does by countering every argument by wishy washy friends and colleagues with the absolutes that Trump is chaos, Trump is a liar and Trump wants to be Putin.
THAT is the cause, not that our candidate is old or seems cognitively impaired or lacks some type of vibrant spark. It’s Democracy vs hypocrisy folks, plain and simple.
Please do NOT solicit and/ or post the commentary of other persons. I just skipped through / did not read all the critical posts from unknown-to-me persons. I'm not paying for that. I'm paying for YOUR analysis. I go to a lot of trouble to find competent thoughtful trustworthy commentary. Right now, I'm considering unsubscribing from another Substack author who I have followed for years and cannot easily replace BECAUSE he is caught up in the feeding frenzy.
Gary Hart couldn’t be elected because he held a woman on his lap, Howard Dean couldn’t be elected because he screamed to vehemently, John Kerry couldn’t be elected because he got Swift-boated, Fani Willis had a boy friend and so Trumps trial is stopped.
Democrats are susceptible to dirt-digging fascists. The media blows up stories. What alternative to Biden is so pure that vote-denying dirt couldn’t be found? I am cynical about propaganda’s effectiveness, we voters have had opportunities to deviate toward progress but seldom do.
This is the first of your newsletters I have read. You ask if I want to see more subscriber comments in this newsletter. That is not what I came here for. I am here because of the good things I have heard about TPM, and those do not include your commenters. Direct me to your website where I can read these comments if you wish, but I don't want reader comments in this newsletter. Thanks for asking.
Can I just say as someone who has been working in Hollywood for 40 years that you should avoid paying attention to the Hollywood Bourgeois Bolsheviks, especially those in the Wanker's Guild of America, West, Inc. , of which I am pretty sure "SF" is a member? These are the activists who managed to destroy the goose that laid the golden eggs with their three idiot strikes (1988, 2007, 2023) Their ancestors managed to trade the possessory credit "a film by" for a rule that the screenwriter should get first class airfare if he is called to the location set of a movie to revise the script back in 1961 - one of the truly dumbest things any group of artists ever did)\. There's about 10 percent of the WGA membership who have the talent and brains to find their pants in the morning (as witness the majority of what they create); the rest are various degrees of people I cross the street to avoid if I see them coming. SF is one of the latter. A self-important twit who probably doesn't know who his congressman is.
Morning Memo being "devoted" to reader comments - no, not devoted, but maybe once a week, as suggested, and esp with the critical comments, as here. Keep up the good work!
1. I don’t need to hear more reader opinions. The entire internet is awash in reader opinions. I come here to read opinions of actual thoughtful people. 2. I really enjoyed yesterday’s column. I’m *so* tired of Dems completely freaking out and self-destructing every time something goes wrong. 3. I don’t trust the polls. Look at elections. We keep saying the Dems are “overperforming” in elections. IOW, polls are consistently wrong and yet we keep taking them at face value. Polls are just someone’s opinion about what’s going to happen in the future. Trump has never won an election. He’s not more popular now that he was in 2016.
Thank you. 👍
Thanks for providing the reader feedback! I don’t agree with these perspectives but I was happy to read them. I think I’d prefer to see reader feedback on a case-by-case basis. If you see something noteworthy, please share it.