It’s been a week since the debate. If Biden was really as fine as everyone claims, it should have been a simple thing for him to make a public appearance and show everyone that he’s fine. Instead, it’s been a week of private meetings and “bro, we swear, bro, he’s fine, it was just one bad debate, bro, c’mon”. Afaik, the only public speaking he’s done since was a radio show where he went on and said he was proud to have been the first black woman to serve in the white house or something.

So, for my part, my singular concern is this: is Biden up to the task of being on the campaign trail to stop Trump from winning? So far, it’s looking like no. It’s looking like we’re going to get a bunch of surrogate speakers and excuses why Biden couldn’t be here or there. I just don’t want Trump to win, and I don’t think that running a campaign with a guy who’s seemingly too frail to be a Wal-Mart greeter is going to be the secret sauce.

This is the naive take. Been voting since '08, almost exclusively Democrat. The centrist/corporatist democrats who dominate the party really get off on running against fascists, because it’s like being in a political fast food diet. You don’t have to really prepare or deliver complex policy goals, you don’t have to piss off your corporate donors, you just stand next to the fascists and say “we’re not them; you don’t want fascists running the country, do you?!” Problem being that fear only gets you so far before people stop responding to it, the fascists win an election, people get scared again, and the democrats get another big shot of engagement and fundraising basically for free.

The centrist democrats don’t want to move left and frequently work to shut down actual left politicians in and outside the party. They don’t want to stop fascism because then they have to actually work and compete instead of let fear do the work for them

Come to think of it, there is one who is older we could still use to stop Trump and save the Republic. Just think of the years of experience and public goodwill, and we wouldn’t even need to change the campaign schedule. I think we all know who I’m talking about: Jimmy Carter

Tbh, I think I get it. Some people really get off on maintaining something in pristine condition. This is like an extremely expensive Bonsai tree or rock garden.

Sure, I’d welcome Biden changing my mind on this.

I think it’s a little alarming that his last international travel was almost two weeks pre-debate and that left him tired enough to perform badly. And by badly, I mean the worst debate performance I’ve seen ever, and I’ve been watching since Bush/Kerry. I also don’t think it bodes well that he hasn’t yet done any big interviews or press conferences to show that it really was just a fluke, which seems like a fairly easy thing to do if he really is actually fine. I would feel much better about his odds of beating Trump if he could start reliably doing public speaking at a similar quality to what he displayed in 2020, which remains to be seen a whole week later.

The difference is that Biden has markedly declined from previous performances. He spent most of that night stumbling, mumbling, and struggling to speak clearly, none of which is his stutter, because a stutter is a very specific speech impediment. He was downright difficult to understand on average, and flat out unintelligible at worst. Even when he got riled up, like with the losers and suckers remark, it sounded like he was having trouble forming word sounds accurately, like he has dysarthria. Even in carefully curated campaign material, like asking for donations, he sounds out of breath and like he’s struggling to speak clearly.

I think the part where he finally beat medicare is the best example.

https://youtu.be/i3eYmc1AkMs?si=RJkeAb7gwN_TJOSG

I would gladly have Trump drop out. It won’t happen. Trump is running to save his own ass. For my part, I have grave doubts about Biden’s ability to win that have been building for a few months but came sharply into focus during the first minute of that debate.

I keep seeing this sentiment, and it boggles me. Last season’s winning horse just debuted this season with a huge limp, and the response from some people has been “it’s fine, stop panicking, we’ll win if we just keep betting on it.”

Oh? Have they fixed the game? Can I live out my urbanist day dreams in CS2 yet? How is the public transit infra in CS2?

Commies simping for Wal-Mart now? Bruh, what the fuck time line did I quantum leap into?

He knows, but the thing is that the Democrats are about as afraid of fascism as you are gasoline in your car. They use the threat of fascism to help scare people to the polls and to donate money, which is partly why they never seem to be in a big hurry to squash it. Problem being, of course, that people eventually get fear fatigue and stop paying attention. Kinda like how in the wake of 9/11, the government would announce terror threat levels, and they were always orange or red, indicating super double plus serious danger, and eventually people stopped caring because life must go on. Well, people get fatigued of it and then the fascists win again, which provides another big, though temporary, shot of support to the democrats. Meanwhile, the democrats don’t have to make any real, serious campaign or policy commitments besides “don’t be fascist”. Everything else they do (and don’t get me wrong, they do some good stuff sometimes) is just running up the score. So, for the centrist democrats that run the DNC and Biden campaign, this feels like a pretty good Wednesday for fundraising, even though we all see it as the literal end of the Republic. They’ve been walking on the ice so long, they’re convinced that while it is thin, they couldn’t possibly fall through.

Oh man, I can’t wait to see Biden use his Forbidden Technique: Death God Summoning attack to seal them both away.

The dark Brandon stuff is 98% fluff, talk, and meme. Biden has already said that they’re going to take the high road on the presidential immunity matter. So, we’re going to high road all the way to fascism while waiting for Biden to do the meme.

That’s fair. I’m more addressing a narrative that emerged within 48hrs of the debate that the debate prep team irresponsibly overworked Biden

I think that it isn’t unrealistic for the Biden campaign to transition to the Kamala campaign, or Whitmer campaign, or Newsom campaign etc etc. and recycle much of extent infrastructure there. It just requires Biden to do what’s right for the country and hand over the keys.

From the article:

Biden did make several trips in the weeks leading up to the debate. On June 13, the president joined other leaders for the Group of Seven summit in Apulia, Italy. Two days later, he flew to Los Angeles for a celebrity-filled fundraiser alongside former President Barack Obama, where his campaign said he raised at least $28 million, per a report from Politico.

Reuters reported that Biden headed to Camp David on June 21 to begin debate prep six days before he took the stage. White House aides who traveled with the president told Reuters that Biden was “in a good mood” on his way to prepare.

So, let me get this straight. Two-ish weeks before the debate, he travelled to Europe to visit our allies for two days. Then he visits LA for a day. Then, a week before the debate, he goes to Camp David to prepare. And that’s the strenuous schedule that made him almost fall asleep on stage? And that’s supposed to make me feel better? I read another article where it went into a little more detail and said that they didn’t even start debate prep until 11 am each day at Camp David, and included scheduled time for an afternoon nap, so it’s not exactly like they were working him like a rented mule. This makes it seem so much worse, imo. The president has to do a lot more strenuous stuff than debates, and if he’s worthless for weeks after two days of travel, that doesn’t bode well for the coming campaign season.

SIMA nuts

Since we were on the topic of Deez nuts

Use more periods, it’s free and the cops can’t stop you.

I have been voting, reliably, including in primaries and midterms, since Obama I. Somehow, mysteriously, we’ve arrived at this place where our last best hope of staving off full tilt Christian fascism for the next four years is probably too senile to be a night clerk at a gas station, which would tick me off a lot less if the democrats had been a little bit responsible and groomed Kamala as a successor or been a little more honest than letting people find out in the first presidential debate. I don’t want these assholes to win, pal. I’ll be fine, but lots of people won’t, and I’m not about that. For my part, I’m not comfortable sleepwalking into Christian Fascism because it offends mainstream Democrat sensibilities.