Originally Posted by Kaine
I know what they said about Mr. Biden being the only one that could have beaten Mr. Trump in 2020. I don't believe it! People were tired of Trump. I think if they voted for Biden, they would have voted for any democrat, just to get away from Trump.

I still believe that. In 2024, if Trump runs again, I still think any democrat has as good of a chance of winning as Biden does. I actually also think, that if Trump runs in 2024, that Biden could very well be the weakest democratic opponent. A lot of people do not want Biden to run again in 2024 - including me.
A lot of people don’t want neither Trump nor Biden to run in 2024. Question 30. Do you want Joe Biden to run for president again in 2024? 22% yes, 54% no. Question 31 Do you want Donald Trump to run for president again in 2024? 25% yes, 59% no.

https://docs.cdn.yougov.com/sp4h6s0adp/econTabReport.pdf

Now I study independents in depth, I know who Republicans and Democrats will vote for, they’re boring. Independents are finicky and all over the place, they swing wildly from election to election. Only 13% of independents want Biden to run again, 18% want Trump to run again. Both are losers in 2024 in my opinion unless they run against each other. Then one must win.

As for 2020, Biden was the only Democratic candidate that was attractive to the independent voters. Most other Democratic potential nominees had unfavorable above 50% and a couple above 60% among independents. Biden was the only candidate with a higher favorable than unfavorable. Biden could attract independents in a way no other 2020 potential Democratic candidate could. Simply put, Biden was popular among the independent voter whereas the others weren’t. For a swing voter like myself, the choice of Biden was a no brainier if the democrats wanted to ensure victory. I’m not saying other couldn’t win, but they’d have a hard time getting some independents to vote for them. Biden won the independent vote 54-41 over Trump. Biden did good in my book. When it comes to choosing nominees, I’m always amazed neither party takes independents into consideration. Of course, we all know independents must choose from whoever the two major parties nominate. Even if independents dislike both major party candidates and want both to lose. Then it becomes a vote for the candidate, party independents want to lose the least, not win, but lose the least. A third-party vote is also a possibility for independents, 12% voted third party in 2016 when Trump won the independent vote 46-42 over Clinton and 5% in 2020. You can be sure it was Biden who picked up that 7-point difference among those independents who voted third party. Could any other democratic candidate other than Biden do that, I doubt it.

It's high past time that we start electing Americans to congress and the presidency who put America first instead of their political party. For way too long we have been electing Republicans and Democrats who happen to be Americans instead of Americans who happen to be Republicans and Democrats.