Capitol Hill Blue Forums Political Issues Elections 2024 2024 Election Forum

I may be old fashioned here, but I think Biden needs to give the voters, especially independents and those who now are against both Trump and Biden a positive reason to vote for him. More hammering on Trump isn’t going to change any minds among this group. They already know Trump is a scumbag, they dislike him. But they also have come to dislike Biden. Many don’t give an owl’s hoot who wins between Trump and Biden, to them both are bad.

I’m concerned about independents, a group Biden won in 2020 by 54-41 margin. Today Biden trails Trump among independents 35-30 with 18% intending to vote third party against both, 17% undecided or in the will not vote column. Then there are the double haters, using a phrase I picked up on another site. Double dislikers, double don’t want neither one as their next president. Approximately 30% of the electorate. It’s these two groups of voters Biden needs to turn around and in the case of the double dislikers, get them to the polls which half state they’re not going to vote or choose between Trump and Biden.

I don’t think more hammering of Trump will accomplish the above. That just reinforces their already dislike of him. It does nothing about their dislike of Biden. Now a positive good reason to vote for Biden could change some of their minds. But it has to be positive. Political campaigns for the last 20-30 years have been all about bashing your opponent, no self-promotion or positive message. Just hammering or negative attacks against the other guy. Something positive is needed. Biden needs to give those in these two groups a positive, good reason to vote for him. I'm not Trump isn't enough this time around. My opinion anyway.

Biden has to appear at least 2 times a week and the vice president should do the same thing. If they do not they lose. Its pretty obvious that Biden is going to keep going as long as he can. If he expects to win then he must talk to the voters with regularity and intelligence. He also needs the backup of the vice president as well so she is ready if he goes down. Next week we will see what happens. Right now, I think I heard that, because of the Trump attack, that he has stopped virtually all all election stuff. I am not sure why that is but Trump is going to come out roaring and Biden better be ready. This whole thing drives me nuts. I expect that if Biden doesn't keep coming out he is going to get crap from a LOT of Democrats because he cannot be depended on to actually talk and explain stuff to the voting public and, well, we all know how that works.

He has this one opportunity to keep running. If he fails this time around I expect he will loose too much support during the convention to continue. People are tired of Biden not appearing and talking with any regularity when Trump is having at it every day. The attack kinda slowed things down but I expect things are going to heat up next week.

We will see what happens. I, for one, really hope Biden and vice president gets on with it.

All the delegates amassed by Biden are pledged/bound to vote for Biden for the first round, some are pledged, bound to vote for Biden through the first 3 rounds depending on each state’s laws or democratic party rules in each state concerning delegate selection. Unless Biden releases his won in the primary delegates, they must vote for Biden for the democratic nomination.

If Biden did step aside, could he tell his won delegates to vote for whoever he wanted them to vote for? After all, they’re Biden’s delegates. But that is an open question with no answer. Biden could release his delegates unconditionally to vote for whoever they choose, or he could direct or instruct them to vote for so and so. Unless this happens, there is no answer.

Yep, I know about all the rules, etc. The problem is, however Biden. None of that stuff, I suspect, means nothing until he decides to step down and, obviously, that will not happen until he is convinced he is screwed. That place is not yet reached. My suspicion is that nothing is going to change so the only thing I can think of is that he will actually start trying to win an election instead of spending all his time on stuff the American voting public cares little or nothing for. Biden thinks its important and it is for a president. Right now, however, he either takes time off to speak, entertain and explain every chance he gets (same Harris). If he does not he will, likely, lose. I find it odd. He must know this is how it is? This is what is expected of somebody running for public office and that is, exactly, what he currently is!!

The guy he is fighting with, for the presidency, just got wounded in an attack on his life. This, I expect, will push him up a bit in the battle. One can only hope that Biden does what he must. Its all we got!

Yeah. The bottom line is it doesn’t matter how good someone is at governing or can be, if they can’t get elected, they can’t govern. I heard many times of elections being referred to as a beauty pageants, a popularity contest. It is so for many voters. History also shows that usually the candidate with the most charisma wins. Reagan, Bill Clinton, Obama, all three had charisma up the ying yang and all three won twice. The dour Ford lost to the down-home boy Carter. Carter in turn lost to Mr. Charisma, Reagan. The stoic Dole lost big to Bill Clinton in 1996. G.W. Bush, another down-home southern boy beat two statues in Gore and Kerry and so on.

When I think of Biden, competent is the word that comes to mind. Charismatic, no way.

I’ve been thinking, instead of calling elections a popularity contest, a beauty pageant, perhaps I should have called them an unpopularity contest, ugly pageant. At least that is what 2016 and 2020 were and this year will make it three in a row. Not one major party candidate since Gallup started keeping track of favorable/unfavorable of the presidential candidates beginning in 1956 was seen favorable by less than 50% and unfavorable by more than 50%. That is until 2016.

Barry Goldwater came close, he was seen by 43% of the public in a favorable light, but 47% unfavorable. Barry didn’t break the above 50% unfavorable. Every other presidential candidate was seen above 50% favorable by the American public and less than 50% unfavorable. That is until 2016 when Trump at 36% favorable/60% unfavorable along with Hillary Clinton at 38% favorable/56% unfavorable. That was truly an unfavorable contest. 2020 showed Trump at 43% favorable/56% unfavorable. He became a double winner of the unpopularity contest. Biden came in at 49% favorable, just below the 50% mark, but was seen unfavorably by 46% of all Americans. Biden didn’t make the double, but joined Barry Goldwater as a single winner in the favorable column being below 50%. Today, both Trump and Biden will qualify, Trump at 42% favorable/56% unfavorable making him a triple winner. Biden at 40% favorable/58% unfavorable. Biden joins Trump and Clinton as a threesome in the below 50% favorable/above 50% unfavorable.

For me, all but once it has been, I am voting for the lessor of two evils. I guess it's because of my centrist attitude, don't know but that's the way it's been. Only once have I voted FOR a candidate because they had a message for me to vote FOR.

Kaine, I suppose it’s that way for a lot of folks. My first presidential vote came in 1968 when one had to be 21 years old to vote. For the most part, I had my druthers, but if my druther didn’t win, I was fine with that as I viewed both competent and worthy of the office of the presidency. That was true until 2016 when I considered both major party candidates unworthy of the office. I voted third party against both. I wasn’t alone as 6% of the electorate did exactly that, some 8.2 million voters.

I don’t think centrist is a word that applies to me. I have a long history of supporting republicans on some issues, opposing them on others. The same for the Democrats, supporting them on some, opposing them on others. I’m more of a middle of the road guy, one who favors compromise to keep things moving forward. Not in gigantic leaps, but in slow steady steps. I believe there’s always a middle ground. Only today, in our present modern political era of polarization, the great divide, the super, mega, ultra-high partisanship, reaching that middle ground, compromise has become impossible.

I believed you analyzed it incorrectly.

That was a race between a first day apprentice (pun intended) and a wisened journeywomen in the world of real politics. Trump was and remains a clueless buffoon whose sole objective is to ensconce himself as emperor a la Napoleon. Both Clinton and Biden are far more competent in the workings of government and that was what should have been the criteria, despite the fact neither has the charisma Trump has nor the cult following, but the presidential race is not about cults or charisma,. It is about competence and character. Biden demonstrates both, while Clinton's only flaw was the egoism to want to keep her private email from the prying eyes of the paranoid rightwing nuts.

We are now in the throes of a similar kind of race. This time we know the stakes are Democracy itself. We have a competent, although not brilliant nor charismatic person with character, pitted against a felonious, fraudster, sex offending incompetent. anti-Democratic, insurrectionist, who holds sway over a cult of followers. Do you believe you should sit this one out??? Yikes!!!!

Newt Gingrich is the cause.

Sure both parties have non-starting political ideas from which they will not budge, which simply makes them who and what they are, however, the Democrat party has been more than willing to compromise on issues, as examples look at Obamacare or the Sen Langford's efforts in Immigration legislation. The problem is not with reasonable, rational men but with the MAGA extremists who will not under any circumstance negotiate a compromise with Democrats or Rhino's.

Compromise is possible ... only not with MAGA.

It is, I suspect, interesting. For the last 4 or 5 days virtually all TV news channels have spent entire days (or close to it) showing the Republican Convention. Next month I think the Democrats will have their Convention. What will be interesting is if media gives the Democrats the same degree of exposure. Just to make sure all know that Trump is a creature of the media. Without them he simply would not be. They made claims about him that were simply wrong and so we have their gift. Now we get a chance to see if they give the Democrats the same exposure.

Oh, then there is their new vice president candidate. I actually heard him mention the following things he supports. He is against, Abortion, Divorce, etc. If a husband is beating a wife she has no right to have a divorce and abortions are simply made illegal. It gets even better but just thought I would mention these (there is more).

One last. VP Harris is out there, every day, giving speeches, etc. I have yet to see any TV that gives us any information on that one. Betcha media gives the Republican VP a LOT of exposure thought (I have faith!)