politics
Welcome to the discussion of US Politics!
Rules:
- Post only links to articles, Title must fairly describe link contents. If your title differs from the site’s, it should only be to add context or be more descriptive. Do not post entire articles in the body or in the comments.
Links must be to the original source, not an aggregator like Google Amp, MSN, or Yahoo.
Example:
- Articles must be relevant to politics. Links must be to quality and original content. Articles should be worth reading. Clickbait, stub articles, and rehosted or stolen content are not allowed. Check your source for Reliability and Bias here.
- Be civil, No violations of TOS. It’s OK to say the subject of an article is behaving like a (pejorative, pejorative). It’s NOT OK to say another USER is (pejorative). Strong language is fine, just not directed at other members. Engage in good-faith and with respect! This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban.
- No memes, trolling, or low-effort comments. Reposts, misinformation, off-topic, trolling, or offensive. Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.
- Vote based on comment quality, not agreement. This community aims to foster discussion; please reward people for putting effort into articulating their viewpoint, even if you disagree with it.
- No hate speech, slurs, celebrating death, advocating violence, or abusive language. This will result in a ban. Usernames containing racist, or inappropriate slurs will be banned without warning
We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.
All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.
That's all the rules!
Civic Links
• Congressional Awards Program
• Library of Congress Legislative Resources
• U.S. House of Representatives
Partnered Communities:
• News
view the rest of the comments
Not really trying to "spin-doctor," because your concerns are legit. It's not just that he had a cold, after all. He may exercise regularly and be in good shape for an octogenarian, but he's still an octogenarian. Being sick likely means head and chest congestion, exhaustion, and a temperature - and those combined with the kind of speech impediment that gets worse when its sufferer is under stress... Well, it's not a good thing. It results in performances like last night. As he ages, perfect storms of bad luck like that will occur more often, and eventually his age will fully catch up to him.
We need to acknowledge things like that.
At the same time, we need to acknowledge that all in all, he's been a remarkably good president under extremely trying circumstances, and his predecessor - hopefully not his successor - is a felon and a con artist who will open the door for a fascist takeover of this country.
One is too old. The other is a nightmare and the death of this country.
These are all fair points and points I'm sure to raise in the months ahead should Biden remain the nominee, but the way I see it is that polls haven't budged; aggregate approval rating for Biden continues to decline. We can argue how much this debate hurt Biden, but we can all agree it certainly did not help. And if it didn't help, what else can be done and said that hasn't already been done and said over the past years? Polling isn't just hard to budge positively, but it's actively trending opposite to what we need, relative to Biden's position in 2020. If the case of saying, "look it's between the old guy, and the fascist twice-impeached convicted felon with 3 more trials to go and who tried to overturn a free and fair election" hasn't worked yet, what makes anyone think it's going to work in the coming months? Hel this desperation is what led the Biden campaign to accept this debate in the first place -- a risk gambit that simply did not pay off. A tough sell.
So what do we do?
Well, in my view Democrats restore some trust by Biden publicly and voluntarily acknowledging the situation head-on, stepping down, and opening up the convention. Democrats nominate someone half-ways young and charismatic -- Whitmer, Booker, Newsom, Buttigieg -- I don't particularly care -- and I think the freshness of a face and the addressing of youth will be enough to sway swing voters.
I do hope that happens. A graceful exit for Biden and a fresh-faced nominee could very well be the thing we need.