Biden’s Out: What’s Next?

~ Laura

Ten minutes ago, Biden dropped out of the campaign. 

From the New York Times: 

“It has been the greatest honor of my life to serve as your President,” he said in a letter posted on social media. “And while it has been my intention to seek re-election, I believe it is in the best interest of my party and the country for me to stand down and to focus solely on fulfilling my duties as President for the remainder of my term.”

This was a surprise. I thought it was going to happen, just not this afternoon. 

I was glued to the Sunday morning news shows this morning, and while party elites were gently nudging him to step down, Biden’s closest confidents were insisting to Jake Tapper that he would stay. There were reports that Jill and Hunter were telling Biden to stay. AOC made great points about the practical problems of walking away from Biden’s campaign at this last state. 

I thought we would be fighting this out all week. Whew! 

I think we still need to address AOC’s viral video. She said that it takes weeks, if not months, to get union leaders and other key Democratic grassroots figures to support the next candidate. 

This was the right move. Trump’s people have been trying to get Biden to stay. They think they can beat Biden, but aren’t sure that they can beat Harris. That’s good news. 

Also, various embarrassing stories about Biden’s health were starting to leak out. It would have been an humiliating autumn. 

Biden just endorsed Harris. Whose is she going to pick as a partner? It’s going to be a midwestern moderate, I think. She’s going to need to balance out her negatives with someone with someone with mirror image positives. 

We don’t know what’s going to happen to the money and the names on the ballot. So many unknowns. 

Thoughts?

I’m here, on X, and on substack.

Published by Laura

10 thoughts on “Biden’s Out: What’s Next?”

  1. Harris did a remarkably bad job of running in the primaries. I don’t see any reason to think her skills have improved. She will be able to take the age issue to Trump, which is a huge plus. The idea that the nomination is something within Biden’s palsied hands to gift to his choice of successors is hard to take. My guess is she will lose, but less disastrously than would have Biden. Expect a constant stream of kneepad jokes, to which she will be somewhat less vulnerable because of Trump’s history.

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  2. My first reaction was rage at the anti-Biden drumbeat and that it worked.

    But now I am pleased to see the Democrats circling the wagons and supporting Harris fully. That “blitz convention” crap was tech bro fanfic. I did not want chaos, and I am pleased that there seems to be less chaos than I expected.

    In other news, my 22 year old niece is thrilled and says she and her other Gen Z friends will be voting for Harris. My daughter, who happened to call about 10 minutes after the news broke, didn’t say anything more than Wow, then called out to her roommate, “It’s Joe-ver!” My son, as usual, had no comment. I will be making sure both of them vote. They’re both registered in MA, but S should switch her registration to NY since she is really a resident there.

    “I think we still need to address AOC’s viral video. She said that it takes weeks, if not months, to get union leaders and other key Democratic grassroots figures to support the next candidate. “

    SEIU, UFW, and AFT have already endorsed Harris.

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  3. <i>My first reaction was rage at the anti-Biden drumbeat and that it worked.</i>

    I’ll probably go the rest of my life without giving the NYT a dime. I think that lots of rich people are trying to make Trump president again and I’m not going to forget it.

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    1. I dropped the Games subscription when they got rid of acrostics and cryptic crosswords, and now I do Spelling Bee every day on paper. So in other words, I too will not be giving another cent to the NYT. 🙂

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      1. I’m going figure out how to give Sultz-whatever Parkinson’s disease and shit in his vacation house’s house’s kitchen.

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  4. I’ve known white guys from the Midwest my whole life. Some of my best friends are white guys from the Midwest. They are looking for an excuse that lets them vote for Trump. And fucking asshats from the media that haven’t spent a tenth of the time in the Midwest as I have are writing articles where Biden or Harris is implicitly compared to an ideal candidate and Trump is implicitly compared to someone who can’t keep his dick out of an electrical socket. And then they are going to wonder why the Democrats are polling poorly.

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  5. I’m a mom of two cis-white guys and the wife a cis-white guy from the midwest. One of those white guys, maybe two, is neurodiverse, but nobody gives a shit about that. I would love for our political leaders and media to avoid insulting them. I’m going to vote for whoever is not Trump — that’s not an issue. I would prefer to vote for a party that didn’t insult them.

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