Diversity of thought is very important

So she’s going to appoint a Democratic Socialist? No? Someone from Sunrise then? No? A Palestinian-American Democrat? They couldn’t even get 2 minutes at the convention. How about a BLM activist? She marched for that cause, surely that’s some diversity she’d want to have represented. Not that either? Hm.

Maybe this isn’t about diversity of thought and instead about the doomed Democratic instinct to try to coopt the center-right, which according to the theory of centrism will make them win forever! Just not any of the times they’ve already tried it.

The Democratic governor of PA eulogized the murdered audience member waxing about how happy he was to be at a Trump rally and died as a hero for covering his family. I’m not saying he should diss a murdered man, just don’t act like a Trump rally is some great All-American event.

“It’s a tragic attack and our thoughts and prayers are with the victims. Political violence is abhorrent. We are providing all necessary support to uncover how this came about.” That’s all you need to do. Instead Democrats are out there mythologizing the event for Trump.

There’s nothing that would appear in a news story about the poll that isn’t in their own release. Their releases are actually usually more informative because they run through multiple results from the poll, not just whatever the headline point is.

The results of a poll are news and usually as factual as you can get. Their poll might be an outlier or they might have a polling bias, but unless you think they’re drawing conclusions unsupported by the poll or think their methodology is wrong, there’s not much to criticize.

Morning Consult is a well known polling company. If you’ve followed polls and aren’t familiar with them I’m amazed. They do some sort of online polling which makes them cheap and fast, but there’s nothing suspicious about them and they haven’t shown any bias I’ve recognized. It’s not a questionable source, but is just one poll so it might not be accurate.

They’ll say they’re too young and too left. Or throw 5 other things at the wall and see what gets traction. Conservative attacks have never attempted to be consistent.

Politics isn’t a left-right line where you win by being the closest to the center. A more center candidate than Biden, if such a thing even exists, would then further depress base turn out, which is already in a big flashing danger area. And the undecideds aren’t centrists, seeking maximum center, they’re some mixture of uninterested in politics and a grab bag of policy preferences that don’t fit neatly into either side.

Biden steps aside and literally anyone else becomes the third option. Like, do they automatically win? No, but it’s a third option. This whole debate is about the third option, and those pathways are being talked about by Democratic elected officials, not randos on message boards. It’s a real option, so calling that a false dilemma is entirely correct.

Nah, not a chance. She hasn’t been mentioned in anything, feels old when we want someone who isn’t, and is a proven failure. Some diehards can say it’s “not her fault”, but we’re all traumatized due to her failure. Same way some people still post Notorious RGB style memes, but they just cause discomfort among the rank and file that now associate her with stubbornness resulting in massive Democratic backslide. Normies don’t hate her, but they rightfully recognize that she’s problematic and power brokers know when someone’s dead-on-arrival. There are plenty of corporate Democrats that haven’t been publicly tarnished for them to invest in.

I feel like being an inspiring charismatic leader is kind of incompatible with the gauntlet that would get someone pre-approved as a party-selected candidate. I’m having a hard time thinking of an establishment-favored figure who’s really charismatic. Buttigieg maybe? But he was sort of out of left field and it feels like he’s been more of a tool to deploy to soften bad news stories than someone the establishment is raising up as a potential next big thing. Booker is probably the most party-supported charismatic figure, but I don’t think relentless positivity is enough to lead in times where lots of people are legitimately angry.

My theory is that Obama, for all the success he brought to the party, shook it up in ways the establishment structure really didn’t like. Since then they haven’t really been looking for the next Obama, because populism is dangerous to established power structures. That’s why the 2020 convention didn’t have a keynote speaker, it had 17 all saying a line or two from a speech, which means none of the “rising voices” actually has a chance to break out.

What test? You’re just butting in with an argument that wasn’t present in this comment thread. If you want to just make a comment about the post title, make it top-level on the post itself.

It is 100% going to be an establishment hack, I have no doubt in my mind about that, but I don’t care. Biden is an establishment hack, but one who most importantly can’t win the election. We’re not getting worse moving to a different hack that can form thoughts on the fly.

Why are you replying to me?

The point remains true.

It’s really coming across as stubborn arrogance. I make the decisions and I’ve proven to myself I’m fit, so you all have to just get in line. It’s true he has almost all the power to make this choice, but he doesn’t seem to get that if he doesn’t justify it to the people he’s going to keep losing support and then lose the election.

There’s really no reason to jump to him rather than someone already in national politics, but winning a senate seat in Texas is actually harder than winning the presidency.

Asked whether it was a bad episode or a sign of a more serious condition, Biden dismissed those concerns.

This is a bad word choice (from Pelosi originally). Episodes are things that happen multiple times. And commonly used to describe dementia. They’re signs of a serious condition. Having an episode is not reassuring (but he wasn’t presented with a “isolated event” option).

They did a test to see whether or not I had some infection, you know, a virus. I didn’t. I just had a really bad cold.

A cold is a viral infection. And usually has symptoms other than cognitive failure. I assume they’ve realized that “12-day jet lag” isn’t a good excuse for someone who needs to fly often.

I don’t think they should be a major influencer on decisions, but can you really argue that they aren’t? This isn’t a story to convince people of the rightness of the cause, it’s a story about major influencing factors turning against Biden staying in, because people don’t think that their voices actually make the decisions as much as theirs do.

Depends on whether he completely shits the bed at some point. No one actually wants to watch these interviews, they just want them to happen and be reassured by someone not dedicated to supporting Biden that he didn’t fall apart.

The more important issue is that one interview is just not enough, no matter how well he does. Holding it together for 15-30 minutes isn’t proof he doesn’t have semi-regular episodes like the debate, it just shows how capable he is when he’s having a good day.

Yeah, an actual lawyer running through of it made it so much worse. I was focused on the absolute immunity cases because those don’t require any knowledge of the law to understand, but all the interlocking ways this kind of says “immunity for everything” is far far worse.

I don’t really get reassured by rallies. Scripted events he can end at will with no on-the-spot thinking can be done to some extent on autopilot. He was apparently looking great at some generic meet and greets right after the debate. To try to bury the concern he needs interactive speaking engagements on ranging and potentially challenging topics. Town halls, Q&As with followers, late night shows. Let’s see some sharp answers on the spot.