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Joe Biden stands down as Democratic candidate
- npmanor 2y agoThis is the first time in a while there’ll be an brokered (open) convention; especially so if Biden does not announce support for another candidate.
- collinmanderson 2y agoHe endorsed Kamala
- latexr 2y agoFrom the tweet: > Today I want to offer my full support and endorsement for Kamala to be the nominee of our party this year.
- masherm 2y agoI think this was the right thing to do for his health, being president is a notoriously stressful job.
- Slava_Propanei 2y ago[dead]
- pcdoodle 2y ago[flagged]
- moomoo11 2y agoI’ll vote whoever the dems pick. Elon and his wackos are going to ruin our country.
- ecuaflo 2y agoHey I saw your old comment [0] but couldn’t reply there so was wondering if you worked on this medical system thing you talked about. I was impressed you knew so much about the private equity clinics and am interested in whatever you make. [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37019642 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37019642
- skilled 2y agoIt’s for the best. The man is not in his best form and he has repeatedly shown that he isn’t. He attempted to rectify the situation since the debate but even those attempts fell short. Let’s see who is going to take the mantle now. /edit: he is endorsing Kamala, https://nitter.poast.org/JoeBiden/status/1815087772216303933 https://nitter.poast.org/JoeBiden/status/1815087772216303933
- trentnix 2y ago[flagged]
- black_knight 2y agoHe writes that he wants to focus on completing the term.
- antonvs 2y agoThat doesn’t follow at all. There’s a process for removing him if enough people in congress believed that it was an issue, but there’s no reason to do so at this point in the presidency. Even the Republicans aren’t likely to try that.
- nightowl_games 2y agoIt does follow. The reason is if the president is cognitively incapable of leading the country. There's a good argument that Biden isn't competent enough to drive a car or work at home Depot. He makes gaffes every time he speaks and is rude and demeaning to people around him according to reports. It's pretty likely that he is effectively not the president right now, that his trusted senior advisers are actually running the country. I'm not saying all of this is certain or that Biden should be removed, but it is certainly plausible, if not likely.
- angoragoats 2y ago> He makes gaffes every time he speaks and is rude and demeaning to people around him according to reports. If this is the criteria for “people who shouldn’t be president” then perhaps both parties should offer different candidates.
- selfmodruntime 2y agoMy god. I really didn‘t think he would actually do it.
- bottlepalm 2y agoMeh, it was a downward spiral after the debate. No way he was going to last long. Even Manifold politics had him at 20% two weeks ago. And 10% for the past week.
- selfmodruntime 2y agoPossible. But I thought his stubbornness would prevail. He's so close in behaviour to my late grandparents, I really did not think he would pull out.
- tombert 2y agoThere was never any risk of me voting for Trump, but when I watched the debate it became abundantly clear that Biden could not win an election. He came off as an extremely frail old man and I had my doubts that he would survive the entire debate, let alone another four years in office. I'm a pretty left-leaning person and I find Trump to be an overwhelmingly unappealing idiot in general, but even I had to admit that Trump "won" the debate. He was still the moronic walking Markov Chain that he always is, but he at least looked alive.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- Murky3515 2y agoIs it really so hard to say "Trump won the debate" without needing to qualify several times how much you hate Trump?
- tombert 2y agoIt’s hard for me to say it because it’s not like Trump was actually “coherent”, he just didn’t seem like he was on death’s door. Also, wouldn’t me saying I hate him a lot but still acknowledge he won lend more legitimacy to it? Like it’s actively working against my biases and I still acknowledge he won.
- moralestapia 2y ago(No intend for this to be a controversial statement) I only want to express my opinion that he (and the Democratic party) took a while to make this decision, to their detriment. Interesting to see who their new candidate is going to be.
- caminante 2y agoThe gamble paid off in 2020. His steering committee (including the DNC) was vested in him continuing until he imploded at the debate.
- nailer 2y agoThe rules allow the DNC to have an open convention. They just haven’t had one for more than half a century. the interesting thing is apparently if they do that its available to all candidates. So it’s possible that somebody that is well liked by the public, but not by the DNC becomes the leader ie Bernie sanders. The tough thing though is that money donated to Biden doesn’t transfer to other candidates. The daily wire did an Extensive breakdown of each scenario a few days ago: https://open.spotify.com/episode/5vmeGPmDP0nopAlOwDZIV6 https://open.spotify.com/episode/5vmeGPmDP0nopAlOwDZIV6 This particular scenario is covered at 0:30
- echelon 2y ago> money donated to Biden doesn’t transfer to other candidates. That's wild and should be fixed.
- caminante 2y agoKamala can access the funds now. The challenge is transferring to someone not named Kamala. [0] You need some campaign finance oversight with accounts, etc., and refunding and transferring to a "new" candidate would take time and jeopardize tying up ~$100 million in funds. [0] https://www.wcnc.com/article/news/nation-world/biden-harris-2024-campaign-money-what-could-happen/507-561fa64c-d806-42ec-b99b-b4b30fee523d# https://www.wcnc.com/article/news/nation-world/biden-harris-...
- 2y ago
- bluenose69 2y agoA view from Canada: thanks, Mr Biden. You honour your record and your nation.
- strangelove026 2y agoDannnnnng. I think it's definitely for the best (probably never should've come to this, reminds me of RBG). And that said I really, really liked his presidency, but, he is undeniably really old.
- readthenotes1 2y agoThe problem isn't just his age, it's his decrepitude, both physical and mental. I know people in their 90s who are able to speak clearly at any hour of the day...
- nkrisc 2y agoHe’s far more physically fit than the Republican candidate. He can ride a bike. The Republican candidate also struggles to speak coherently. At least now we’ll likely not have both major party candidates be too old for office.
- koolba 2y ago> He’s far more physically fit than the Republican candidate. He can ride a bike. The Republican candidate also struggles to speak coherently. Biden literally cannot walk down two steps unassisted. Meanwhile Trump appears to be bullet proof. You can disagree on plenty of policy, but no fair minded person could possibly think he’s mentally or physically more fit than Trump.
- mcphage 2y ago> Meanwhile Trump appears to be bullet proof. That’s a weird way to say “Even his own party is shooting at him.”
- andrewinardeer 2y agoCan you elaborate on this comment?
- caminante 2y agoShouldn't he resign and let Kamala step in?
- black_knight 2y agoHe can do president duties, while the candidate they choose go around collecting votes.
- caminante 2y agoThat's the thing. If he's unfit to serve 6 months from now, then how is he fit to serve now? He didn't endorse Kamala in his letter. We'll see what comes out of the spin cycle this week. e: looks like Biden endorsed Kamala according to other publications
- dwaltrip 2y agoOne could argue the chaos and uncertainty from upending his currently functional administration is not worth the upsides, while allowing for a natural transition via the standard election and end of term process is worth it.
- g-b-r 2y agoHe's just probably unfit to serve four more years, and for sure was too unlikely to beat Trump
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- voxl 2y agoSee you don't understand, he IS fit to serve, but he doesn't believe he'll win the election.
- layer8 2y agoThe important consideration is that he’s unfit to serve for four and a half more years, and also that he’s unfit to win the election. In contrast, he’s probably not considerably more unfit for the next six months than for the past six.
- sidcool 2y ago[flagged]
- nailer 2y agoPer the HN guidelines the rules for the site are whatever hackers find interesting
- sidcool 2y agoDang has flagged it.
- WithinReason 2y agoNo he didn't.
- caminante 2y agoNeed to refresh.
- mtlmtlmtlmtl 2y agoDang doesn't flag stuff. He can just kill them if he decides to. It was flagged by OP and probably others.
- caminante 2y agoYou're right. Dang said as much in the mega thread[0] [0]https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25017129 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25017129
- caminante 2y agoRe-read it. It may've changed since you last read, but general politics is off-topic. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- deafpolygon 2y agoIt was probably the right decision on Biden's part. My main right now is who are they going to position in opposition to Trump? This is too little, too late. Four months until the Election... and I don't feel like the Democrat party has a strong candidacy showing at this point.
- bilekas 2y agoThis is wild. It seems super late in the game but okay. I'm super interested to see what will become of his chips act etc. The push he has tried to do to remove dependencies on TSMC is very forward thinking. Hopefully the next candidate takes up the momentum. Edit : Typo in TSMC
- nightowl_games 2y agoWhat's TMC
- daseiner1 2y agoObviously a typo for TSMC
- madspindel 2y agoProbably TSMC Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company
- majewsky 2y ago> It seems super late in the game but okay. Why does the US in specific have such drawn-out campaigns? Earlier this week, I saw a pundit commenting that 4 months before the election is too short notice to pick a new candidate. But there's countries in Europe that announce elections, pick candidates, do the campaigns, go to the pools, do the counts, and have the electees take office, all in less than 4 months (see e.g. Great Britain recently).
- Exectscard 2y ago[flagged]
- illiac786 2y agoTry two weeks ;) (last elections in France)
- sparky_z 2y agoBecause elections here aren't "announced". They're on a fixed 4-year schedule. Everyone knows they're coming, and if they start just a little sooner than the other guy this time, that may give them an advantage. Over time, it creeps earlier and earlier. Like retail stores putting out Christmas stuff in mid-october. Obviously, in great Britain's recent election, nobody knew there was going to be an election until it was announced, so there was no way to jump the gun.
- Sajarin 2y ago> It’s a miracle, folks. Donald told the truth for once. It’s the most important election of our lifetimes. And I will win it. Curiously, his tweet from just 18 hours ago seemed like he was still in the race. I wonder what changed.
- daseiner1 2y agoThe timing of Joe Manchin declining to endorse this morning certainly correlates.
- jeffbee 2y ago[flagged]
- daseiner1 2y agoThe entirety of West Virginia, evidently. And all Americans should be interested in the views of one of the foremost “swing vote” senators.
- jeffbee 2y agoWest Virginia is not in play for presidential elections.
- daseiner1 2y agoYour original comment was belittling towards the people of West Virginia, which is still a member of the Union as far as I’m aware. The latter half of my comment was obviously more salient in regard to national politics. Not sure why you ignored that.
- Larrikin 2y agoUntil the electoral college is eliminated, or we at least get some kind of system like rank choice voting, there is no point in pretending that the votes of any more than a handful of swing states actually matter.
- echelon 2y agoDang, this shouldn't be flagged. This is hugely important and relevant.
- dangjoker 2y ago[flagged]
- caminante 2y agoAsk HN: Who's Hiring (POTUS 2024)
- romanhn 2y ago100%. Biden becoming president was one of the biggest HN threads,very odd to see this thread killed.
- Timshel 2y agoHow the fuck does this end-up flagged ... There is over 90 upvotes does this not count ? Where is the mythical vouch feature I could never find ? A yes I believe it's not yet dead, so you can't vouch ?
- ufo 2y agoSeveral factors affect it... high number of upvotes and comments in a short amount of time, users flagging it because of politics, etc. Hopefully it gets manually unflagged.
- tim333 2y agoI've been wondering how the vouch thing works? I've been on HN like forever but not noticed it.
- maxerickson 2y agoIt's for flagged comments. If you click the timestamp link, it takes you to a view of just the comment where you can 'vouch', which is a statement you think it is unfairly or inappropriately flagged.
- BadHumans 2y agoI actually think this loses Democrats the election. I don't know who the nominee is going to be but if it's Kamala I think they REALLY lose the election. People may be lukewarm on Biden but they despise Kamala for her shady history as a prosecutor.
- g-b-r 2y agoIt sure seems like there are better chances with him gone; but yeah, he might have already given Trump the presidency by waiting so long (and for running for this election in the first place)
- mock-possum 2y agoAs an anti-trump voter (aka a circumstantial democrat) - that’s what I’m worried about too. It feels like we’ve left it til too late without the democrats putting up anyone that people are excited about - while we know how the other side feels about trump.
- raziel2701 2y agoMy question, and I know no one knows the answer, is are we afraid of a ghost? The ghost being a person who was all in on Biden, that now goes: "fuck that, I'm not voting for Harris" Are there large numbers of people like this? Nobody knows, but the media certainly does a good job of pushing that narrative. Informing you is not their job, getting you scared and angered is. I'm gonna vote for the non-fascist one. I wish Biden had stepped down much sooner, but it doesn't change the reality that I am scared of the violence that might arise if the right wins. Our country is in a state of corruption, the supreme court needs to be radically reigned-in and I only see one path before November to have a chance at addressing all these issues, and it's voting Democrats as much as we can.
- treis 2y agoThe election isn't decided by large numbers of voters. It's decided at the margins largely based on the 1-2% making a decision to go vote or not.
- gumby 2y agoOne of the most effective presidents since Johnson or Truman. But he did campaign on a single term. Let’s hope the Dem’s circular firing squad puts down its guns so they can quickly concentrate on winning the election with someone … probably Harris is the simplest answer.
- Slava_Propanei 2y ago[dead]
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- tim333 2y agoI liked James Carville's idea of picking maybe eight contenders and having town hall type events to choose the most popular. Game show element to take publicity from Trump and also kind of democratic rather than anointing a connected insider, which of course Trump would then go on about endlessly.
- jjtheblunt 2y agodemocratic is the famous intended design, over promotion of insiders, right? seems like a great idea from Carville.
- shadowgovt 2y agoNot really, no. At least not in the US. The tension in the US system is between founders who believed in the virtue of the commoner and founders who feared mobocracy. At various levels of the system, the system is designed to be elitist. And the parties are fundamentally private institutions and can be as populist or elitist as they want (worth noting: in practice, the GOP constitution is more populist than the Democrat constitution, which is one of the reasons they nominated Trump; there weren't backstops in the GOP like superdelegates to push him off the ticket).
- 2y ago
- egberts1 2y ago[flagged]
- coffeecloud 2y agoPolitical parties aren’t democratic institutions. They are essentially private organizations who can operate however they want. It’s only been the last 50 years or so that either party has used primaries as anything more than a straw poll
- keybored 2y agoThe Duopoly: You can pick Pepsi or Coke You: I want water The Duopoly: That’s impossible and un-American
- hnarn 2y agoOne of the problems with the US being a two party state is exactly this, people conflate political parties with the institutions themselves, which is not great.
- Maxatar 2y agoThe DNC and RNC are legally bound to follow rules established both by state law and by Congress/legislation. Yes they are private institutions but they can not set arbitrary rules.
- pessimizer 2y agoWhen it comes to their primaries, the only obligation that they have to is to follow their own rules, and the only people that are allowed to hold them to that obligation are they themselves, and maybe their vendors. They aren't even obligated to donors who donated under the assumption that there's some promise or legal requirement that their primaries be fair. That case was dismissed, and resulted in the quote from DNC lawyer Bruce Spiva: "You know, again, if you had a charity where somebody said, Hey, I’m gonna take this money and use it for a specific purpose, X, and they pocketed it and stole the money, of course that’s different. But here, where you have a party that’s saying, We’re gonna, you know, choose our standard bearer, and we’re gonna follow these general rules of the road, which we are voluntarily deciding, we could have — and we could have voluntarily decided that, Look, we’re gonna go into back rooms like they used to and smoke cigars and pick the candidate that way. That’s not the way it was done. But they could have. And that would have also been their right, and it would drag the Court well into party politics, internal party politics to answer those questions."
- ahartmetz 2y agoOof. This guy has been the biggest positive surprise of the US presidents in my lifetime. Expectations were low, but he actually turned out to be a good president (from a European perspective). No new wars, no more talk about shifting defense focus to Asia, generally nothing unreasonable. Good support for Ukraine, no doubts about NATO - rather the opposite. Basically, the rich uncle on the other side of the pond has been a good one. I presume that his attitudes and staff selection carried the day, and maybe could have done so for another term. But his mental capacity was clearly declining, and he is in fact expected to handle some things personally.
- indil 2y ago>No new wars >Good support for Ukraine You're looking through a particular narrow lens.
- lr1970 2y ago[flagged]
- kccoder 2y agoBiden started those wars? American troops are on the ground in those conflicts?
- rsynnott 2y agoNaughty old Biden used his time machine to force poor innocent Putin to invade Crimea in 2014, clearly.
- jeffbee 2y agoTrump would (has promised to do so on live television) just give Ukraine to Russia. Biden/USA/allies have stood down Russia, which has been seriously damaged both by battlefield losses, by not achieving their strategic goals and instead entering a second Afghanistan, and by the rapid conversion of the EU economy to no longer need Russian energy.
- Rebelgecko 2y agoIs this unprecedented?
- boomboomsubban 2y agoLyndon B Johnson was the last to not seek reelection, though he stepped out in late March.
- jeffbee 2y agoOdd how the nation has a knack for getting rid of GOATed presidents.
- janice1999 2y agoNo. Johnson did not seek reelection after his first term. https://edition.cnn.com/2024/07/03/politics/lbj-biden-what-matters/index.html https://edition.cnn.com/2024/07/03/politics/lbj-biden-what-m...
- layer8 2y agoIt’s unpresidented.
- dredmorbius 2y agoDepends on how you look at it. As others have pointed out, Lyndon B. Johnson declined the nomination for Democratic Presidential candidate in March of 1968, well before both most of the primary contensts and the then-open Democratic Convention in Chicago. Rather famously, that convention didn't go particularly smoothly. (In an interesting coincidence, this year's Democratic primary is also in Chicago.) George McGovern's 1972 vice presidential nominee, Thomas Eagleton, stepped down after it was revealed Eagleton had undergone electroshock therapy, two weeks after the Democratic Convention. McGovern selected Sargent Shriver as the replacement candidate. Horace Greeley, Liberal Republican Party and Democratic Party candidate in the 1872 election, running against incumbent Ulysses S. Grant, died on 29 November 1872, after the general election but before the Electoral College met to count its votes. Greeley carried no states and won no Electoral College votes. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1968_Democratic_Party_presidential_primaries#March:_New_Hampshire,_Kennedy_enters,_Johnson_declines https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1968_Democratic_Party_presiden...> <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Eagleton#Replacement_on_the_ticket https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Eagleton#Replacement_on...> <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1872_United_States_presidential_election https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1872_United_States_presidentia...>
- dsr_ 2y agoThis will be a much more relevant story on HN if it turns out that Elon Musk sent this rather than Biden. (At the time that I write this, the only place this news is sourced from is Twitter. Every news org is quoting Twitter and then adding their own gloss.)
- aspenmayer 2y agohttps://apnews.com/live/biden-trump-election-campaign-updates https://apnews.com/live/biden-trump-election-campaign-update... https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/biden-drops-2024-presidential-race/story?id=111648603 https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/biden-drops-2024-presidentia...
- apexalpha 2y agoFrom Europe, so not as much skin in the game as others here. But jeez the Democratic party needs to new leadership. And I don't mean Harris or whoever, but the party leadership itself. The gaslighting in the past year about Bidens age was insane to watch. Literally asking people to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears.
- SonOfKyuss 2y ago> Literally asking people to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears I mean, it seems to be a winning strategy for the other party.
- kuschkufan 2y agoNot a convincing argument, but a testament to low standards. Also, Whataboutism.
- SonOfKyuss 2y agoThere’s no argument meant to be made. Just a statement of the (sad) fact that blatant gaslighting is pretty common and often very effective.
- timeon 2y ago> but a testament to low standards Testament to two party system. But you can call it low standard as well.
- snapcaster 2y agoDisagree, I think everyone has more or less the same (accurate) view of trump it's just the things that his supporters like about him are the same things that make you hate him
- was_a_dev 2y agoWhile not as much skin, we sadly have more skin in this game as I'd wish The election of the next President will have a large effect on the security of Europe with respect to both Russia and Israel
- hubraumhugo 2y agoHard to draw a line here in terms of guidelines: > Off-Topic: Most stories about politics, or crime, or sports, or celebrities, unless they're evidence of some interesting new phenomenon. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- techostritch 2y agoThis feels like evidence of interesting new phenomenon, I get why 99% of politics topics should be removed, but if we post one when presidents get elected, it seems like something as impactful as president dropping out should count too.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- srid 2y agoTrump assassination attempt -- equally interesting new phenomenon -- also got flagged.
- romanhn 2y agoHere's what @dang posted on the giant thread of Biden winning presidency (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25015967 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25015967). I suspect this thread has been auto-killed by some spam algo and there's a good chance dang will resurrect it at some point. "As many have pointed out, a dozen or so submissions on this topic were flagged by users. That's actually the immune system working as intended, but another component of the system is that moderators rescue the very most historic stories so HN can have a single big thread about them. We did that 4 years ago, also for Brexit, etc. Since this was the first submission on the topic, it seems fairest to be the one to restore. (It's still on our todo list to have some form of karma sharing for situations like this, to make it be less of a race and/or lottery.)"
- GeoAtreides 2y agoyou know, on autoimmune diseases the immune system is actually working as intended. It's just that the target is all wrong.
- HaZeust 2y agoI am, admittedly, very glad that Biden stuck to his word in 2020 that he will be a single-term incumbent president for the last 4 years... I just wish the DNC kept their word on bolstering a more compelling candidate within that timeframe as well. They had 3 1/2 years to bolster the reputation of Kamala, and largely sidelined her after using her as a play for minority vote. Now they're (likely) running her in a remaining timespan of a little over 3 months left before election -- after no one has thought of her since the last election. This isn't good.
- breckenedge 2y agoIt’s not good. It’s great.
- HaZeust 2y agoAlright, let's see if 3 months is enough time to bolster a new candidate. I hope, for our sake, you're right.
- sylens 2y agoIt will be an interesting case study but I think there is a chance that the short runway will allow her to maintain some semblance of high energy. Basically, if you thought American elections were too drawn out, here is your opportunity to be proven right.
- Andrew_nenakhov 2y agoKamala looks unelectable. She had to quit the nomination race in 2020 even before primaries.
- ajross 2y agoThis is really misunderstanding how that works. The 2020 field at that point was wide open, no one candidate was looking dominant. She absolutely "could" have stayed in with a real shot at winning, which was true for basically all of them. She got out because (1) staying in costs money and fundraising in a wide-open primary is extremely hard and (2) she judged[1] that she'd have a better path to the presidency by positioning herself as an obvious VP candidate via playing kingmaker with her political capital and identity markers. Which is exactly how it played out. [1] Correctly, with near-prescient precision!
- throwaway55479 2y agoBiden winning the race in 2020 [1] was the most commented post on HN. I found that yesterday while trying to figure out how popular the "crowdstrike" post was, and it is actually the second most commented one. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25015967 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25015967
- SushiHippie 2y agoFor others that are interested here is a top list of most commented posts using clickhouse: https://play.clickhouse.com/play?user=play#U0VMRUNUIERJU1RJTkNUIE9OIChpZCkgaWQsIHRpdGxlLCBkZXNjZW5kYW50cyBhcyBudW1fY29tIEZST00gaGFja2VybmV3c19oaXN0b3J5IE9SREVSIEJZIG51bV9jb20gREVTQyBMSU1JVCAxMDA= https://play.clickhouse.com/play?user=play#U0VMRUNUIERJU1RJT...
- tzs 2y agoThe Democrats now need to emphasize that Trump, who is 78, is too old too. They can feature clips of Trump in 2020 saying that Biden at 78 was too old.
- bitshiftfaced 2y agoIs this the quote you're referring to (from 2019)? > Trump added, "I would never say anyone is too old, but I know they're all making me look very young, both in terms of age and I think in terms of energy. I think you people know that better than anybody." (I'm looking for it in old articles and having trouble finding what you're talking about.) I also found this from an AP article in 2020: > With Election Day less than four months away, Trump has spent more money on one television ad claiming that Biden lacks “the strength, the stamina and the mental fortitude to lead this country” than any other single ad this year.
- kypro 2y agoI really dislike this idea that someone can be "too old" to be president. The issue isn't age, it's the conditions and diseases that often come with age. The issue with Biden for me wasn't his age at all, it was that for whatever reason he was struggling to form coherent sentences. Trump on the other hand seems more or less completely fine. I'd actually argue the best thing about Biden was that he was perhaps the most qualified person to president ever given his long history and respected history in politics. That said, I do think the older the presidential candidate is the more important it becomes to weight their VP pick when casting your vote, but still, I don't think this reason trend of discounted people solely on their age is a healthy trend. I'd even argue that the ideal age for a leader is probably quite old, maybe around 50-60.
- lawn 2y ago> Trump on the other hand seems more or less completely fine. No, he very clearly does not. He's rambling and incoherent.
- SV_BubbleTime 2y ago[flagged]
- christianqchung 2y ago"Donald Trump is going to win. And I'm OK with that." - Jared Golden, Democratic House Representative of Maine I really hoped it wouldn't be so, but anyone that's ever seen Kamala speak will find she is about as compelling as Joe Biden on a bad day. I believe this means China and Russia can prevail in the short term, unless he actually boosts Taiwan's defence meaningfully, which I doubt he will after the Ukraine/Israel/Taiwan aid holdup fiasco. It is what it is. I wish the nominee was Gretchen Whitmer with anyone but Kamala. I wish Biden had not run for reelection. I wish he hadn't endorsed Kamala. I wish the Democrats and Obama had backed Sanders or Biden in 2016 when they were fit to serve. I wish Trump moderated himself after the attempt on his life instead of business as usual a week later. I hope I'm wrong about everything observably bad about Trump's first term and his decline since, because with another trifecta of loyalists, he's probably getting much more done this time.
- ActorNightly 2y agoIts really simple though. Do you want a dictator with near unlimited legal immunity in charge of the country? Thats what the November vote is for. Everything else is secondary.
- christianqchung 2y agoWhat? Presidents from now until forever have that near unlimited legal immunity, regardless of party. That's what the Supreme Court ruled. That question doesn't even make sense to a Democrat supporter, it's not that simple, because that's the same no matter who wins. And I want the non-Trump candidate to win, but the party has sabotaged their chances in a manner as to appear deliberate.
- ActorNightly 2y agoDemocrats have shown plenty of steps to rectify the supreme court ruling. If he have both executive and both houses control under Democratic rule, its very likely that they can clean out the Trump cronies from the Supreme Court.
- 2y ago
- adsharma 2y agoModerators unflagging this makes a lot of sense. I felt the threads about the assassination attempt a week ago deserved similar treatment for the historical relevance. Whatever is done here should be done with a consistent set of principles applied to both parties.
- adsharma 2y ago[flagged]
- theossuary 2y agoThere was a thread about the Trump assassination attempt, it was unflagged: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40957564 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40957564
- adsharma 2y agoAh, Thank you. I didn't check back after noticing that it was flagged. Same as this one.
- adsharma 2y agoA week later. Compare the engagement metrics between the two posts in question. They were both flagged and then unflagged. A blog post with exact timelines and some graphs could help understand what happened.
- ESTheComposer 2y ago[dead]
- ofcourseyoudo 2y agoThank you Joe, you are a true patriot and your legacy will be as a great President.
- krmboya 2y ago[flagged]
- sameoldtune 2y agoThat is a counterfactual that is pretty hard to prove. The US is a very large machine and I find it hard to believe that two wars were enabled by the presidents weak will alone.
- 11thEarlOfMar 2y agoIt's illustrative to hear RFK Jr's take on what initiated the Ukraine War: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RBpPPki-7Rc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RBpPPki-7Rc
- 0dayz 2y agoMaybe if one thinks schizo ramblings is 'illustrative'.
- dclowd9901 2y agoEchoes of W.
- eBombzor 2y agoBiden and Trump are quite similar in foreign policy though. Maybe Trump could have pulled out quicker, but he would've had the same initial responses.
- newfriend 2y agoI highly doubt Trump would have left billions of dollars worth of equipment in Afghanistan, along with 13 US citizens losing their lives.
- n1gg3rk1ll3r231 2y ago[flagged]
- jjtheblunt 2y agodoes anyone know the psychology of sharing photos with Harris and Biden tilted like pi/8 radians counterclockwise? I see it repeatedly since this story broke, but not earlier. It likely relates to how outlets looking to promote a person (athlete, candidate, whatever) tend to show them from below, as if they're larger than normal, but that's just a guess.
- jmyeet 2y agoWe live in unprecedented times. The last time we had a sitting president not seek reelection like this was LBJ and he announced his intentions in March, 1968 [1]. We don't have the communications media we have now. This had a massive impact. The Democrats were largely unprepared, in part because RFK was assassinated in June. This ushered in Nixon who expanded the war in Vietnam, started the illegal bombing of Cambodia that killed hundreds of thousands [2], started the War on Drugs [3], reshaped the Supreme Court and ultimately created a crisis leading to his resignation in 1974. Biden should've announced last year he wasn't seeking reelection, giving time for a real primary process. But we are where we are. Some will point to Biden's achievements, and there definitely are some major achievements, but elections are forward-looking. It's not just about how Biden is now. It's how we would've expetged him to be 1 year from now, 2 years from now, 4 years from now. And those prospects weren't good. I do believe this was the right decision (albeit way too late). This is an opportunity to reset what otherwise was looking like a bleak race for so many of us. [1]: https://www.history.com/news/lbj-exit-1968-presidential-race https://www.history.com/news/lbj-exit-1968-presidential-race [2]: https://www.history.com/news/nixon-war-powers-act-vietnam-war-cambodia https://www.history.com/news/nixon-war-powers-act-vietnam-wa... [3]: https://www.britannica.com/topic/war-on-drugs https://www.britannica.com/topic/war-on-drugs
- Everdred2dx 2y agoAppreciate the historical context. Thanks!
- asdf1145 2y agowhy were no political posts allowed when trump assassination attempt a week ago and this is now in front page?
- slater 2y agoThere was a thread; they are allowed. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- unraveller 2y agoThe assassination attempt was suppressed until people had discussed it from all angles thoroughly elsewhere and gave up trying to discuss here. Definitely not allowed in the normal sense. But here it's nothing but an instant popup blue rally, for something was totally expected.
- slater 2y agoThis post was flagged for a while, as was the trump post, for a while.
- lesuorac 2y agotbh, while I think flagging is manual, I definitely don't mind if political posts were just auto-flagged and then only one of them is "let through". Don't need 20 threads about the politics of the day with 19 of them having the top comment being "duplicate of <link>".
- Capricorn2481 2y ago> The assassination attempt was suppressed until people had discussed it from all angles thoroughly elsewhere and gave up trying to discuss here That's a lot of made up shit in one sentence.
- shadowgovt 2y agoBecause HN is not a democracy. ;)
- siliconc0w 2y agoEndorses Kamala so probably no 'mini-primary' or other challengers which is a bit of a shame. Kamala was pretty uninspiring in the primary and hasn't seemed to get a lot done as vice president while trump has gathering momentum and, maybe more importantly, money. The 'king making' party apparatus that pushed Biden despite the health issues has a lot to answer for.
- jonhohle 2y agoHarris didn’t make it to _a_ primary. If her debate performance is anything like it was in 2020, her campaign is already over.
- scoofy 2y agoNobody was voting for Biden for Biden... people were voting against Trump. I think any of the leaders Harris, Whitmer, Newsom will all do fine. The bar is so low right now, I think most people will be impressed by basic competence, which all three have in spades.
- cdrini 2y agoI wish folks wouldn't speak in absolutes this much, it's incorrect and tends to raise the temperature of a generally already heated discussion. Biden's approval rating was like 40% for most of his term. So many many many people voted for Biden for Biden. Many people followed his progress and are happy with it.
- throwaway984393 2y ago[dead]
- dbcurtis 2y agoThe reality is that the campaign donations accumulated by the Biden/Harris ticket are only available to Harris. Anybody else is funding-challenged even more than Harris at this point. From the standpoint of campaign finance laws and the practical realities of fund-raising, it was Harris all along.
- thefaux 2y agoTwo points that people are making that I feel necessary to refute because they come across as being offered from a place of bad faith or ignorance: 1) the suggestion that Biden should resign from the presidency because he is standing down from running. Biden is not saying that he is incapable of running. He and his team just understand how to read polls and don't want their party to lose the election which seemed almost certain with him at the top of the ticket. 2) the suggestion that Biden stepping down is subverting the will of the primary voters. There was no real 2024 democratic primary just like there was no republican primary in 2020. There were no serious candidates and no debates. I am sure there are Biden supporters who are disappointed and angry that he has dropped out but it was his choice to make. If he had stayed in the race, I am sure he would have secured the nomination. This wasn't taken away from him. He voluntarily stood down. A candidate should not be obliged to remain in a race just because they won a primary.
- jarsin 2y agoOn point 1 I checked the polls and they look no different than Bidens. Recent articles say the same thing. So that can't be why they chose her. "A flurry of polls conducted in the wake of the June 27 presidential debate showed Harris performing roughly the same as Biden against Trump (who has been leading the president by a slim margin for months), and more recent polls after the attempted assassination of Trump show similar trends."
- pessimizer 2y ago> There was no real 2024 democratic primary This was also a subversion of the will of primary voters. It's not a defense. A huge portion of Democratic voters wanted the candidate replaced, and there were Democratic politicians that announced their intention to be the candidate that replaced him, and others undoubtedly who would have if there hadn't been so much pressure not to, yet a serious primary wasn't run. Democratic insiders decided that no one was going to run against Biden, Democratic insiders decided after the debate that Biden was not going to run. Democratic insiders will also be choosing who will run. The most democratic and likely option will be Harris (because that's her job) but she was also chosen by Democratic insiders in 2020, not by Democratic voters, who mostly hated her. If not Harris, then Democratic insiders will either choose an arbitrary process or simply directly choose another candidate.
- outside1234 2y agoPresident Kamala Harris has a great ring. Will be great to have someone that isn’t old, a sex offender, or a felon (or all three).
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- avar 2y ago> someone that isn’t old If she wins she'll be 60 years old and 3 months old the day she assumes office. That'll make her the 13th oldest president (out of a total of 47)[1]. That's "old" by any objective definition. The only thing that makes her seem young is that the two candidates who've been in the race so far are #1 and #2 on that list. She'll certainly be a young president compared to the two oldest presidents to have ever held the office. 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_presidents_of_the_United_States_by_age https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_presidents_of_the_Unit...
- 10xDev 2y agoThere is a difference between being older and being old. But even if we are comparing we are talking a 5 year difference from the median age from start of presidency and at a period where life quality and expectancy is much higher.
- rsynnott 2y ago60 is a perfectly reasonable age to take a demanding job, though. Most people would not consider that _80_ was.
- garaetjjte 2y agoWell, in some countries 60 is a retirement age.
- rsynnott 2y agoSure, but even in countries where you can retire with full pension at 60, it's not _uncommon_ for people to remain in senior positions up to their late 60s.
- yieldcrv 2y agoNancy Pelosi and the Obamas have not endorsed Kamala Trading the open primary news on the prediction markets, there’s a lot of liquidity finally!
- timbit42 2y agoI'm wondering if the Obamas haven't because Michelle hasn't ruled out running. She has said she wouldn't but that may have been to support Biden and now that there is an opening, she may take it.
- rrrrrrrrrrrryan 2y agoShe's probably the only person that would stand a better chance at winning against Trump than Kamala. Kamala's already got it in the bag, and if the DNC pushes her aside and replace her with a man, they risk losing the women swing-state voters that they desperately need. And if they replace her with a white person, they risk frustrating the black voters in the south that they need just as much. Name recognition matters a ton in presidential elections, and there's no time to build up a new candidate from scratch: literally the only black woman that's famous enough and politically competent enough to reasonably challenge Kamala is Michelle Obama. (I don't think she's going to do it though, she hates politics and prefers working in the nonprofit space.)
- Rapzid 2y agoObama generally doesn't endorse early to avoid the optics of him putting his thumb on the scales. The DNC will likely go through the motions of a primary, so he'll wait for the right time.
- dbg31415 2y agoHe did the right thing. DNC needs a policy where they won’t endorse candidates who will be over 65 on the day they take office. Nobody in their 80s should be running for office. By then they had their chance to influence the next generation… or not.
- avitous 2y agoBetter yet, this needs to be the law of the land for all parties. Once someone reaches 60-65 or so, they need to step aside and serve at most in an advisory role. Let the younger crowd take the helm of leadership.
- dbg31415 2y agoI guess I like this at the party level, not enforced by law... but I understand I'm being pedantic and it probably means the same thing. I just don't want the law to say, "Hey 65+, we don't have to listen to anything you have to say any more!" I like the idea of some crusty old Bernie Sanders type running for office on his own, for years on end, sniping votes and still managing to steer the candidates a bit on some of his pet issues... but I think it's irresponsible for major parties to endorse people who are so old. Like... look at Ruth Bader Ginsburg... a beloved judge who just overstayed her time on the bench and died in office... opening the door for Trump to replace her. But... then again Mitch McConnell kept Obama from being able to replace a judge too... just a tricky spot. Democrats got outplayed, and we'll be feeling it for the next generation to come. Ugh. But I do think that if RBG had just resigned at say the start of Obama's 2nd term that we'd be in a better spot today. Can't imagine even McConnell would have been able to keep the vote from coming up for 4 years...
- HarHarVeryFunny 2y agoNot going to happen, but I wonder how a mixed party ticket would do. Kamala (or whoever) + Mitt Romney as VP ? Has it ever been done? Would it work to attract the center/swing vote, or more likely to be a negative?
- dustinmr 2y agoHere’s a good thought experiment: https://www.thebigquestions.com/2024/07/21/the-next-democratic-president/ https://www.thebigquestions.com/2024/07/21/the-next-democrat...
- barfingclouds 2y agoI’d be into that
- mbs159 2y agoIt happens in EU countries, where it's not unusual for a right-leaning President to elect a left-leaning Prime Minister. Worth noting that a Prime Minister in the EU often has more power than the VP in the US.
- RaftPeople 2y agoThat's a pretty interesting thought. I read something a few years ago that said moderates/non-affiliated make up the majority of voters with only a smaller percentage on left and right tied to the parties (somewhere maybe in 15% to 20% range on each side, can't remember exactly). So it seems like a good mix of moderate could possibly win, especially when the other candidate is so polarizing.
- yieldcrv 2y agoYeah partisans arent good at winning friends and influencing people in their pathetic partisan power struggles They’ve spent nearly a decade isolating themselves in an algorithm fueled mirror room, while disassociating from everyone that doesn't already agree with them 100% instead of any color coded “wave” occurring despite their recurring delusions, there’s gridlock in the senate, no filibuster proof majority, they’ve lost affiliation and independents are the largest political affiliation in the country now with almost zero representation
- ipaddr 2y ago[flagged]
- mixmastamyk 2y agoThere were another dozen submissions of this flagged dead.
- booleandilemma 2y ago[flagged]
- antisthenes 2y agoI think it's pretty obvious that the assassination attempt will not generate good discussion. Most online platforms are just a collection of spicy take memes about the event. In case of Biden stepping down, there's a lot more to discuss, ranging from his legacy as a statesman to the future of the election.
- booleandilemma 2y agoI think it's pretty obvious there's a leftist bias on this site. Good luck with the cackler :)
- antisthenes 2y agoI think both things are true. There's a leftist bias and what I stated in my original post.
- Capricorn2481 2y agoIf there was a leftist bias don't you think it'd make sense to promote a story of Trump getting shot by his own base? Sounds like there's a right wing bias.
- aaron695 2y ago[dead]
- ActorNightly 2y agoThere has been a massive wave of bot and probably real human activity to supress assasination talk on line. Wouldn't be surprised its because of this. Even in these comments from these farms trying to downplay Kamala and Biden, posting obviously false information.
- layer8 2y ago
- tonymet 2y agoBe skeptical. Why are announcements being delivered from the social media staff via twitter ? Where is the President ?
- flappyeagle 2y agoWhy are posting on HN? You should be escaping the feds. They’re after you! Hurry and wrap your head in foil so they don’t read your thoughts. And destroy the computer you’re posting from so they don’t trace your IP. You’re welcome.
- tonymet 2y agoI post here because most of the audience is intelligent, but there are exceptions.
- mattnewton 2y agoStill sick with Covid. I expect him to address the nation early next week, like he promised in his letter. It is unfortunate that this is on social media, mostly twitter though. I understand this is probably too close to campaigning for Biden to feel comfortable with posting it on whitehouse.gov, but I feel like the president should have a pulpit where someone contributing millions to the opposing party can't plaster their view right underneath it. Another problem with the centralized web - reading the president's letter with the promoted posts and ads on x right under feels tacky as hell here.
- tonymet 2y agowould any other serious announcement be welcomed with such little scrutiny? and it's inconsistent with his messaging even just a few days ago
- uhtred 2y agoOr do you only read twitter to stay informed? There's a signed letter from Biden announcing it, published on reputable news websites.
- silexia 2y agoThe party of let's save democracy, just had a successful soft coup against their popularly elected primary candidate. Now the party elite will choose your candidate for you.
- mkoubaa 2y agoThis was a forgone conclusion since the debate but there needed to be prolonged drama to save face
- doktorhladnjak 2y agoAlso timing the media cycle with the Republican convention just finishing up. No time for much of a convention bounce
- nightowl_games 2y agoI think the prolonged drama made it far far worse for Biden's legacy
- mkoubaa 2y agoIt wasn't his face the party wanted to save
- dyauspitr 2y agoI disagree. His legacy is strong and he will be viewed very favorably.
- porkbeer 2y agoBy whom? My politically minded friends of all alignments seem to all dislike him. Most vocalky the more liberal voices. Its frankly a bit weird.
- dyauspitr 2y agoI mean we could just swap anecdotes but everyone I know deeply respects and loves Joe while realizing he was too old to continue.
- megous 2y ago[flagged]
- adolph 2y ago"It became necessary to destroy [democracy] to save it." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_B%E1%BA%BFn_Tre https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_B%E1%BA%BFn_Tre
- mikemitchelldev 2y agoIs Gavin Newsome more likely as the Dem candidate now that the wealthiest members of the tech community got their preferred Republican VP candidate?
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- evdubs 2y agoHe did tick up after the debate, but now Kamala is heavily favored for the Democrats. https://www.realclearpolling.com/betting-odds/2024/president https://www.realclearpolling.com/betting-odds/2024/president
- drusepth 2y agoWhy is Obama (I assume Michelle?) in those odds (and, interestingly, at #3 right behind Kamala)? Has she ever indicated she might run?
- evdubs 2y agoNo, those are just longshot odds that bookmakers, for whatever reason, have.
- maxerickson 2y ago"for whatever reason" Because enough people wanted to bet on it and they make money on every bet.
- dredmorbius 2y agoGiven Biden's endorsement of Harris, a fellow Californian, Newsom will probably not be on the ticket, due to Constitutional limitations. That's not dispositive, but has generally been interpreted as requiring the two executive candidates to be from different states. The actual language concerns how electors must vote, in Article II, Section I, Clause III: The electors shall meet in their respective states, and vote by ballot for two persons, of whom one at least shall not be an inhabitant of the same state with themselves. <https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution-conan/article-2/section-1/clause-3 https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution-conan/article-2/sec...> In strict compliance, this would require California's electors to split their votes on candidates from other states, though other states wouldn't face this limitation. History.com addressed this earlier this year: "Can the President and Vice President Be From the Same State?" <https://www.history.com/news/can-the-president-and-vice-president-be-from-the-same-state https://www.history.com/news/can-the-president-and-vice-pres...>
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- znpy 2y agoI’m still dreaming of seeing Bernie Sanders as POTUS.
- monero-xmr 2y ago[flagged]
- newsclues 2y agoGiven the recent claims that the President was healthy and fit for office despite evidence to the contrary and now this admission, how can anyone trust the party?
- gigatexal 2y agoThis is so exciting! If I could be a fly on the wall in Trump-ville right now. I wonder what they’re thinking?
- SV_BubbleTime 2y agoWhy would not think they were very aware this was a possibility? Because it is a shock to you, you assume it would be a shock to them? Do you really think they read the news to find the news? Or do you think there are layers and levels that you are not privy to?
- gigatexal 2y agoBecause Trump is an idiot but his movement of grifters is not. If Trump was smart he’d have picked a candidate of color. Instead he went with a mediocre Peter Thiel VC plant who wants to make America like the Handmaid’s tale. I think they were banking on Biden staying in and being stubborn. Do you really think Biden would leave his son’s incarceration up to chance? That he voluntarily left the run for POTUS is huge and while they say they’re prepared I think Trumpville is scared. If the democrats run an open primary and let the merits of the candidates win they’ll emerge with a slam dunk.
- SV_BubbleTime 2y ago> If Trump was smart he’d have picked a candidate of color. Sounds racist. How about he pick the person best suited for the role?
- gigatexal 2y agoBecause it’s about winning and politics is as much about appealing to the most people as it is merits. If you think it’s only merits that anyone wins on then tell me in what universe Trump wins on merits? People can be diverse and the best for the job too ;-)
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- tiffanyh 2y agoPutting politics aside … Why don’t they have an age limit on the president (or any elected office)? E.g., you must be younger than the average life expectancy (currently men: 73yo / female: 79) - while in office. https://www.ssa.gov/oact/STATS/table4c6.html https://www.ssa.gov/oact/STATS/table4c6.html
- mistermann 2y agoI see little reason to believe "democracy" is in any way designed to be optimal (for citizens anyways), and lots to believe it is not (and it would seem intentionally not).
- catothedev 2y agoBear in mind that your life expectancy is higher as you get older. E.g. the life expectancy for a 72 yr old is not 73, its higher. But I agree with the general point about an age cap.
- eviks 2y agoBecause that's politics (that you can't put aside) Life expectancy is also an irrelevant measurement for this
- valval 2y agoWhy would they? If people want an old president, then they shall get one. That’s just democracy.
- michael1999 2y agoThey do. At least 35.
- amai 2y agoMaybe then there should also be an age limit for voters.
- makach 2y agoThere is a lower limit but not an upper limit. Who knows how old we can be in the future, there are coherent smart people over 80 today. But hey, it’s a democracy and if you want to change it you can try…!
- poikroequ 2y agoAll of this discussion. Most people don't understand, were not voting for Biden, were voting against Trump. The DNC could nominate a floating turd in a bowl, and we'd still vote Democrat, because it's not a vote for Trump.
- mdp2021 2y agoTo the best interpretation of the above post, the poster seems to forget that those who take care of winning an election need to focus on the undecided voters in the middle.
- poikroequ 2y agoMore people voted in the 2020 presidential election than any before it, not because they were Biden supporters, but because they loathed Trump. The Democrats need to stop being apologetic, and keep reminding people what a horrible person Trump really is. That's how they will win the 2024 election.
- b3ing 2y ago[flagged]
- hn_throwaway_99 2y agoAnd your point is? Mitch McConnell is not running for another term, and he is stepping down from his position as Senate Republican leader in November.
- nothrowaways 2y agoJust looking at the top 1k comments to that joe biden's tweet, it looks like they are all written by one man. At least written by from one side i.e. hate and insults and pro republican side!
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- nothrowaways 2y ago[flagged]
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- nothrowaways 2y ago[flagged]
- sashank_1509 2y agoI wonder if we can give the voters an option of no president. I would choose it, barring some insane calamity (like country X deciding to invade USA) I think everything will run fine without a presidency.
- decremental 2y ago[dead]
- twodave 2y agoAs a registered Republican who voted IND in 2016 and then for Trump in 2020 (which probably puts me in about a 0.1% minority on a site like this), I feel upset that the democratic process for choosing a nominee for the Democratic Party is about to just get bypassed. Are other folks feeling this? I’d be even more riled up if this were my party telling me, “Oh, that guy you voted for in the primaries? We thought he couldn’t win so we will harass him until he quits, then we are going to replace him with someone better (since we know better than the voters).”
- joshmarinacci 2y agoVoting for the candidate at the convention actually is the process. It always has been. It’s just been a while since the outcome of the vote was unknown until we got to the convention itself.
- twodave 2y ago[flagged]
- jlev1 2y agoMake up your mind, are you mad they pressured him to withdraw or mad they tried to keep him in the race? Given your voting record and the fact that you’ve just criticized the democrats for two opposite courses of action in back to back posts (and I see your now several other posts hoping to find democrats mad at the DNC), I think you’re a plain ol’ conservative who’s inclined to find fault with the Democratic Party regardless of what specifically they do.
- lesuorac 2y agoI mean whats the point of a having a primary system if you're going to just have the guy that won it back down and appoint a successor? Sure, the convention is the votes that actually matter just like the electoral college but every time the popular vote gets upset by the electoral vote people are mad.
- linotype 2y agoI’ll pass on Kamala. Biden should have let democracy do its thing during the primary.
- nothercastle 2y agoI think it’s incredibly significant that the announcement came on twitter a network run by a prominent trump supporter. You have to wonder how that all went down for the administration to have to resort to that opinion. For many hours it seemed like the announcement might have actually been a hoax because of how unofficial seeming the announcement was. I really want to read on how this all went down.
- latexr 2y agoBiden’s account is from 2007 and has over 38 million followers. There’s nothing strange about the way it was announced.
- nothercastle 2y agoWhy didn’t they announce at a scheduled time on a friendly network? Like there has to be an interesting story here, it would make a good or tv show.
- latexr 2y agoIt sounds you actively want to read too much into it and find some conspiracy. Announcing a scheduled time would be as silly as your question. As soon as they scheduled it, it would leak and they would lose control of the narrative. I don’t know if you noticed this, but the internet is kind of a big deal and politicians have been using social media as part of their campaign and communications for a while.
- Darkstar1 2y ago[dead]
- DemocracyFTW2 2y agogood move, thank you Joe
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- Khelavaster 2y ago[flagged]
- aristofun 2y agoAs an outsider who lived in different countries and different regimes — i am very surprised substantial amount of people are still blind to the disaster which Biden’s administration are currently moving country to.
- 00_hum 2y agohow is this on HN but the assassination attempt wasnt? at least not until much later
- mylastattempt 2y agoUS Politics are the "keeping up with the Kardashians" of all political drama around the world. It was clear they should not have let Biden try for a second term. How many hundreds of millions of people live in the US, and this is the best we can present as candidate in a two-party system? Instead of arguing why he's "actually not THAT old, he has good days too!" like an alcoholic defending himself by saying he only had light beers yesterday - it's ridiculous. completely missing the forest for the trees. Or the other way around. Waiting from the debate until now (that the Republican convention is over) to announce Biden's retreat was just a waste of time. Especially without a clear and backed replacement. As a party they should have pulled him out and said, we as a party have a better representative of our ideas and values, here's Johnny! but they didn't because of losing face. To who? To the republicans. They were not voting for your team either way, you dummies! You are red or blue in 2024. Any voter that can truly be convinced at this stage to change their color and vote, well, how can I put this without being rude. Let's say I would value my toddlers' navigational instructions more than your opinion and vote. You think any 'undecided' voter that might have gone with Biden, will now switch team because they don't like the new candidate, and then go 180 and vote Trump? It's painful to even think of this hideous game of charades. Money wins in the end anyway. Apologies, this was perhaps more of a rant than a usefull comment adding to the discussion.
- michelb 2y agoNon-American here. Do you think will there ever be serious room for more parties in America?
- superposeur 2y agoNo. Due to the game theory of the (non-parliamentary, winner-take-all) system, 2 is an equilibrium for number of parties. As in, smaller third parties are quickly “absorbed” into one of the two large parties to have any shot at winning. As a consequence, the two parties are constantly changing, to the point that, for instance, the Republican Party of 2024 has little to do with the Republican Party of a decade ago.
- naruhodo 2y agoNon-American answer: that will never happen unless both parties agree to switch to ranked-choice single-transferrable-vote. So no, never.
- mkoubaa 2y agoThe parties don't have to agree. The states set the voting rules and can do so by referenda
- rldjbpin 2y agoi understand the significance of this news for majority of the users here, but unsure if it fits the guidelines of what should be discussed here. > If they'd cover it on TV news, it's probably off-topic.
- camdenreslink 2y agoI think there are exceptions allowed for major events (if only the keep all of the discussion in one place, preventing it from bleeding into the rest of the site).
- rldjbpin 2y agodon't want to harp on this but the discourse is not from the lens of how it will affect the industry, and there are other threads opened for the same. i suppose that this is one of the said exceptions then.
- Arthur_ODC 2y agoIt would be nice if the added a "Major Events" discussion list to this page for things like this : https://news.ycombinator.com/lists https://news.ycombinator.com/lists
- rubytubido 2y agoTrump assassination attempt - no discussions on HN, Biden was told to step down - BREAKING!!!
- defrost 2y agoTrump injured but ‘fine’ after attempted assassination at rally (apnews.com) 267 points by happyopossum 8 days ago | 552 comments https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40957564 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40957564 and multiple other threads (most eventually merged)
- rubytubido 2y agoThanks, I was wrong, based on the comments it looks like it was flagged
- defrost 2y agoThat's HN users that hit [flag] and [vouch] TBH a great many high comment high interest threads get [flagged] on HN thanks to fat fingers on little screens so it's hard to judge from that alone. Watching it on the day they were mostly not flagged for much of the time .. dang (moderator) wasn't even "here" until hours later - he took an internet free holiday fishing somewhere or something.
- sanbor 2y agoWhat about Biden as VP? He would stay around to support Kamala and the formula would benefit from his popularity.
- fny 2y agoIf Biden is unfit to run and there was an adhoc referendum for him to step down, why would he be fit to be VP?
- sanbor 2y agoYou are probably right. I stated the why in my comment (known name, trust, experience). The requirements for VP are usually lower than for President. If the only reason to be unfit is age, Trump is just four years younger than Biden and also makes mistakes and says nonsense (Nikki Haley, Nikki Haley, Nikki Haley, Nikki Haley, Nikki Haley…)
- rswail 2y agoIn his final 6 months, set up a plan for a Constitutional amendment that puts an upper age limit of 75 at the start of a term of office for Members of Congress, Senators, POTUS, VPOTUS, Executive appointments requiring Senate consent, Judges, with compulsory retirement at 75 for lifetime appointments.
- rrnechmech 2y agoSome say and I agree that he should have gone all the way in, and resigned
- th3byrdm4n 2y agoI don't think a magic number is the right solution here.
- barfingclouds 2y agoI do. There’s an age minimum for presidents
- rglover 2y agoPresidents should be held to similar health and psychological requirements as astronauts. The role/responsibilities require the same level of performance.
- jfengel 2y agoThe President has no role to play in the Constitutional amendment process. Biden could use his time to promote one, but there is absolutely no way it can be done in six months. A Constitutional amendment is an enormous hurdle to overcome -- three-quarters of the state legislatures.
- majani 2y agoClearly there is a preferred age group amongst the electorate, so the open market solved this problem
- treebeard901 2y agoIt is surprising how the past three Presidential elections the Democratic party has had the least democratic process during the primaries. In 2016, the Clintons ran a normal primary, but Bernie was creatively railroaded by the establishment and the superdelegates. The superdelegates went for Clinton 78% to Sanders 7%. In 2020, COVID caused a lot of problems and Biden was basically selected without much of a real primary. Although he did secure the nomination and go on to win. This year, due to party control they concealed the fact that Joe Biden was deteriorating. Fear of Trump was used to keep anyone from really challenging the incumbent. There was no real democratic primary here either. Due to campaign finance laws, the money donated to the Biden/Harris campaign is now locked to one of those two candidates. In effect, Kamala now is likely to be the candidate because of the lie about Joe Biden and collecting all the donations. For tons of reasons, the Democrats are now locked into a Harris campaign. All of this is just a way to subvert a real democratic process...
- Exectscard 2y ago[flagged]
- indil 2y agoDon't forget the 60+ rules they changed to keep RFK from winning the primary. Basically what they accuse Putin of doing to secure his election wins. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yFjZZjP25jk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yFjZZjP25jk