I did not have ‘Pelosi takes on the gerontocracy’ on my 2024 bingo card
One Pelosi ally said it was possible she would press Biden publicly to give up his spot atop the Democratic ticket.
“The speaker does not want to call on him to resign, but she will do everything in her power to make sure it happens,” this person said, referring to Biden quitting the race.
[Edit] changed the title to Politico’s after reading this community’s sidebar
Harris and a progressive vp would win, biden needs to go away now and enjoy being a old person
She was using a Ouija board to contact an ancestor but got her wires crossed and ended up in Joe’s mind, being as it is half-way down the tunnel towards the light.
She is one to talk.
Remember that billionaire wedding during COVID, with Nancy Pelosi front and center and happy as could be? There really should have been a Democratic rebellion at that. She was just doing everything she possibly could to undercut Democratic messaging for her stupid fucking social life. And then she went home and traded some stocks.
Pot, meet kettle.
Don’t take sides. Look at the facts.
Biden is facing triple whammy - (1) poll numbers are not good, especially more than 60% Democrats wanting him to step aside, and Biden under performing D-senators/senate candidates in battleground states, (2) big donors withholding money, and (3) media frenzy.
Biden can survive one or two of these whammies but not all three simultaneously.
He’ll eventually step aside. It’s not Pelosi’s fault. In fact, if it’s anybody it’s Obama, who remains silent.
While all of those are bottom-line results, it all comes back to a central theme.
We all know he flubbed the debate. But what’s worse is how badly he’s flubbing the response and aftermath. He said it was just a bad night. If that was true, he should’ve been on every news, opinion, political, and talk show the very next day, or at least within a week. Not just the usual and friendly shows, either. From Maddow to Gutfeld to Fallon, he needed to show the world that he could still do it. And he used to be able to.
Waiting a week to give a single lackluster interview, then 2 more weeks while there’s clearly a fire burning? He has to know that’s not an acceptable response, or else he’s too insulated.
That said, this isn’t the kind of thing you can publicly contemplate. You have to smother it, until you embrace it. You can’t walk back from that.
I do suspect there are a number of backroom discussions, and possibly even deals being made. It won’t be acknowledged until its unveiling, when he officially steps aside.
if it’s anybody it’s Obama, who remains silent.
I don’t think it’s really fair to blame Obama now, it’s a clusterfuck and why would he want to get back in the middle of things. Also if we are to blame Obama for anything, it should be for him discouraging Biden not to run in 2016 over Hillary. Even if Biden lost like Hillary did back then, he likely wouldn’t run again in 2020, leaving an opening for younger Democrats to enter the presidential scene, avoiding the whole situation we’re in now.
The other issue is that even if Biden does drop out, what nominee would be able to survive the three wammies?
Also if we are to blame Obama for anything, it should be for him discouraging Biden not to run in 2016 over Hillary
Deeper than that. Obama inherited the party infrastructure Howard Dean built as DNC chair that was effective at state and local levels. That infrastructure completely fell apart after Obama loyalists took over the party after 2008. Dean ran a 50 state strategy and had built the party to support lower level candidates and contest elections Democrats had traditionally ignored. Post Obama the party shifted back to a focus on marquee races that didn’t really provide support to state parties and startup candidates.
That’s genuinely the single biggest Obama fuckup that doesn’t really get talked about much because it’s very insider baseball. But it’s had very real effects on how Democrats have failed in lower level elections in the years since, which has percolated up into everything else since.
Though perhaps if Biden lost in 2016 we would’ve had Hilary running in 2020, and who knows if she would’ve won that one. Then we could be approaching Trump’s 3rd term (with help from his friends in the Supreme Court) with Russia chewing through Ukraine and on their way to Eastern Europe, a fractured NATO alliance, and probably some other unimaginable horrors.
With Trump running in 16, 20, and 24, I don’t know if there’s a timeline change that would prevent 2024 from being an absolute clusterfuck. Unless maybe RBG had retired during Obama’s term as she should have.
As the party’s elder statesman, it is Obama’s job to say what he thinks about party issues. But, his silence is a form of communication. It says that he basically agrees with what is happening to his old buddy Joe. Obama could have ended this a week ago by coming out 4 Square for Joe while urging party unity. He did not.
