I think Biden is going to go down as the person that broke the democratic party. But in reality, the blame lies on Obama for convincing Biden to step aside in 2016 and let it be Hillary Clinton. Biden had a much better chance at beating Trump in 2016 than Clinton.

I see what you're saying, but I put that on Hilary. How much dirt must she have had on everyone else such that that the party establishment treated her candidacy as Manifest Destiny and the best democrat unafraid to run against her was socialist grandpa from Vermont who wasn't even a democrat?

People were praising Biden for stepping aside, but he only stepped aside once he was forced. Had he made this decision earlier, the Democratic Party would have had the time to do a proper primary.

> would have had the time to do a proper primary.

But then they wouldn't have been able to try and transfer his incumbency bonus as easily.

Agreed. I thought it seemed obvious back in 2020 that we'd see a candidate flip for this election, but no one in the Dem's leadership saw this coming? If they'd been positioning Harris and laying groundwork for the last four years this would have been an easy win for them.

Or perhaps if they had used democratic practices and let the constituents of their party actually vote to choose who they thought was best suited.

Biden pulling out so close to election didn’t let them actually go through their process to elect their nominee. It’s quite possible democrats would have chosen a candidate who was not associated with Biden and thus more electable.

> I think Biden's decision to run for a second term was what sunk them

You think?

> Democrats had to

Oh? Oh— They had to.

> the only viable alternative

K.

>I think Biden's decision to run for a second term was what sunk them.

They didn't have anybody else they could think of who was more electable. They had squandered years when they should have groomed flashier personalities having more substance than Trump.

The only reason Trump got in to begin with is the Republicans had squandered their own years, and by the time 2024 came around neither party had anyone to offer who wasn't a bit more elderly than average.

I would have liked to see Biden pick Haley as his running mate, and if that didn't work, then resign and make Harris president right there at the primary.

Yeah he RBG’d American real hard. Not only the late drop out after the primary, but also he put in D- effort into selling his work during his term. I think he did many decent things, but sold them like a wet sock.

lack of good messaging around the economic policies was also a big factor during Harris campaign. They could have attacked Trump on tariffs but mostly gave him a pass. Also mostly gave him a pass on not debating. Was puzzling.