From TPM Reader NL …
I have been watching this debate with a combination of sadness and anger.
On the sadness – Biden has probably been the best and most effective Democratic president since probably LBJ. His 4 years in office have been amazingly productive and he did not settle for limping out of the Covid recession.
The anger is less at Biden and simply at the fact that we are at this point. Biden is 80 fucking 2. He looks it and sounds like it thanks to the cold. Biden is great at being president, but not running for it. He is not the singular talent that Obama and Clinton were. He’s there because the younger generation of Democratic leaders went too far out on the lefty fringe to the win the primary. Again, not taking anything away from his skill in carrying out the duties of the office, but prosecuting the case against your opponents and raising the salience of issues are big parts of his keeping the job. He can’t do it via the camping trail because he is 82 and does not grab media attention the same way the other candidates might. His one shot was the debate and it is over. If he doesn’t lose ground it will be a miracle.
I am just mad that we have all these 70-plus Democrats setting the country back because their don’t know when to call it quits – Ginsburg, Feinstein, Biden, and Sotomayor. If Biden had chosen someone with something resembling political talent (winning a primary in CA is not exactly the best preparation for a presidential candidate), there would at least be a strong successor. Christ, what cluster luck at this moment in history.
Ezra’s convention swaporama is a completely insane and dumb idea, but so is sticking with a losing candidate with a losing strategy.
