The eight week run for the gold or lead chalice, depending on the outcome of the election, would draw almost all the energy away from Trump, there is no better reason to do it. Really like the survivor Candidate Race. The easiest way, is to get each delegation to nominate up to two nominations. Any other delegation, that has no nominee, other than one already on the board, could decline to name one. Once there is a final number of nominees, it is time for a vote. The entire convention delegation would be required to vote on each nominee. The requirement to go further is they must get at least 40% of the vote. Any delegation could vote for as many or as few nominees as they chose. Once they are down to five or six it is question time.
Question time is being hit with five question out of a possible one hundred, with two proposed by each delegation. No question would be repeated twice. After all have had their time in the spot light answering, it is voting time again. This time the same rules, except the nominee must cross 50%. Some will have dropped out, then comes debate time.
The head of the state delegation that the nominee was born in, gets to ask each nominee a question, after those have been done, Democrat leaders take over and question them for an hour or more.
Then it is voting time again. Same rules, but a 57.5%+ minimum to go on. After this the convention
goes back to ordinary rules, and may the best person win.
It should be riveting TV for any political junkie and or Trump hater. The reviews would be reasonable, possibly great.
After the nominee and their vice-nominee have been chosen, its SHOW TIME.
Get that show on the road with plenty of stops and hope the candidates can keep up.
Joe, your analysis is spot on. Biden did a miserable performance in the debate. Right at the beginning he looked ancient, uncomfortable and appeared older than his 81 years. My guess is his debate preparation team kept filling him with statistics and lines and did not give him time to rest. Shame on his team. But one must assume Biden has good days and bad days. It happens with age. I am 77 and I know.
I wrote a Substack a year ago saying Biden should retire at the end of his term, and he could rejoice in his many accomplishments. But he rejected that advice and his ego drove him forward, so he risked the opposite of a retirement at the top of his game. And now we have the results that the downside risk has become reality.
I agree that Biden needs to withdraw. He is not up to competing against Trump, and we cannot risk a Trump election to the presidency. Trump is also degraded at 78 and he talks gibberish and cannot remember things. He lies because he fails to admit the truth. He is the Joseph Goebbels of this election.
The Democratic Party and the nation cannot afford the risk of allowing Trump back to the Oval Office armed with his 2025 Manual from the Heritage Group. Though Trump is diminished, he will bring on loyalists to implement his authoritarian and anti-democratic government. He will look to Putin, Xi, Orban and Netanyahu for guidance. We cannot take that risk.
Democratic leaders need to meet with Joe and Jill Biden and tell them it is time to step aside and allow new, energetic leaders to compete for the nomination. Yes, it will be chaotic, but other countries hold elections without the ridiculous two-year slog. There are good candidates waiting in the wings. They will come forward if Biden opens the door for them. Personally I think Josh Shapiro would be an effective candidate. He could make mincemeat of Trump's stream of consciousness and threats and intimidation. Trump debates like the Mafia Boss he is. Last time he told the Proud Boys to be ready, and he unleashed their horror at the Capitol. They were Trump's hitmen. Shapiro would call Trump out on such tactics and reveal Trump's inability to govern. Shapiro would respond to Trump's lies with factual support to shut Trump down.
But Biden cannot take forever to make a decision as there is not much time to the Convention. New candidates need some time to present themselves to the American people.
Hopefully leading democrats will help Biden make a quick decision to exit and retire.
Biden might be O.K. much of the time, as his supporters claim, but he isn't getting younger and the presidency is a full time job. Clearly he is inarticulate and incapable some of the time, as we saw, to our sorrow, on Thursday. If Biden were to step down and release his delegates, it would be difficult to deny the top spot to Harris. You know she would want it! I think sidelining the first Black woman to hold the V.P. job would tear up the party. But remember 2019 when her presidential campaign failed to get traction and folded early? She was not a good or appealing campaigner. I think it is past time for the U.S. to elect a woman president but could Harris succeed? I am awfully afraid not. But if Whittmer, or Shapiro, or (name your favorite) were to be nominated instead, would minority voters be so turned off and angry that they stayed home?
Joe, I hope you appreciate the delicious irony that you are now advocating for the same sort of gladiatorial game show that Mark Burnett (a mate) created that gave us Trump. That’s how far The Democratic elites and DNC have fallen!
At 83, I am old enough to remember the last conventions that were fun to watch. The Rs in '52 and the Ds in '60. Who says these events have to be scripted theater?
Also a reminder to Jackson74 that the choice of Truman in '44 was at least as propitious as the choice of Johnson in'60, whether or not he was the pick of FDR or the Democratic political pros.
Joe, I think Biden just might be putting pressure on the Dems to make a move. I believe he's finished, is worn out but doesn't feel the Party has it's act together yet. A friend suggested Biden step down, let Harris finish* out his term. Newsom should become the candidate, could win the election, *appoint Harris to SCOTUS when the opening come up. Newsom gives Biden the Medal of Honor for his saving Democracy and returning the country to some level of sanity. Everybody wins. A good plan.
Your plan is similar to the one I’ve been flogging, but why take a chance on a Republican senate in 2025? Ask Sotomayor point-blank to step down; nominate Harris for SCOTUS, then announce that Biden will also be stepping down, now with Kamala getting a lifetime dream job on the court instead of the presidency she’ll never, ever win.
Stop the bed wetting and get on with moving the campaign and the country forward.
It happened
F*%$^&$% march as one highlighting the demented, unctious mendacity of the Other Guy.
Full bore repeat the accomplishments of what Biden has done and the checklist still to be accomplished.
Slather media with all the lies from the Other Guy with a split screen of the lie and the fatual source.
Can you imagine an ad where The Other Guy is called out for lying about the D-Day non-visit. Then one half of the screen freezes, and Gen. Kelly comes on the right side and calls out his bullshit. Do that over and over and over and over with the plethora of former Other Guy Secretaries and aides filling the right side.
“Feeble” is a trump card? Your main man is fine except when he has “an off day” of “a cold”?
I’m sure that Putin, Xi, Haniyeh, Jong Un and any Islamic Terrorist out there will be happy to wait for the most politician in the world to be having one of his good days before they act.
One day The Democrats will understand that if the best they have is a pantomime villain, they have nothing at all to persuade the 60% of Americans who are repelled by both candidates to vote for them.
I just subscribed because this Substack is indeed sanity-based and has interesting ideas. However, contrary to what Joe says at the end, the system told me that I needed to subscribe in order to comment. So an $8 trial. If you are a non$-subscriber and can comment, please note it in a reply…
Commenting— I think the US system gives a large theoretical and practical advantage to the incumbent, so that in general in our two party system the party with the incumbent should run with him (or her). Choosing another is divisive and makes winning the election harder. This even extends to VP — the choice of Biden as VP by Obama is what set this all in motion. JFK choice of Lyndon Johnson was a rare example of a presidential candidate choosing a VP who really would make a good president.
Does anyone know if Trump/Republicans could find a way legally to stop Candidate Island? On a first ballot, are delegates committed to vote for Biden, even if he releases them? Is there any ongoing obligation to primary voters, because if Trump can force Biden to be the nominee, I would think he would, at this point?
“Any new ticket would also have to get on the ballot in 50 states, a monumental and costly undertaking that might not happen in time. Just ask RKF Jr., who has yet to get on the ballot in many states, how hard and expensive it is to qualify.
Add to this the fact that the Heritage Foundation is already preparing legal challenges. It argues that many states, including the battleground states of Georgia, Nevada and Wisconsin, might not allow a replacement on the ballot. “We are monitoring the calls from across the country for President Biden to step aside, either now or before the election, and have concluded that the process for substitution and withdrawal is very complicated,” the Executive Director of The Heritage Foundation’s Oversight Project Mike Howell said in a statement. “We will remain vigilant that appropriate election integrity procedures are followed.“
The Democrat Party nominee is automatically on the ballot. As of today, that position has not been filled. It is presumptively Biden, but until he is voted in, the name of the nominee remains empty, ready for the convention and the party to put it in. In the past, President Lyndon Johnson was on the ballot and had won some primaries, prior to his decision, not to run for re-election. As President Johnson had not been chosen and he freed his delegates, if memory serves me well, it made no difference. There is precedence for such an act, again, Biden alone must pull the plug or a 25th Amendment event must occur.
One thing that obviously is driving all of the Biden withdrawing talk but doesn’t get said enough is the plain fact that Biden is LOSING, and there’s nothing to turn this around. It will only get worse with every poll that comes out, with more people losing interest and staying home and ensuring not just a Trump presidency, but a Republican Congress and four more years of Trump picks for the judiciary. God help us. If Biden doesn’t step down and give someone a chance to win, this will be his unfortunate legacy in the eyes of history.
Stop. This is not about your opinion. It is democracy vs fascism; are you willing to have trump in order to be right? You sound like Russian propaganda.
When people age, not everything goes at the same time. It’s like bits of an iceberg breaking off. I think Joe Biden has been a consequential president, but it’s clear that beating Donald Trump is going to require a very different, concretely negative approach that is very much NOT in Joe’s wheelhouse. Is there a way to enlist him in a new kind of counter-strike? One where he helps run the plays while someone else QBs?
I would avoid gimmicks, as tempting as they might be, but here is what can and should happen:
Biden withdraws, the convention meets. They nominate candidates: we can fight about the threshold but I say anyone getting 15% of the delegates’ vote qualifies. All registered Dems then vote on the second Tuesday in September. Hopefully it’s Amy Klobuchar and we wipe the floor withe Orange Menace. Or it’s Gavin Newsom and we are all doomed. Either way, let’s keep up the pressure and make this happen.
The eight week run for the gold or lead chalice, depending on the outcome of the election, would draw almost all the energy away from Trump, there is no better reason to do it. Really like the survivor Candidate Race. The easiest way, is to get each delegation to nominate up to two nominations. Any other delegation, that has no nominee, other than one already on the board, could decline to name one. Once there is a final number of nominees, it is time for a vote. The entire convention delegation would be required to vote on each nominee. The requirement to go further is they must get at least 40% of the vote. Any delegation could vote for as many or as few nominees as they chose. Once they are down to five or six it is question time.
Question time is being hit with five question out of a possible one hundred, with two proposed by each delegation. No question would be repeated twice. After all have had their time in the spot light answering, it is voting time again. This time the same rules, except the nominee must cross 50%. Some will have dropped out, then comes debate time.
The head of the state delegation that the nominee was born in, gets to ask each nominee a question, after those have been done, Democrat leaders take over and question them for an hour or more.
Then it is voting time again. Same rules, but a 57.5%+ minimum to go on. After this the convention
goes back to ordinary rules, and may the best person win.
It should be riveting TV for any political junkie and or Trump hater. The reviews would be reasonable, possibly great.
After the nominee and their vice-nominee have been chosen, its SHOW TIME.
Get that show on the road with plenty of stops and hope the candidates can keep up.
Joe, your analysis is spot on. Biden did a miserable performance in the debate. Right at the beginning he looked ancient, uncomfortable and appeared older than his 81 years. My guess is his debate preparation team kept filling him with statistics and lines and did not give him time to rest. Shame on his team. But one must assume Biden has good days and bad days. It happens with age. I am 77 and I know.
I wrote a Substack a year ago saying Biden should retire at the end of his term, and he could rejoice in his many accomplishments. But he rejected that advice and his ego drove him forward, so he risked the opposite of a retirement at the top of his game. And now we have the results that the downside risk has become reality.
I agree that Biden needs to withdraw. He is not up to competing against Trump, and we cannot risk a Trump election to the presidency. Trump is also degraded at 78 and he talks gibberish and cannot remember things. He lies because he fails to admit the truth. He is the Joseph Goebbels of this election.
The Democratic Party and the nation cannot afford the risk of allowing Trump back to the Oval Office armed with his 2025 Manual from the Heritage Group. Though Trump is diminished, he will bring on loyalists to implement his authoritarian and anti-democratic government. He will look to Putin, Xi, Orban and Netanyahu for guidance. We cannot take that risk.
Democratic leaders need to meet with Joe and Jill Biden and tell them it is time to step aside and allow new, energetic leaders to compete for the nomination. Yes, it will be chaotic, but other countries hold elections without the ridiculous two-year slog. There are good candidates waiting in the wings. They will come forward if Biden opens the door for them. Personally I think Josh Shapiro would be an effective candidate. He could make mincemeat of Trump's stream of consciousness and threats and intimidation. Trump debates like the Mafia Boss he is. Last time he told the Proud Boys to be ready, and he unleashed their horror at the Capitol. They were Trump's hitmen. Shapiro would call Trump out on such tactics and reveal Trump's inability to govern. Shapiro would respond to Trump's lies with factual support to shut Trump down.
But Biden cannot take forever to make a decision as there is not much time to the Convention. New candidates need some time to present themselves to the American people.
Hopefully leading democrats will help Biden make a quick decision to exit and retire.
Biden might be O.K. much of the time, as his supporters claim, but he isn't getting younger and the presidency is a full time job. Clearly he is inarticulate and incapable some of the time, as we saw, to our sorrow, on Thursday. If Biden were to step down and release his delegates, it would be difficult to deny the top spot to Harris. You know she would want it! I think sidelining the first Black woman to hold the V.P. job would tear up the party. But remember 2019 when her presidential campaign failed to get traction and folded early? She was not a good or appealing campaigner. I think it is past time for the U.S. to elect a woman president but could Harris succeed? I am awfully afraid not. But if Whittmer, or Shapiro, or (name your favorite) were to be nominated instead, would minority voters be so turned off and angry that they stayed home?
Joe, I hope you appreciate the delicious irony that you are now advocating for the same sort of gladiatorial game show that Mark Burnett (a mate) created that gave us Trump. That’s how far The Democratic elites and DNC have fallen!
Well
We'll just have to wait and see on 6 Nov
Will people understand the binary choice and choose to uphold democracy?
Unlike you, I believe they will.
At 83, I am old enough to remember the last conventions that were fun to watch. The Rs in '52 and the Ds in '60. Who says these events have to be scripted theater?
Also a reminder to Jackson74 that the choice of Truman in '44 was at least as propitious as the choice of Johnson in'60, whether or not he was the pick of FDR or the Democratic political pros.
Joe, I think Biden just might be putting pressure on the Dems to make a move. I believe he's finished, is worn out but doesn't feel the Party has it's act together yet. A friend suggested Biden step down, let Harris finish* out his term. Newsom should become the candidate, could win the election, *appoint Harris to SCOTUS when the opening come up. Newsom gives Biden the Medal of Honor for his saving Democracy and returning the country to some level of sanity. Everybody wins. A good plan.
Your plan is similar to the one I’ve been flogging, but why take a chance on a Republican senate in 2025? Ask Sotomayor point-blank to step down; nominate Harris for SCOTUS, then announce that Biden will also be stepping down, now with Kamala getting a lifetime dream job on the court instead of the presidency she’ll never, ever win.
Feeble still trumps insane
Stop the bed wetting and get on with moving the campaign and the country forward.
It happened
F*%$^&$% march as one highlighting the demented, unctious mendacity of the Other Guy.
Full bore repeat the accomplishments of what Biden has done and the checklist still to be accomplished.
Slather media with all the lies from the Other Guy with a split screen of the lie and the fatual source.
Can you imagine an ad where The Other Guy is called out for lying about the D-Day non-visit. Then one half of the screen freezes, and Gen. Kelly comes on the right side and calls out his bullshit. Do that over and over and over and over with the plethora of former Other Guy Secretaries and aides filling the right side.
and book your tics to DC next Jan
“Feeble” is a trump card? Your main man is fine except when he has “an off day” of “a cold”?
I’m sure that Putin, Xi, Haniyeh, Jong Un and any Islamic Terrorist out there will be happy to wait for the most politician in the world to be having one of his good days before they act.
One day The Democrats will understand that if the best they have is a pantomime villain, they have nothing at all to persuade the 60% of Americans who are repelled by both candidates to vote for them.
I just subscribed because this Substack is indeed sanity-based and has interesting ideas. However, contrary to what Joe says at the end, the system told me that I needed to subscribe in order to comment. So an $8 trial. If you are a non$-subscriber and can comment, please note it in a reply…
Commenting— I think the US system gives a large theoretical and practical advantage to the incumbent, so that in general in our two party system the party with the incumbent should run with him (or her). Choosing another is divisive and makes winning the election harder. This even extends to VP — the choice of Biden as VP by Obama is what set this all in motion. JFK choice of Lyndon Johnson was a rare example of a presidential candidate choosing a VP who really would make a good president.
Does anyone know if Trump/Republicans could find a way legally to stop Candidate Island? On a first ballot, are delegates committed to vote for Biden, even if he releases them? Is there any ongoing obligation to primary voters, because if Trump can force Biden to be the nominee, I would think he would, at this point?
If Biden unconditionally releases them, they should be free to vote for anyone they so choose.
This is from Jayson Kuo’s Substack this morning:
“Any new ticket would also have to get on the ballot in 50 states, a monumental and costly undertaking that might not happen in time. Just ask RKF Jr., who has yet to get on the ballot in many states, how hard and expensive it is to qualify.
Add to this the fact that the Heritage Foundation is already preparing legal challenges. It argues that many states, including the battleground states of Georgia, Nevada and Wisconsin, might not allow a replacement on the ballot. “We are monitoring the calls from across the country for President Biden to step aside, either now or before the election, and have concluded that the process for substitution and withdrawal is very complicated,” the Executive Director of The Heritage Foundation’s Oversight Project Mike Howell said in a statement. “We will remain vigilant that appropriate election integrity procedures are followed.“
The Democrat Party nominee is automatically on the ballot. As of today, that position has not been filled. It is presumptively Biden, but until he is voted in, the name of the nominee remains empty, ready for the convention and the party to put it in. In the past, President Lyndon Johnson was on the ballot and had won some primaries, prior to his decision, not to run for re-election. As President Johnson had not been chosen and he freed his delegates, if memory serves me well, it made no difference. There is precedence for such an act, again, Biden alone must pull the plug or a 25th Amendment event must occur.
One thing that obviously is driving all of the Biden withdrawing talk but doesn’t get said enough is the plain fact that Biden is LOSING, and there’s nothing to turn this around. It will only get worse with every poll that comes out, with more people losing interest and staying home and ensuring not just a Trump presidency, but a Republican Congress and four more years of Trump picks for the judiciary. God help us. If Biden doesn’t step down and give someone a chance to win, this will be his unfortunate legacy in the eyes of history.
Stop. This is not about your opinion. It is democracy vs fascism; are you willing to have trump in order to be right? You sound like Russian propaganda.
When people age, not everything goes at the same time. It’s like bits of an iceberg breaking off. I think Joe Biden has been a consequential president, but it’s clear that beating Donald Trump is going to require a very different, concretely negative approach that is very much NOT in Joe’s wheelhouse. Is there a way to enlist him in a new kind of counter-strike? One where he helps run the plays while someone else QBs?
I would avoid gimmicks, as tempting as they might be, but here is what can and should happen:
Biden withdraws, the convention meets. They nominate candidates: we can fight about the threshold but I say anyone getting 15% of the delegates’ vote qualifies. All registered Dems then vote on the second Tuesday in September. Hopefully it’s Amy Klobuchar and we wipe the floor withe Orange Menace. Or it’s Gavin Newsom and we are all doomed. Either way, let’s keep up the pressure and make this happen.
Candidate Island sounds like a dream come true for the MSM, cable gasbags and the "boys on the bus" . Wishful thinking at best
We are your best hope for sanity...especially given the nonsense the Biden campaign is peddling today.
Unfortunately, I don’t believe there is enough “sanity” left to make this happen.
We'll see, Rich. Just putting it out there...