Joe Biden, Senator from Citibank (oops, DELAWARE), to Run for President

bernie won't be the nominee unless something happens to biden -- a health event or some outrageous scandal

even then, who knows what would happen at the convention

at this point, i just want biden to "wake up" and be with it enough to take on trump and the republicans. i just want a candidate who seems aware of what is happening in the country.

Bernie will not be the Democratic nominee no matter what happens.

I’d say odds are non-negligible that Biden may not be, either. But that in no way would clear the lane for Sanders. That much is clear.

https://media2.giphy.com/media/l4pTjh7CkEQzzkyu4/giphy.gif

I really want to believe all the talk about him being intentionally shielded from making public appearances because his brain is sundowning is being overblown but the few times he's poked his head out these last two weeks he's really sounded bad.

He’s a wreck.

xxp 27 states have not yet had primaries.

He's got 900+ delagates to Biden's 1200.

If Biden were somehow incapacitated—depending on when—Bernie could still reach the convention with a delegate count that would make it difficult for the party to deny him.

lol y’all have got to stop.

Yeah, it's not going be difficult for the party to deny Bernie

Sadly

awww 😢

will, It's fine, just explain what happens in a contested convention where for whatever reason Biden hasn't reached 1,991 delegates and the runner-up has, say, 1200

I guess the thinking is that Biden would just coronate the candidate of his choice, pushing all his delegates over, and the party won't see any risk in letting that happen?

That would be the democratic way to do it, yes

xp obviously it's highly unlikely, I'm just not clear on your certainty considering the process

That actually *would be* one way to actually manifest the imaginary lefty sit-out neolibs dread

There are nearly 4000 thousand delegates to be won, and I just don't get why a candidate getting 1200 delegates should win if there are 2000+ who'd rather get another one. That is how democracy works.

I think the left is kinda in the wrong here

uh..."another one" is not a candidate.

you are presuming *every* vote for Biden is = an anti-Bernie vote

xp of course you do, you sandbagging troll

The way the vote for Biden shot up once the other moderates were out of the way makes it quite likely a lot of them were from moderate voters.

uh..."another one" is not a candidate.

you are presuming *every* vote for Biden is = an anti-Bernie vote

There's just nothing in the way that the primary played out that would give Bernie a democratic mandate at a contested convention. Sorry. But it quite clearly isn't there.

and Fwed is veewy sad 😞 😢

*extremely Morbius voice* what "left"? xxxp

I'm quite a bit mad as well. But Bernie >>>>>>>> Biden, of course.

I don't have any more info than the avg reader

is there a pattern of Biden behavior that fits? seems so.

I want him gone for his many crimes, we could add this to the pile

― brooklyn suicide cult (Dr Morbius), Thursday, March 26, 2020 8:58 AM (two hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

Consider that Garrison Keillor's 50+ year career was destroyed by 0.0001% of the gross behavior our likely nominee has been accused of

the thing with the lack of enthusiasm for biden (owing to the fact that he is actually dead and has been dead for several weeks) is that it's hard to imagine it getting any better over the summer because of this virus - "coronavirus" - you all may have heard about recently. in typical election campaigns there's a palpable sense of excitement that comes from large groups of people coming together, cheering for their candidate, being together and feeling a sense of political community that rarely occurs otherwise for many people. this year, it seems like that there's just going to be Online. Webcasts and online town halls and pre-recorded speeches. biden standing, talking and addressing a camera to silence, etc. biden being dead, on screen.

although who knows, maybe all of that would affect both biden and trump, and trump would take even more of a hit? seems like the trump crowd really gets off on being together with other racists and really letting down their defenses and being open with the fact that they're all so racist, together

i suppose the trump crowd can still see each other on stormfront but it's just not the same as the face to face interaction

Fred we all think youre an idiot plz stop

also fwiw, not that i am expecting this contested convention scenario, or that it would matter, but: there was tons of polling early on that suggested a great many voters for candidates x, y, and z *also* liked candidates a, b, and c - and bernie was not an exception here, lots of biden voters like bernie, they just like biden more or feel safer with him versus trump etc. so it's a bit silly to imagine every non-bernie delegate representing a unified anti-bernie, anyone-but-bernie Will of the People. come on.

Fred we all think youre an idiot plz stop

― brooklyn suicide cult (Dr Morbius), Thursday, March 26, 2020 8:40 AM (forty-five minutes ago)

evergreen

you are presuming *every* vote for Biden is = an anti-Bernie vote

sadly I think this is more true than a lot of people want to admit right now

I think it is too! but the convention doesn't have a provision for making the direct assumption

Reanimating some candidate who got <50 delagtes (or none) and dropped out before Frebruary (or never entered!) would have implications for the party (and the general election) that'll make earlier concerns about the fallout from a traditionally brokered convention look mild by comparison

I'm not saying that won't happen, I'm just saying there goes your party

But that's not how it works! I know that, and I'm from Denmark!

the party's not gonna look the same next year no matter what, either Biden will lose the general and the progressive wing will find the strength to reshape it or Biden wins and the progressive wing finds the strength to exit it.

xp Fred shhhhh

what? what's now how it works?

(realize this is a dumb prediction but idk)

nobody knows "how it works!"

We're in the middle of a pandemic and talking about the unlikley scenario in which the presumptive nominee dies from it or falls into a manhole or whatever

You're looking at this as if it's a congressional election, but it's really not. You need 2000 delegates! If Biden gets a majority, but can't use it, he is free to use the delegates as he thinks is best. If he died, Buttigieg would have a fine claim to see he was the runner up in the moderate lane, and would have won if it weren't for Biden. If the delegates agree, they'll go to him. And that is the democratic way to do it!

he absoultely would not

James Clyburn would probably agree, I think his son worked on the Buttigieg campaign

the last time a candidate died in the middle of the primary, the convention did not go great

If Biden gets a majority, but can't use it, he is free to use the delegates as he thinks is best.

No shit Sherlock. My point if you reread is that this is would be a dangerous calculus the party (and Biden himself) might be unwilling to make, seeing how millions would no longer feel "defeated" but disenfranchised.

If you can cite some precedent for this sceanrio please do. I'm no scholar of U.S. electoral politics, but then again I'm not Danish.

lmao

1968 is the closest precedent, even though most states didn't hold primaries then. but choosing a party hack to replace RFK instead of the delegate leader Eugene McCarthy did alienate the activist left and leave them feeling disenfranchised

Also at the time RFK was killed there was greater parity—three candidates with 250+ delegates. This is not that.

No it's not, Biden is a clear frontrunner. So yeah, it's different.

Anyway Biden's going to slog Frankenstein-style through the convention, get the nomination, call his wife "Mr. President" or something, and tank Wisonsin