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

written in a Russian accent

I won't believe this until I see her tweeting "Kill moose and squirrel."

apparantly Tara Reade wrote that *checks Twitter* that in old country, television watch you

if Biden did pick Romney as his running mate it might actually push him to the left!

I’m introducing #PatriotPay because our essential workers—those putting themselves in greater risk on the frontlines of #COVID19—deserve our unwavering support. For more information on my plan to help ensure essential workers receive greater compensation→ https://t.co/NCznX3VgVc

— Senator Mitt Romney (@SenatorRomney) May 1, 2020

good ol' Liquid Swords is going to DEMOLISH Trump on the videoconference debate screen

https://twitter.com/robdelaney/status/1256229626369753089

(hold up, just seeing if this one embeds)

Biden gives you so many moments where you’re like... What does that sentence mean? Did he answer the question? pic.twitter.com/JiDUlxQSve

— Simon Narode (@SimonNarode) May 1, 2020

Not answering the question is practiced by 99.44% of politicians, just as asking softball, pointless, leading, or loaded questions is practiced by 99.44% of television journalists.

Old privileged dude solidarity:

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/05/01/trump-tells-biden-to-fight-tara-reade-sexual-assault-allegation.html

and that makes me love em all a bunch xp

most of them are better at not answering the question that Biden is right now. Biden was better at it by miles 8 years ago.

.@pareene is absolutely right: there is nothing forcing the Democratic Party or its supporters to nominate Biden. They have an easy way out. If they don’t take it, draw your own conclusions. https://t.co/JyTUE8SFfx

— Marshall Market Forces Steinbaum 🔥🍉 (@Econ_Marshall) May 1, 2020

"easy"

not the Pelosi definition, which is nothing

I wish these allegations had blown up before the nominee was de facto decided instead of after. This blows.

Then again, we kind of went through this recently.

I mean given the plethora of Handsy Joe stories that have been out there for years, it's not hard to believe that some thirsty operative was going to spring this on us.

I'm also waiting to find out who put Reade up to this, just to complete the predictable narrative

"There's nothing forcing the Democratic Party" except the requirement to follow its own rules regarding the distribution of delegates and the obligations placed on delegates voting on the first or subsequent ballots at the convention. Biden doesn't have the required number of delegates for a first ballot win yet, but if voters continue to vote for him in future primaries, then the Democratic party convention should and will nominate him. That part of the process is above board and consists of following the expressed will of millions of voters.

I don't see how it is "easy" to stop that, if Biden chooses to stay in and enough voters believe he is either innocent or that his guilt is not sufficient cause to change their votes.

As for Biden staying in, this is a man who has run for president over and over again, despite every evidence that voters had no desire to make him president. Now, after decades of being barely an also-ran, he is very close to wrapping up the nomination that he has been so desperate to attain. Close enough to breathe in the aroma of its hair, so to speak. It would take massive pressure from leadership to persuade him to let go at this point. Easy way out? Not seeing it.

the twin excruciations of the biden situation and covid19 may actually destroy me this year

i think the pareene essay is otm, though. i think the democratic party leadership is severely underestimating how many people they will lose over this. i mean, yeah, i'll vote for biden if he's the one, bla bla bla, but truly, fuck the democratic party

over and over again

Aimless and I are so old we remember a reason he fizzled in the '88 race.

I don't see an easy way out at all, either.

i think the democratic party leadership is severely underestimating how many people they will lose over this. i mean, yeah, i'll vote for biden if he's the one,

That's what they're counting on. To circle back to the before-times... the only way you have to make them care for your opinion is to not vote for them.

If they can nominate someone you believe is likely a rapist and you'll vote for them anyway... why would they not nominate their friend and colleague the rapist?

Complaining about it but saying you'll go along with it anyway should get a shrug from the party leadership and anyone else.

I agree that the massive pressure from leadership for him to step aside is both justified and required. Part of what is holding them back is figuring out how on earth to patch up the process after Biden bows out so that it feels satisfactory and fair. Cuz they would lose a lot of people anyway, if Joe quits, but still maintains his innocence.

Only clean ways out of this are Joe confessing or a smoking gun showing Reade is lying. I give these a nearly equally non-existent chance of happening.

Heart attack gun, coordinated coughing on of Biden, take him to the farm upstate, there are options

Also: expect assault allegations against every male Dem nominee. I'm sure the right's got something cooking based on those early writings.

tell him he's still running and let him ramble into a webcam for ten minutes a week, Warren and Bernie both change their names by deed poll to Joe Biden

we don't live in cartoon world, alas

"Every Democrat's going to get this" is a super terrible response to Reade's allegation.

Also: expect assault allegations against every male Dem nominee. I'm sure the right's got something cooking based on those early writings.

― TikTok to the (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, May 1, 2020 9:21 PM (six minutes ago)

this reminded me that there was a bogus accusation against buttigieg last year that turned out to have been concocted by right-wing operatives.

bogus assault accusations that can withstand the scrutiny imposed by a presidential campaign are probably much harder to concoct than most of us realize.

That's what they're counting on. To circle back to the before-times... the only way you have to make them care for your opinion is to not vote for them.

If they can nominate someone you believe is likely a rapist and you'll vote for them anyway... why would they not nominate their friend and colleague the rapist?

― Greta Van Show Feets BB (milo z), Friday, May 1, 2020 4:07 PM (two minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

Complaining about it but saying you'll go along with it anyway should get a shrug from the party leadership and anyone else.

― Greta Van Show Feets BB (milo z), Friday, May 1, 2020 4:08 PM

yeah, i understand your argument. even though i disagree, i think it's a reasonable point.

where i disagree is with when it is effective to not vote. i think RIGHT NOW is an effective time to not vote for him. if the primaries were going on as normal, we might get that chance. my state has already voted, but if I could vote again I'd definitely vote for anyone else, other than him (well, not tulsi gabbard i guess. fuck). i think quite a few other people will, too. maybe it'll be "concerning" to Democratic leadership when they biden just barely taking a primary against write-in votes. probably not.

but to not vote in Nov, against Trump? i don't think that's effective. the problem is that it's going to be difficult to convince enough people to do it, and then for it to be clear that the low voter turnout wasn't just due to "unenthusiasm", but instead due to a concerted protest against Biden and the Democratic party. the tactic of not voting in Nov COULD be effective if it was really organized and couldn't be ignored or mischaracterized (a tall order in 2020 or any year). but i think the chances of that happening, and really changing the nature of the Democratic Party through a mass rebuke in November, are really low. and of course, on the other side you have the 100% that the tactic would lead to a Trump victory. in other words, you're asking everyone to take an enormous risk in order to take a low-probability shot of making changes in the Democratic party.

but to not vote in Nov, against Trump? i don't think that's effective.

It's incredibly effective at making your will known. The question, though, is 'is it worth it.'

Voting for Biden in November, regardless of his opponent, is saying that sexual assault is not a deal-breaker. Which changes the equation in the future - if Democratic voters can continually be convinced that they're facing greater and greater evils, the lesser evil can be anyone and can have done anything.

Also: expect assault allegations against every male Dem nominee.

if they sexually assaulted someone, sure! and if they're a male dem nominee approved by the party mainstream, it's likely they did!

does anyone seriously think that these allegations aren't true? and, more broadly, that joe biden isn't a sexual predator? come on out, make yourselves known for real.

there are men in this thread who have literally learned nothing over the past four years about metoo or sexual assault. it's disgusting. valuable posters are leaving this place because of it. i can't say anything about the value of my perspective but i'm leaving ile at this point. sticking around ilm because i find it too valuable and i like posting there from time to time. but this place can rot in hell.

Feeling really shitty that you voted for the person you think is a rapist does not change the reality that you voted to make that rapist the most powerful human being on the planet.

(And if you're going to vote for Biden, I don't think you should get to talk about feeling shitty about it.)

cancelling state primaries, like New York's, looks even worse now than it did a week ago

It's really fucking shitty I live in Florida and if goddamn Biden remains the nominee I will sure as hell vote for him, the same way I voted for every other Dem war criminal for 30 years.

Voting for Biden in November, regardless of his opponent, is saying that sexual assault is not a deal-breaker. Which changes the equation in the future - if Democratic voters can continually be convinced that they're facing greater and greater evils, the lesser evil can be anyone and can have done anything.

i think you missed my point though, which tbf wasn't stated very clearly. i don't think that not voting in November will result in any sort of clear signal being sent to Democratic party leadership. how could it? let's say I don't vote, you don't vote, and a bunch of other people don't vote. Trump wins, 55% to Biden's 42% (or whatever). do you think that translates to a clear signal to the democratic establishment? or will they instead point to things like covid19 throwing everything into disarray, or the economy (if it's improving), or whatever new unpredictable factor will happen between now and then? or they'll just admit that they ended up with an uninspiring candidate, and put together some dumb report on what went wrong and what tepid primary reforms could be implemented to change it next time around. it won't be clear that the loss was because of a movement of people who decided that the only way their voice would be heard would be to speak in favor of no one.

in other words, you have to vote FOR things to be heard, not refuse to vote. the reasons behind a non-vote can and will be conflated with a bunch of other unrelated reasons for non-voting. there's no way to differentiate between them without knowing the individuals behind them

"i didn't vote because the way the party coalesced around joe biden and demonized tara reade was so fucking hypocritical, especially so soon after what happened with kavanaugh"
"cool. i didn't vote because i would only vote for joe rogan"

Also: expect assault allegations against every male Dem nominee.

The stop fucking nominating alleged sexual predators to the highest office of authority on earth!!! After you spent the past 4 years crying incessantly over pussy grabbing Trump and how you declared so righteously how strongly you believed Christine Blassey Ford and women like her's allegations and stories until it was no longer politically prudent for you no less!! Then you wouldn't have to worry about Republican smear tactics and fabrications over things like this holding any actual weight!

The Democratic party leadership made their fucking bed pushing this embalmed walking corpse over all other possible candidates to be their nominee to defeat Donald Trump in a presidential election. If they're not going to change the sheets and get this decrepit molester the fuck outta here before November after allegations like this continue to come to light... then they're just going to have to lie in it and accept the blowback from nominating such a person and the type of attacks, fabricated or real, they'll face because of it. And they'll have no one but themselves to blame when those attacks resonate as believable even if they aren't true (and who's to say future allegations are automatically false if Biden's past escaped proper scrutiny for this long!).

^ This.

btw the answer to "Obama vetted him" is "Obama let his daughter intern for The Weinstein Company"

“Not voting for the Democrat teaches them nothing” - as opposed to voting for Biden, which teaches them sexual assault is not a dealbreaker?

It’s ridiculous to say that withholding votes can’t and won’t be interpreted - and as ever, the options aren’t just “vote for Biden” or “don’t vote.” A vote for the Greens or Libertarians or Peace and Freedom can, quite easily, be interpreted ideologically.

If you want to give a clear message to the DNC in the general election that Biden was no more acceptable than Trump, due to the party whitewashing his sexual assault accusation, then organize a nationwide campaign to write in "Tara Reade" rather vote for Biden or Trump. Or just launch the idea on social media and hope it goes viral.

I wish Biden weren't the presumptive nominee; I've a looooong record hating him. And, yeah, I'd contribute to a campaign to stop him from being the nominee.

If he becomes the nominee anyway, then I vote for him as president. Because American history is full of evil men who sign good legislation and appoint good judges and justices. Again, I live in Florida; it's not even a choice. I don't want four more years of Trump because the judges and justices he nominates and the legislation he signs will be 100 times worse than whatever Biden puts over. It's not even a close call.

My wife, on hearing that Biden was very likely guilty of a sexual assault said she wasn't really surprised, but if it's down to Biden or Trump in November, she will vote Biden anyway. fwiw, I agree with her on this, and not with milo. In the upcoming Oregon primary we'll be voting for Warren or Bernie, as we would have even before this allegation blew up.

trevor does a good job of summing up my frustration and anger at this whole thing