there’s been virtually zero politicians doing anything more than attempting to look like they’re trying to do anything

One of the big appeals of Trump is that he grasps at every lever of power he can find and pulls it.

Nine times out of ten, it isn’t connected to anything. But if you pull on enough shit, maybe a big border wall or a Muslim ban or a repeal of Roe v Wade or a giant bucket of cash falls out and your voters love you for it.

You can’t reasonably debate someone whose arguments aren’t based in reality.

The point of a televised political debate isn’t to win your opponent to your side. The point is to establish to the outside viewer that your position and your personage is more fit to the task of governing than your opponent.

For a candidate who is divorced from reality, this is typically pretty easy. You point out a few things that the opponent disagrees with and that your audience knows to be true. Then you provoke the opponent into saying something outlandish, attack the absurd allegation, and put up a far more attractive countervailing position/policy that people are more likely to believe practical.

The problem Biden has is that he’s also immersed himself in propaganda. He isn’t willing to accept the rising poverty or the failing liberal institutions at home. He’s backed an ugly unpopular war in Ukraine and a fucking outright genocide in Palestine. His fixation on bipartisanship has left him once again getting Lucy-with-the-football’d on immigration. His slavish loyalty to the banks means he’s back to harping about a balanced budget and gutting popular public services. He’s constantly saying how he can’t do anything as President, while insisting that a future Trump Presidency would be totally unchecked, which didn’t make sense when Obama claimed it in the wake of Bush and now has completely run itself through.

And he’s OLD. Really fucking old. He’s even more prone to gaffs and flubs than he was sixteen years ago.

Trump will never lose points for bad behavior among his base

Trump’s base isn’t enough to win a general election. But “bad behavior” is its own reward when its directed at someone the crowd doesn’t like. That’s what really makes Trump dangerous. If he were to try and tussle with Biden on the debate stage in 2020, an enormous number of people would be disgusted. But now that so many of those people have soured on Biden, I suspect you’d see quite a few of those same voters applaud.

Even then, the thing Biden really has to worry about isn’t the Obama-Trump-Biden swing voter nearly so much as it is the Ohio or Virginia or Arizona or Georgia voter who refuses to vote for either one of these assholes. He needs to rally his base, regardless of who his opponent is. Trump being an asshole on stage matters far less than Biden advertising a future four years in this country that isn’t just four more years of shit.

Definitely. But this is a government by the elderly, of the elderly, for the elderly.

Nobody thinks Biden is an ideal candidate. Most Democrats didn’t want him 4 years ago, but every other candidate dropped out and endorsed him in order to prevent Sanders from getting the nomination. Not that Bernie would be the best candidate either in 2024, given his age; the point is we didn’t want Biden, but we’re stuck with him now.

No sitting president has ever lost their party’s primary. What’s more—and not surprisingly—the ones that have faced significant primary challenges have gone on to lose in the general. If a president wants to run again, the party isn’t going to stop him, and Biden has long since made that decision.

In a war of swag, David Koresh had it and Janet Reno did not.

Unfortunately, this was a war that involved tanks. And Janet Reno was undeniably a bigger tankie.

NO IT DOESN’T! IT DOESN’T MAKE ANY SENSE BECAUSE OF WHAT THE JEWS AND PIZZA PARLORS ARE DOING. FIGHT ME NOW!!!

Edit: I hope the downvoters are people who missed the sarcasm.

Thumb on the scale.

That’s the whole point of super delegates. The consequence in 2016 being that Hillary only needed about 30% in a given primary to “win” that state.

EDIT: Curious about the downvote. Superdelegates made up a large enough share of delegate that to win a majority of delegates for a given state she only needed about 30% of the primary vote plus the superdelegates. Do the math yourself if you’d like to confirm. Hell, I’m from a state where Clinton only got about 35% of the vote in the primary, which meant she only got one more delegate than Sanders, who had closer to 51%.

Hillary had bought their support from the beginning. She learned from 2008 that she couldn’t compete in an open field, so she wrangled all challengers before the primaries started. Sanders was the only one who couldn’t be bought.