Brave links to recent stories From Politico”There are multiple drafts of letters circulating among House Democrats and at least one would call on Biden to end his campaign, according to five people familiar with the efforts.” (excerpted from Politico 7/5/24)
Bloomberg is reporting:
“A $14 Billion Walmart Heir Joins Novogratz Urging Biden Exit” A coalition of top business leaders is taking their campaign to get President Joe Biden to drop his re-election bid one step further, penning a letter to him signed by billionaires and top executives. Christy Walton, Michael Novogratz and Paul Tagliabue are among the 168 signatories of the letter from the Leadership Now Project, a copy of which was seen by Bloomberg. It states that "nothing short of American democracy is at stake this November" … (excerpted from Bloomberg Media 7/5/24)
Comments
- I’m not sure what you mean here Anna. Biden and most Democrats would raise taxes on the very wealthy. So, yes, a Democratic victory in November might “cost these guys a lot.” To hold water, your argument would need to identify which Democrat might replace Biden on the ticket and whether his / her position on taxing the wealthy is more or less aggressive than Biden’s.
“Are these normal Democratic candidate doners or people who would like to poison the election for Biden in order to usher their main squeeze back in?”
I believe the signatories to the letter are “normal” donors and not people trying to poison the Democratic prospects. The full list is not yet public, so we really can’t say. It’s a bit of a loaded question in that you seem imply the very wealthy may not be “normal” donors, While small “Mom & Pop” donors might represent the greater number, I believe that for both parties most of the total funding comes from very wealthy persons. So the wealthy, perhaps sadly, are “normal donors.” See
Anna - I don’t share your skepticism regarding the motives here. It is quite possible many super wealthy people also believe in and support Democratic principals. I’ll cite just Michael Bloomberg, Reed Hastings, Warren Buffet as three. I’m sure there are many more. Having great wealth does not exclude one from believing in principals supported by Democrats. And, as we are learning, being financially poor doesn’t dissuade some from being ardent Trump supporters.
Now Joe is running even further behind. His excuses re: the debate performance are reasonable, but do we want the Chief Executive making excuses? I think not. Kamala Harris makes me itch. We shall see what happens. Perhaps Joe just needs some time to digest what needs to be digested. After all is said and done, the Criminal Orange Buffoon must not become President AGAIN.
https://www.cnbc.com/2024/07/04/democratic-donors-wont-finance-party-until-joe-biden-drops-out.html
https://www.google.com/search?q=georgia+stacey+abrams
https://thehill.com/homenews/house/4777560-adam-schiff-biden-race-trump/
Reflect on that a moment.
https://www.cnbc.com/2024/07/19/biden-election-democrats-election-trump.html
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/07/21/joe-biden-drops-out/
He's accomplished a lot in his current term despite extreme levels of partisanship.
The U.S. president is the "leader of the free world" and must project strength.
Biden's performance in recent interviews and the presidential debate does not instill confidence.
I believe he needed to drop out of the race and I applaud him for doing so.
Of course, it would have been preferable if this didn't occur at the 11th hour.
The stock market acted strangely last week and they may expecting something big is coming.
are supposedly at the top of the VP shortlist if Ms. Harris is nominated.
I’ll be writing a check tomorrow. (Harris campaign)
Still like Whitmer for VP. But suspect it will be a male figure with some military experience - for a variety of reasons. Don’t overlook Mark Kelly. Suspect he’d poll well among some male swing voters in the heavily pro-Trump rust-belt states. Pete Buttigieg’s name is being floated. Wouldn’t that be a wild ticket!
I was surprised to learn NC has a Democratic Governor. Spend quite a bit of time around Charlotte. Very nice people. Beautiful area. But a very conservative place.
Futures show positive at this hour, but nothing to tell by their small up tick.
Sleep tight, Derf
“How the Democratic Party came to the brink of nominating a candidate with an obvious flaw is a story of allies eager to look the other way, Biden advisers who worked to stamp out doubts about his vigor and a party apparatus that boxed out alternative candidates.”
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At the (NATO) summit, Biden shook hands with all the leaders and greeted them for more than an hour. He was energetic throughout a three-hour meeting, sounded confident and spoke well. Biden, an official concluded, looked like he would get through the high-wire event unscathed. But in the final few minutes of the last day, when Biden referred to Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky as “President Putin,” an audible gasp swept through the crowd.”
WSJ: ”How the Bet on an 81-Year-Old Joe Biden Turned Into an Epic Miscalculation”
Dated July 21, 2024
Interesting lengthy article based on multiple sources
Remember 2020 Primary season? Bernie was leading, until Clyburn, representing the Establishment Machine, endorsed Joe. It gave them all a rallying point, a pretext to push out the Senator from Vermont.
"Biden’s announcement ended the month of suspense under which the Democrats have lived, and in the hours since, they appear to be coalescing around Harris with enthusiasm. Those who might have challenged her nomination have stepped up to support her: California governor Gavin Newsom, Pennsylvania governor Josh Shapiro, North Carolina governor Roy Cooper, and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg all backed Harris; Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer said she does not intend to challenge Harris. By tonight, all of the state Democratic Party chairs were on board with Harris. Endorsements continued to pour in."
"So did money. Following Biden’s endorsement of Harris, donors contributed more than $46.7 million to Democratic races before 9:00 p.m., and major donors, who had paused donations to Biden, have said they will contribute to Harris’s campaign. The Biden-Harris team also managed the paperwork to transfer the $95 million in Biden’s campaign coffers to Harris because the money was raised for the ticket, rather than for Biden alone."
"The Republicans’ anger reflects that fact that if Biden is off the ticket, they are in yet another pickle. Just last week, the Republicans nominated Donald Trump, who is 78, for president. Having made age their central complaint about Biden, they are now faced with having nominated the oldest candidate in U.S. history, who repeatedly fell asleep at his own nominating convention as well as his criminal trial, who often fumbles words, and who cannot seem to keep a coherent train of thought. Democrats immediately pounced on Trump with all the comments Republicans had been making about Biden. Republicans have already suggested that Trump will not debate Harris, a former prosecutor."
"In a time of dictators, Trump tried to overthrow the results of the 2020 presidential election and install himself in power against the wishes of the people. President Joe Biden voluntarily turned away from reelection in order to give the people a better shot at preserving our democracy. He demonstrated what it means to put the country first."
If you’re not familiar with the Lincoln Project, it is a group started about a decade ago by Republicans who find Trumpism antithetical to their values. They are very effective at using clever, sometimes humorous, ads online and over broadcast media to expose the absurdities of Trumpism and the dangers it presents to democracy.
Link to The Lincoln Project
https://www.cnbc.com/2024/07/22/live-updates-harris-democrats-biden-drops-out-trump-campaign.html
Gee, now that's new. I'm pretty sure the Greeks and Romans never had anything like that going on.