2024 Presidential Election Thread

[beefytee]

Fake? I wasn't outraged. It wasn't what SOTU has. historically been. It was an awkward speech that was more about campaigning and trying to show that Biden hasn't lost his marbles.

I think part of that is it is rare that the opposing candidate has been settle by the SOTU for a President seeking re-election.

[Bo Diddley]

In the perverse manufactured dichotomy of US politics, I'll go with the screaming octagenarian over the twice impeached indicted insurrectionist demagogic septaugenarian, even if I were to trend right. Biden is a decent person. That used to mean something in our political discourse.

Exactly.

[USUC]

In the perverse manufactured dichotomy of US politics, I'll go with the screaming octagenarian over the twice impeached indicted insurrectionist demagogic septaugenarian, even if I were to trend right. Biden is a decent person. That used to mean something in our political discourse.

Biden is a bad person. Biden is corrupt. Biden is a bad president. He is better than Trump in most ways AND it's a travesty that he is the Dem ccandidate. He may be worthy of voting for in this insane instance, but he is not worthy of being celebrated.

[PaloAltoCougar]

Biden is a bad person. Biden is corrupt. Biden is a bad president. He is better than Trump in most ways AND it's a travesty that he is the Dem ccandidate. He may be worthy of voting for in this insane instance, but he is not worthy of being celebrated.

Is Biden "bad" and/or "corrupt" outside the traditional parameters for politicians? I regret that that's a pretty low bar, but I'm sincerely wondering if Biden is significantly worse that hundreds of other lifelong politicians. Make your case. I'm truly open to changing my view on Biden (not a big fan; haven't been since the '80s, but he's not nearly as awful as MAGA would like to paint him). I also don't buy the apparently widely shared view on CB that he's the absolutely worst president ever. Not a lot of historians over there....

[Northwestcoug]

Biden is a bad person. Biden is corrupt. Biden is a bad president. He is better than Trump in most ways AND it's a travesty that he is the Dem ccandidate. He may be worthy of voting for in this insane instance, but he is not worthy of being celebrated.

Sorry not buying it. I'm sure he got his hands dirty trying to get done what was important to him. But I highly doubt his level of 'corruption' is outside of 2 standard deviations of most politicians who have served decades.

In my line of work I've become 'corrupted' by filthy lucre. We all have. But I'd like to think we're all more or less decent people. Is Biden worthy of veneration? Hell no. But respect for a lifetime of public service, despite the less than savory things he's done? Yes, he deserves that.

[Non Sequitur]

Fake? I wasn't outraged. It wasn't what SOTU has. historically been. It was an awkward speech that was more about campaigning and trying to show that Biden hasn't lost his marbles.

Do you feel cheated that you didn't get the traditional SOTU experience?

[Non Sequitur]

Biden is a bad person. Biden is corrupt. Biden is a bad president. He is better than Trump in most ways AND it's a travesty that he is the Dem ccandidate. He may be worthy of voting for in this insane instance, but he is not worthy of being celebrated.

There it is. You spend so much time trying to paint yourself out of the MAGA landscape, but I guess sometimes the burden of the charade is just too much to maintain full-time.

[Shaka]

Do you feel cheated that you didn't get the traditional SOTU experience?

I feel like he should have given a SOTU instead of what he did. Save the campaigning for the trail.

[Jeff Lebowski]

There it is. You spend so much time trying to paint yourself out of the MAGA landscape, but I guess sometimes the burden of the charade is just too much to maintain full-time.

What a ridiculous response.

[Non Sequitur]

I feel like he should have given a SOTU instead of what he did. Save the campaigning for the trail.

You're lying. You don't give a shit about whether he gave a traditional SOTU speech or not. Stop lying. The guy you're going to end up voting for showed up for court hearing after court hearing for no other reason than to turn it into a campaign stop. Don't lecture us on when it's appropriate for a politician to turn a media event into a campaign event.

[Non Sequitur]

What a ridiculous response.

Thank you. I feel validated.

[USUC]

Is Biden "bad" and/or "corrupt" outside the traditional parameters for politicians? I regret that that's a pretty low bar, but I'm sincerely wondering if Biden is significantly worse that hundreds of other lifelong politicians. Make your case. I'm truly open to changing my view on Biden (not a big fan; haven't been since the '80s, but he's not nearly as awful as MAGA would like to paint him). I also don't buy the apparently widely shared view on CB that he's the absolutely worst president ever. Not a lot of historians over there....

Biden is certainly outside the traditional parameters of sleeziness. Biden follows the model of the Clintons in self enrichment through political connections. He has directly benefitted, encouraged, and tried to hide his family's business practices on a large scale.

He was the architect for the modern strategy of political character attacks on judicial nominees while chairing the senate judicial committee in the 80s.

He is particularly skilled in providing political handouts to business sector supporters while demonizing his supporters' competition.

He refused to acknowledge a grandchild and only did so due to political pressure. His family's first tactic was to deny the child's existence, then pay the mom off, then attack her character.

His presidency has been bad. He kept most Trump's tarriffs, he signed huge spending bills that funneled money to his special interest groups which considerably worsened already bad inflation. His foreign policy has been inconsistent. He has bungled the immigration problem. And he has an inability to keep his staffers in check as they undercut him on important policy issues. He is in over his head and the administration is being run by his chief of staff.

He may be better than Trump, but he isn't good.

[Jeff Lebowski]

Biden is certainly outside the traditional parameters of sleeziness. Biden follows the model of the Clintons in self enrichment through political connections. He has directly benefitted, encouraged, and tried to hide his family's business practices on a large scale.

He was the architect for the modern strategy of political character attacks on judicial nominees while chairing the senate judicial committee in the 80s.

He is particularly skilled in providing political handouts to business sector supporters while demonizing his supporters' competition.

He refused to acknowledge a grandchild and only did so due to political pressure. His family's first tactic was to deny the child's existence, then pay the mom off, then attack her character.

His presidency has been bad. He kept most Trump's tarriffs, he signed huge spending bills that funneled money to his special interest groups which considerably worsened already bad inflation. His foreign policy has been inconsistent. He has bungled the immigration problem. And he has an inability to keep his staffers in check as they undercut him on important policy issues. He is in over his head and the administration is being run by his chief of staff.

He may be better than Trump, but he isn't good.

All true. And it helps explain why he has one of the lowest approval ratings for a president in US history.

And here I am hoping he gets re-elected.

[LVAllen]

I feel like he should have given a SOTU instead of what he did. Save the campaigning for the trail.

2012 - Obama was running again. He touted his achievements and directly contrasted what might happen if he were no longer President. It was a campaign speech.

2020 - Trump was running again. He touted his achievements and tried to contrast them to the previous administration. It was a campaign speech.

2024 - Biden is running again. He touted his achievements and contrasted them to the opposition's. In this case, he has the unique circumstance of being able to point out what a terrible job the likely opposition candidate did during the previous administration.

It's not exactly unusual.

[Non Sequitur]

Biden is certainly outside the traditional parameters of sleeziness. Biden follows the model of the Clintons in self enrichment through political connections. He has directly benefitted, encouraged, and tried to hide his family's business practices on a large scale.

He was the architect for the modern strategy of political character attacks on judicial nominees while chairing the senate judicial committee in the 80s.

He is particularly skilled in providing political handouts to business sector supporters while demonizing his supporters' competition.

He refused to acknowledge a grandchild and only did so due to political pressure. His family's first tactic was to deny the child's existence, then pay the mom off, then attack her character.

His presidency has been bad. He kept most Trump's tarriffs, he signed huge spending bills that funneled money to his special interest groups which considerably worsened already bad inflation. His foreign policy has been inconsistent. He has bungled the immigration problem. And he has an inability to keep his staffers in check as they undercut him on important policy issues. He is in over his head and the administration is being run by his chief of staff.

He may be better than Trump, but he isn't good.

Those are your complaints? That he was a partisan politician that rewarded special interests groups who supported him? Who are the past presidents that in your mind were within the acceptable parameters of sleaziness?