'Pod Save America' Host Calls Biden's Choice To Run Again 'Catastrophic'

[LiberalArkie]

Nov 9, 2024, 02:58 PM EST

“Pod Save America” host Jon Favreau slammed President Joe Biden’s decision to run for a second presidential term on a Friday episode analyzing Vice President Kamala Harris’ loss to GOP President-elect Donald Trump.

“Joe Biden’s decision to run for president again was a catastrophic mistake,” the podcaster and former speechwriter for President Barack Obama said. “It just was.”

Link to tweet

Snip

The host also excoriated Biden’s campaign for claiming “the polls were fine” after the president’s disastrous June debate against Trump — even though, Favreau said, the campaign’s internal polling at the time “showed that Donald Trump was going to win 400 electoral votes.” (A source described as “close to Biden” disputed those numbers in a comment to Mediaite.)

In August, the head of Democratic super PAC Future Forward revealed that its own forecast models, while not as dire as the internal polling Favreau described, had only put the probability of Biden winning in the single digits prior to his stepping down.

Snip

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/pod-save-america-blames-biden_n_672fac20e4b0076892d7e05f

[Deuxcents]

1. Hind sight is great, isn't it?

[LisaL]

2. Always 20-20.

NT

[Fish700]

3. Was there some massively popular Democratic candidate waiting in the wings somewhere?

If so I didn't know about them.

[Ocelot II]

4. Dean Phillips, of course. In his mind.

I hate to see people dragging on Joe now. He was a hero just a week ago. "Victory has a thousand fathers, but defeat is an orphan."

[JI7]

15. Josh Shapiro has 58 percent approval in Pennsylvania

but him even just being consideref for VP brought out certain haters. And if he lost people would be saying we should never have had a Jewish person on the ticket becsuse of what is going on in middle east and claiming we would have won the Muslim vote otherwise .

[Zeitghost]

21. That is where

An open and well fought primary comes in.

[dutch777]

5. We Dems are (now) clearly good at deluding ourselves. Not to say we don't have great ideals but...

...we have to get our folks 1) elected and 2) and empowered to actually govern. Almost jokingly I wrote to the WH and here on DU that in 2022 or so that Biden should step down within his Presidency on medical grounds and elevate Kamala. YEARS before the convention let alone the election. I also said, as Pelosi was still Speaker, that Kamala should do the same, just to make millions of MAGA heads explode. Yes, it would be temporary to some extent but also telling. Women are perfectly capable. Maybe just perfect. I was joking to an extent but was also suggesting a strategic level of thought that now seems prescient. We were too far behind the power curve and Joe, wonderful, wonderful, Joe, was not the guy to take us to the next step. Now we go to the hinterlands, hoping to at best be the loyal opposition until 2026 and I would wager now, well beyond that.

[BannonsLiver]

7. I had the same feelings in 2022 post mid terms at times

But in the end I thought his record and public fear of trump would win out. But I wouldn’t have dared to bring those thoughts here at that time.

[brush]

19. Just Joe announcing he would not run for re-election would've done the trick.

As far as VP Harris resigning along with him, no. Her serving out his term would've given her the incumbent advantage in '24 against whoever the rethugs ran. It would've also given her two years to show her competence and ability to the nation.

[In It to Win It]

6. Fair. Apparently, I deluded myself into thinking Joe Biden wasn't going to run for reelection

[standingtall]

8. Sorry but with me they don't get to have it both ways

Can't get your way down the stretch forcing Biden out taking away his opportunity to get reelected then lose everything The Presidency,The Senate and probably the house and then turn around and put the bulk of the blame on the Biden/Harris administration.

[brush]

9. Turns out it was a mistake. A primary in '22 would've produced a younger and more viable Dem.

That was the way to go. If VP Harris had run then she would've sunk or swam like all the other candidates and Black voters would have no complaints of the party skipping over her.

From the great job she did having been dropped into this unprecedented situation, seems she learned a lot from the 2020 run and may have won the nomination.

Too bad we didn't stick to the one-term transitional plan.

[bigtree]

11. a primary happens when people step up to challenge

...how do you get a primary when no one who could ostensibly beat him stepped up?

[In It to Win It]

12. That's why he should have stepped aside. Joe Biden stepping aside clears the field

The Party wasn't going to abandon our incumbent unless our incumbent said he wasn't going to run.

[bigtree]

18. who was calling for that at the time?

...most of us went into that primary assuming he had the party behind him.

They were, not a word until after the debate.

Hindsight. I think people are kidding themselves about ANY move by Biden to step aside making things better.

And any candidate that thought he could compete better than a historically sucessful incumbent sure stayed quiet. But we can pretend they were just chilling because Joe had declared.

That's not the way this works. There would still be political consequences for the president who's record ANYONE would need to run on telling the nation he just wasn't up to it.

He was betrayed by a vocal group of legislators who bear all of the responsibility for blowing up the elected nominee's chances with their whinging about his age.

Now lookey what we have. People who voted in that primary didn't cast their ballot for any of what came after they chose Joe to run.

Wonder how many of them stayed home...

[In It to Win It]

20. Nobody publicly, because you don't make your incumbent look bad

In 2020, I didn't expect Joe Biden to run for re-election. I was actually shocked when Joe Biden announced he was running again.

But once he announced he was running for re-election, what was anyone going to do other than make Joe Biden look bad? or create a situation where people become down on Joe Biden?

What if we had a primary challenge that actually had a fighting chance and Joe Biden survives that challenge and becomes our nominee. Now, all the negative shit that primary challenger said is now ads for Republicans. All of that negative shit puts people down on Biden, and if he's our nominee after a primary challenge, that's not a good place to be in.

Instead of Joe Biden being challenged, he clears the field by announcing he's not running for re-election and you let a batch of new candidates duke it out, and the best one wins.

[brush]

14. With Joe announcing he wouls not seek re-election, Like LBJ did in '68.

It's not complicated and has been done before.

[Prairie Gates]

10. He's absolutely correct and a lot of us have been saying the same for two years

[JI7]

13. Inflation was going to hurt any democrat

but i guess there is a chance a straight white man would have won and if he campaigned as well as Kamala could have won without being hurt due to sexism and racism .

[Skittles]

22. Biden was never going to win

nope

[valleyrogue]

32. It wasn't about "inflation." It was about massive numbers

of assholes who didn't want a woman president.

Why do people refuse to see the obvious?

[Deminpenn]

16. Favreau and company got what they wanted, Biden dropped out

Then he and all the others who thought they were so smart couldn't deliver a victory despite having a good candidate, all the money they needed and more.

Want someone to blame? Look in the mirror, then shut up. Geesh,

[Skittles]

17. Biden was never my pick

and this is pretty much exactly why

[LiberalArkie]

23. As an old person, I could see the age really catching up to him and it does it fast.I notice it even

I notice it even more these days when he talks and walking around.

It must have really been noticeable to people around him on a daily basis.

If Joe had planned it out 2 years ago and let Kamala take a leadership role in daily stuff. Like attending the foreign meetings. Giving the speeches instead of Joe doing it. I think she would have won easily.

[Skittles]

25. I disagree that Kamala was ever going to easily win

I think you are understating sexism and racism in America, it is fucking RAMPANT. Add to that the corporate media sane-washing Trump.....try to imagine if Kamala had five kids by three different men and would talk about Arnold Palmer's junk and mimic oral sex - can you EVEN......

[LiberalArkie]

35. I totally agree with you. This is not the country I grew up in. I understood all the sexism and hatred pretty well

but the stupidity I did not. I did not believe how many people who live around me did not believe that we had put people on the moon. Not just belief but to the point that it was not possble and anyone thinking it was crazy. I encountered a neighbor who flew with his job all over the world and said the world is flat because when you are way in the air, all you see outside is a disc. Anyone saying anything different is lying.

We have a big problem

[genxlib]

24. Skittles implied it but I will be more direct

Biden should have never run in 2020.

There are people who will hate this but I don’t want a candidate older than low sixties because I want to have a reasonable chance at 12 years worth of viability. Anyone older runs a high risk of either running out of steam or giving up the advantage of incumbency. I tried to say this at the time and I was right.

The caveat to this is Sanders shouldn’t have run either. He had the same age issues. He skewed the field in such a way that Biden was the only one that could survive long enough to overcome him. A primary without them would have cleared the way for a real contest to elevate the next generation

I fully expect to be flamed. Go ahead. It can’t be any worse than watching this disaster play out in slow motion for 6 years.

[Skittles]

27. don't even get me started on BS

[BunkieBandit]

26. Had President Biden not ran for re-election

after his first demonstrably successful first term, we, they, them, the world, the universe would have screamed and swung from the rafters raising three kinds of hell. Just like what's happening now. Damned if you do, damned if you don't. Lose/lose for President Joseph Biden. Blast me or block me.

[JCMach1]

28. I don't want it to sound bad, but Biden in 2020 literally

Got first nominated and then elected because he was the equivalent of comfort food during the pandemic.

That environment has completely evaporated and his ability to communicate took a huge hit with age ... Fairly, or unfairly.

[valleyrogue]

34. That is not why the Democrats lost, and you know it.

It was because of sexism, and, to a lesser degree, racism.

Quit blaming Democrats for the actions of the assholes who voted for Trump.

[Skittles]

36. Trump humpers were not the sole issue, and you know it

yup

[kansasobama]

29. Misogyny and sexism lost the election

Don't blame Biden or Harris

[valleyrogue]

30. Blame everybody except those responsible,

who are the idiots who voted for Trump.

[Attilatheblond]

31. Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are NOT to blame for the fact that so many people are fucking idiots

Strong message to follow

[mountain grammy]

33. Enough already..

[emulatorloo]

37. Give it a rest. Zero interest in the pod people and their bs hot takes.

As valleyrogue noted:

“ Quit blaming Democrats for the actions of the assholes who voted for Trump.”