this post was submitted on 19 Aug 2025
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They didn't really have much choice besides pushing Kamala due to various complications with campaign finance law and the limited time frame to run a selection process. I don't think the DNC neoliberal types particularly cared who the nominee was as long as it wasn't someone who would stand in their way. They would have been perfectly happy to go with a different candidate. One of the big risks though was that if the party did anything other than have Kamala take over the campaign the new candidate would lose access to all of the money the campaign had raised and would be forced to start over from scratch. With the compressed time frame available for a selection process it also basically guaranteed that selection process would be a shitshow that risked dividing the party further at exactly the worst time in the election cycle. If your choice is between a messy public fight producing a candidate covered in shit with no money or campaign infrastructure, or the VP who is already on the ticket could just take over the existing campaign...
You're correct if we assume that Biden staying in the race until it was too late to have a real primary was they only possible outcome. That's obviously not true though.
Thank you
I am trying to imagine a scenario where the DNC intervenes to push out Biden before the debate debacle and I really can't. I agree that had Biden left earlier things would have gone differently, maybe worse or maybe better, it's tough to say. I don't agree though that the DNC could have pushed Biden out prior to that point, that is a major move that would play out really badly without the context that Biden's debate performance ultimately provided. I think Biden and his closest family and advisers who were encouraging him to keep going are primarily responsible for it being too late, and that the DNC intervening to push Biden out earlier in the campaign would likely have gone terribly for everyone even if it were successful. Which it probably wouldn't have been, because even after the debate debacle it was still a major challenge to convince Biden and his advisers that dropping out was the correct choice.
The DNC didn't need to push him out. He could have made the decision himself. In fact, he told us he wasn't planning on running for a second term as part of his 2020 pitch.
In a less fucked up world he would have passed the baton 3 years in. I think that was the most likely scenario for things to have worked out in the least shitty way that was reasonably possible, given the context and hindsight.
Sure buddy whatever makes you sleep at night.
This is pathetic reasoning why DNC keeps losing elections like a clock work.
What do you think you are contributing with this comment?
The DNC being shit at elections is exactly why that scenario seems like it would have been the best path and still within the bounds of reasonably possible given the constraints involved. It would have put Kamala in the optimal position and given her a year to pin inflation and everything else unpopular on Biden while also having incumbency, the entire political dynamic of the country would have been changed. She could have had a clean break and gone into the election with a coherent campaign built from the ground up. It's not the best outcome obviously, we still end up with Kamala vs. Trump but the odds would likely be much more against Trump. My only point is that in this counterfactual Trump is at his biggest disadvantage within a realistic scenario. If you think otherwise explain. And if you think any of this is somehow a defense of the DNC, read again more carefully.