President Biden: The NEW one and only politics thread

How do you know that?

Is she richer than I can imagine? Yes. But that doesn’t eliminate her ability to read about life in the hinterlands or have empathy for others.

 

Here's a serious question for the U.S. History buffs and scholars on the forum:

Has there ever been a situation in a Presidential election quite like this, where a candidate with a viable chance to win has come from seemingly out of nowhere ? I understand Harris not even being on the primary ballot this spring creates an unique situation in itself, but even back when political conventions decided a candidate, was there an instance where an unexpected choice wound up at the top of the ticket?

She's been the vice president of the United States, so it's not like she vaulted into the race from the local school board. And she was a California senator so she'd be quite well-known out west. But from a national standpoint, she didn't seem to even be a blip on the radar until the Biden implosion in the first debate.

I know William Seward was the pre-convention favorite to win the Republican nomination in 1860, followed by Salmon Chase and Edward Bates. But each had alienated a portion of the base, and Lincoln -- who was already known for the debates with Douglas two years earlier -- wound up as the compromise choice.

We in California knew nothing of Jimmy Carter (and maybe that was the case everywhere but Georgia) until he began winning primaries in the spring of 1976. He just sort of came out of the blue when George Wallace and Hubert Humphrey, and even Scoop Jackson, Birch Bayh, Mo Udall and Sargent Shriver, were well-known Democrats.

That's sort of the closest two I come to thinking about when trying to compare to her meteoric rise. Of course if she loses, she'll be just a trivia question in 100 years.

 

“You back off or I’ll start typing in ALL CAPS!!!!1!!”

 

Maybe Trump could have made even the most elementary fact check before he parroted it, Erick. But he saw it on TV, so... <shrug>

 

Carter, Bill Clinton and Obama were all kind of unknown-ish or, at least, relatively early in their political careers. I think there are still those who are surprised Obama overtook H. Clinton as easily as he did.

 

Jolson campaigned for Harding.

 

Nahhhh. That one, I'm not going down there with you. I like Swift very much, but she is very far removed from the world of hard knocks. That means something.

 

I have no doubt that she has empathy and her writing shows a pretty solid understanding of the human condition. Donald Trump couldn’t spell “empathy” if you spotted him the em, the puh, and the the.

Also, yeah, she’s hella rich and has no reason to care about the price of gasoline or cereal.

 

... which is why i'm writing in john kasich

 

What happened to the message board we all knew?