He didn’t do well. He’s never been an inspiring speaker, and he looked old and out of it during too much of the debate. But it’s him or Trump, that’s how the system works. I can’t see how a decent old man, even with dementia, who’s administration is filled with competent people that are broadly aligned with my political views could be worse than a narcissistic bully who is surrounded by sycophants, christo-fascist and nazi wannabes. I’ll take Biden over Trump. I would take Biden over Trump if Biden was in a coma on Election Day. I wish there was another choice.
I spoke with a friend when I was in the US, long before the debate. They said their objection, or their concern, with Biden was he would die or resign and Harris would be president. They didn’t like Harris —I’m not sure why, we didn’t discuss it— and they didn’t want four years of Harris. I told them they must have failed civics class, I told them that someone who is not the elected president taking over the office in case the president dies or resigns can only server two year as the unelected president (see note below). Then an election must be held. On top of that, two years of Harris is still better than four more years of fake-and-bake Hitler.
In the end, it’s the same to me. The choice boils down to the Trump or Biden, to the Republican candidate or the Democratic candidate. I don’t believe the DNC will replace Biden at the convention. My own ballot from Virginia will have other choices but they are false choices.
In 2020 the Virginia presidential ballot had three choices: Republican, Democrat and Libertarian. This year it may have more, maybe RFK Jr. will be there running with his brain worm for VP. But, to me, even if I agreed with the third party candidates it would be stupid to vote for them. I’m voting against Trump. I’m voting against everything Trump stands for. Any vote other than Biden is a vote for Trump. Not voting is a vote for Trump. An intentionally spoiled ballot is a vote for Trump. There is no room for protest or idealistic votes for third party candidates or spoiling a ballot or not voting.
The choice is black and white, red or blue, republican or democrat, Trump or Biden. Given Trumps disdain for the law and for democracy I can’t imagine a scenario where I would not vote for Biden.
Note: It seems I’m the one who failed civics, I just read the twenty-second amendment [wikipedia.org], and it says:
No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice, and no person who has held the office of President, or acted as President, for more than two years of a term to which some other person was elected President shall be elected to the office of the President more than once.
So, it seems that if Biden was elected and resigned on day one, Harris could server out the whole term, but then would only be eligible to be elected once. And if Biden made it half-way and then resigned Harris could server the remaining two years and still be elected twice. So I apologize to the people I may have mislead.
It should also be noted that Donald Trump is on record as saying he would be president for “10 to 14” years. Which would violate the 22nd Amendment. Wikipedia points to other; Truman, Reagan, and Clinton who disagreed with the Amendment. It also notes that there have been 54 resolutions introduced congress to repeal the Amendment.
Personally, I think we need more term limits, not less. I think we need limits on Senators and Representatives too. And maybe even Supreme Court Justices. I think it was a mistake that the constitution does not impose limits as getting congress to vote to limit itself seems like a lost cause.