@scalzi I don't think the idea that Biden was bidin' his time between the debate and the announcement holds any water

It would mean Biden held all of those meetings with governors and senators and did interviews telling everyone he was fine and strong and committed staying in the race - that he did all of that as part of a ruse

The explanation with evidence also happens to be the one that's most straightforward: that he was sincere about staying in and was eventually dissuaded

@scalzi Spot on … or exactly my take as well

I still think Biden would have had a better chance of beating Trump, but the tactics (and organization) here might work very well

@scalzi

"You can rationalize it however you like; I understand it’s important for one’s self-image to do that. I’m not inclined to buy into the rationalizations any more."

Every bit of this, many times. Many, many times.

@scalzi

“Cross fetish”? Really? Does it mean, it is perfectly OK to be nasty to anybody who is not you? Thank you, I know it is a kind of Godwin’s Law, but the last time I heard such junk was when I was growing up in the Communist Czechoslovakia. Good job on falling into a stereotype!

@scalzi

pretty sure it was "we're not having a 68 so you all better support Harris"

@scalzi @lisamelton Fully agree, and I used the “rope-a-dope” analogy myself yesterday. I think that means we’re both “of a certain age”.

An interesting implication of this is that someone in the Dem party is Machiavellian AF. My guess is Nancy “the shiv” Pelosi. I take comfort in that idea, given what we’re up against.

@scalzi If Harris does win, it will be the first time a democrat is elected to follow a democrat since the civil war.

Truman followed Roosevelt, and Johnson followed Kennedy, but in both those cases it was because the incumbent died in office.

That could lead to 12 years of the democrats being in charge, which is enough time for long-term projects to actually get done. And, hopefully, some Supreme Court seats to be flipped.