I've written a longish take on the last couple of days, including about how what looked like (and initially was) Democratic panic over Biden morphed somewhere along the way into a rope-a-dope strategy against the GOP, and whether Harris can win (spoiler: yup):
https://whatever.scalzi.com/2024/07/22/biden-harris-trump-and-2024/
@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
Stanley Black-Decker
Todd Horowitz