• Rentlar@lemmy.ca
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    5 months ago

    I wouldn’t say this is bad timing in hindsight.

    • The news media moves on from Trump’s pity party, the debate, the President Putin and Vice President Trump gaffes.
    • Facing COVID, Biden has a legitimate reason to drop out without saying that he is weak to pressure
    • Trump is now the old and doddering candidate, turning much of the past brainwashing of Republican media on its head.
    • Trump will get bigly mad since the attention’s going to be off of him. Potential for a stupid outburst.
    • The media will be hyperfocused on what’s to come from the Dem campaign, an excellent opportunity to highlight Biden’s achievements and articulate a bright future for the party and country.
    • The pre-emptive smears from Republicans are on their way, but the Dems are a moving target until they officially announce the ticket.

    It relies on Democrats getting the message right though they’d faltered before. They get one more chance to fix it in this soft reset.

    • pjwestin@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      Yeah, but none of these benefits are better than ending the uncertainty 2 weeks ago; at that point, the polling was clearly showing Biden was dropping in key swing states, and the party was starting to go into full panic mode, but he still let them twist in the win while he made up his mind. Hell, even if he made the announcement during the convention, he could have stolen some of Trump’s publicity this week and forced a whole lot if RNC speakers to rewrite their speeches. Instead, he left the party in chaos for a month, then gave Trump a victory lap convention before finally stepping aside.

      • dvoraqs@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        There were a lot of rumors and speculation about this possibility last week that I think did take a lot of attention away from the Republican convention.

        • pjwestin@lemmy.world
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          5 months ago

          True, but rumors and speculation make people think that the party is in chaos. Announcements and press conferences would have made it seem like the Democrats were mobilizing. I’ve heard a couple of people say that it was smart to do this right after the convention to blunt any polling bump Trump might get, but I think the whole RNC just came across like a victory lap, and now it looks like it culminated in Joe Biden’s surrender.