that hit the fan on June 27th (debate).

He left us all with the impression that he'd voluntarily leave after one term. But, his feelings?

Biden *felt* he was up for the job of campaigning for a second term when he clearly wasn't.

I called him the best "president of my lifetime" up until that disastrous debate. I knew then we'd lose the presidency and both houses of congress.

Even then, he didn't get out. It took weeks of convincing him, with Nancy Pelosi giving the final push, which came far too late. It gave Kamala little time to ramp up a campaign.

Also, IMHO, his choice of her as VP was weird. She was the very bottom of the primary picks in 2020.

Kamala should have been the AG, instead of Garland. She'd have made a fine president, but so would so many other Dem candidates.

Biden saved us from Trump in 2020, only to deliver him to us in 2024.

Those are my "feelings."

Last edited Fri Dec 19, 2025, 11:40 AM - Edit history (1)

Anyone who had seen him in action since the 1980s and caught a whiff of his ambition knew that once he got in office, he was going to run for re-election. Most politicians have pretty big egos and they can't resist the pull to power. I expected as much and sure enough, he did so.

From reading the comments of those that think otherwise, they seem to not have been Biden's biggest supporters to begin with, so I'm wondering if they wanted to read too much into what was never there.

The closest thing he ever said was that he wanted to be a transitional president, but that doesn't mean you can only serve one term to be one...

I shouldn’t have used the term “promise” when “allusion” would be more apt.

He was certainly a transitional president.

Yet I've heard too many people this past year claim that he said he would only serve one term. First of all, running for president on the promise to only serve one term is a political loser. Second, he set a lot of things in motion that he wanted to complete.

There are a lot of people who never liked Biden and in spite of his accomplishments in the White House, we see them criticizing him and blaming him for Kamala Harris's loss in 2024. That's rather low.

SIGNIFICANT EDIT RE: 1 TERM GOALS: His 1st and only goal should've been to prevent Trump from ever holding office again. He should have loosed dogs of war on him, scorched the Earth and salted it after. That he assumed the wheels of justice would move slowly but inevitably was unbecomingly naive of a man with his experience.

If he "set a lot of things in motion that he wanted to complete," they should have been implemented in 1 term. I agree that running on 1 term is objectively poor tactics from a political capital standpoint, but only if you are concerned about your own political future, not the existential fate of the Republic.

I liked Biden just fine until he showed me, on TV, that he was incapable of *running* for President. My opinion of him nosedived when he took a month following the debate to accept that he had been played by his campaign staff / pollsters and it took Nancy Pelosi to "do things the easy way or the hard way".

The fact that he still harbors a resentment towards Speaker Emerita Pelosi for her entirely clear-eyed evaluation of what happened and what would certain happen if he continued to run speaks to his personal hubris. There is no way around it.

And with the benefit of hindsight let us be similarly reflective. The man has stage 4 cancer. It is an objective fact that he was in poor health.

Different people view the world differently and I can accept that.

and your grace.

You are a good person.

the level of expertise is stunning!

I'm doing a plus 1 - - - and see ya 1 - -

Because responses like this are what it's for.

Why are you lying about President Biden?

It isn’t deliberate dishonesty but interpretation.

There is absolutely no truth to that whatsoever. Others may have made that inference,
but he never said it.

place by saying he would serve only one term.

He implied at times that he'd serve four years, but he never came out and said it in so many words.

he'd have never won the primary.

Last edited Fri Dec 19, 2025, 10:04 PM - Edit history (1)

I think just enough people were so burned on Trump at that point they wanted some relief. I also think part of what secured the election for him is that he was an old, white guy in a nation eaten up with sexism and racism.

You are correct that Trump was dead in the water.

I agree except I didn't care for Biden as the initial pick - I did not think he was the only one who could have beaten Trump, and I knew he would only be able to handle one term. Sucks.

But, Biden rose to be "the best president in my lifetime." (I was born to LBJ.)

Biden had balls, and was good at manipulating Republicans. (Obama was never so good in this regard.)

But, Biden didn't know when to quit.

Kamala ran a fine campaign. She was light-years ahead of her 2000 self.

>> Sucks.

No matter how eloquent I wish to be, you sure said it all, here.

and to each his own, he isn't even in my top three

but I do agree Kamala did the best she could for her campaign.

I remember the DNC crackling with energy that I'd never experienced. It eclipsed Obama. It was good TV.

I couldn't stand that Cheney was on the campaign trail and that Kitzinger was being considered for cabinet/executive offices. But I thought maybe there'd be a coalition forming -- call it, idk, antifa. Some sort of anti-fascist coalition...

Former President Biden was potentially a great president, had he achieved his goal, which was to fight back fascism.

But he lost, and as a consequence is reduced to an interregnum. President Inter-Trump. Every fight he had, and every victory has been pyrrhic. Except perhaps judicial appointments.

His words. His campaign.

I will own where I am wrong. What exactly is your intent here?

I am presenting my perspective. You challenged a claim, I did a quick google search and could not validate, so conceded a specific point.

You are welcome to challenge my claims and educate me.

Are all of them failures too?

by remaining steadfastly tied to "norms" and "protocol" while the house was on fire.

By not being visible enough, either because of choice or health, doesn't matter.

By making it politics-as-usual me or thee.

By making a fool of every Democratic supporter of his because of that damn debate.

any good President, on the heels of January 6th.

Joe Biden stated he would only select a Black woman as VP, and Harris got the call. Not sure who else was on his list, but I was surprised given that during the primary, she had implied he was racist.

It would have been so much better for him to have picked her without announcing the demographics in advance.

She was somewhat invisible as VP.

Joe Biden did not pledge to only pick a Black woman as his vice president. He explicitly pledged to pick a woman to be his running mate and to nominate a Black woman to the Supreme Court.

based on the sources I am finding, that he did not vow to have black woman VP. Just a female VP.

where Biden said he'd have a black woman VP, but I cannot source it so I will assume the appropriate logical position since I am making the extraordinary claim.

Still, though, I am troubled that some are more concerned about Biden than they are themselves.

Biden, had resigned from office or decided not to run after the midterms, would be a lion of the party. No loss for him, just adulation and love. Can go to all the same parties, get treated as a party elder.

Instead he went out with a whimper, clinging with his nails to the office in a way that made it questionable whether humble ol' uncle Joe was ever all that humble to begin with.

to google it, but you can. It happened. He vowed to have a female VP, not necessarily black but he was painted into a corner during an early debate by then Senator Harris.

So you’re squirming out of the lie now?

No squirming. I admit I thought it was a black woman VP, but it turns out no - he only promised a black woman Justice and a woman VP.

Wouldn't call it a lie.

Did Joe Biden promise he'd have a female VP?

She was a friend of the family and her busing comments were very hurtful to Joe. When Joe displayed forgiveness, I was able to do the same a bit reluctantly. She turned out to be an excellent candidate, but I sense a slight lack of loyalty to one who treated her so magnanimously.

Why we should care about "hurtful" attacks or "forgiveness". Number one, we don't know if these are truly felt emotions or if they are performative. Consequently, they should not enter political calculus. I.E. I don't care if Joe Biden was crying every night over his perceived betrayal. His job is to serve us, so he should (excuse me) man up and get over it.

Incidentally, I am not so sure that appointment to VP demonstrates forgiveness as it is a political graveyard. If you recall, the early days of the Biden administration, Kamala Harris was the preferred bulwark against any attacks re: immigration. He didn't exactly set her up in a strong position.

Compare, for example, former President Obama who gave then Senator Clinton the docket at State - the most prestigious and independent of the cabinet agencies.

Compared to Hillary being chosen as SOS ?

I do not believe Joe Biden was selected as VP because of his political aspirations. I think it common knowledge that President Obama was passing the torch to Sec. Clinton, not Vice President Biden. I think that was true in 2008.

Biden's a grown adult. If he couldn't handle someone disagreeing with him over the value of desegregating schools because Harris among others benefitted from it, that's not on Harris.

One isn't owed absolute fealty, president or not. A strong president should have people in their administration who can tell them they are wrong or present a different opinion. We currently have an administration where the president needs to be told he's the best and it sucks.

It was an accusation that implied Biden was racist. He took it personally and quite frankly I would as well. Later she brushed it off with a laugh and said it was just a political tactic, which actually made it worse.

I remember years ago when Bush said something similar to John McCain about the awful false story his campaign spread regarding his adopted Bangladeshi daughter. McCain told Bush how hurt he was by it and Bush just touched his hand and dismissively said, "It was just politics John", as if somehow, that made it okay.

Of course, it wasn't okay. That was Lee Atwater dirty tricks politics and that is why so many people don't believe a word politicians say and end up disgusted with politics in general.

She’s got snake like tendencies.

Biden saved us from Trump in 2020, only to deliver him to us in 2024.

I'm not kidding - I sometimes think it would have been better if Trump had won in 2020 - he would have lost the popular vote and his victory could have been somewhat waived away as due to the advantages of incumbency and the electoral college; January 6th wouldn't have happened; his second term cabinet and staff probably would have looked much more like the first term than what we're seeing now; and of course, we'd now be done with the son-of-a-bitch. Even if the debate disaster had not happened, Biden's term did not help the Democratic Party - the disastrous handling of the border, the blatantly heavy-handed (and alienating) pandering to certain demographic groups, the indifference to addressing economic concerns, the overall ineptitude at politics/communication - no Democrat is going to be running for the 2028 nomination promising to be Biden II.

Pierce served as US Attorney for the District of New Hampshire and Taft had been Solicitor General.

This was absolutely the baseline administration stance. Really don't understand why Harris would be under criticism for stating what in fact was basic truth.

( are certain posters imagining that Harris should have/could have countermanded that Biden position? )

( I end up being reinforced in the position that the Democrats really dare not nominate a female ... Much as it turns my stomach to have to say so. )

The fact that it's been broken by selfish, lawless, oafish miscreants is why we're here today.

in the bottle - I am also wildly uneasy with the (countering) cries of 'new normal' and 'unleash the demons'. (down that road leads madness .. )

She's an expert.

why should I care about "Biden's feelings"?

Politics is about outcomes. Our political leaders are not our friends. They are not our family. They sign up for a job that requires they be under the microscope 24 hours a day, every day, for as long as they serve and then some. They get perks for making this choice. They get to be in history books. They get to be the center of attention. Don't pretend like they don't want it, too. Every politician has some political instincts.

He was a good man who served our country well for decades and rarely got the respect he deserved.

Trump isn't taking Biden's healthcare. He's taking mine.

In the context of the disappointments and hardships faced by many millions who voted for Kamala, Biden's feelings aren't even a drop in the bucket.

Joe Biden would say, which is why I care about his feelings. Such empathy is rare, especially from someone in his position.

We do not know the man behind the mask, all we know are outcomes.

I will agree with you that in 2020, I thought Biden would be a "healer" given that what, 10,000,000 people died.

But if his empathy were authentic, he should've felt the anxiety we had when Trump decided to run again. He should have treated it with the same urgency that he treated his NATO meetings and never subjected us to that debate.

Do I theoretically care about a generic person? Yeah. But as stated, Biden is wealthy, famous, has the best healthcare in the world, has an army of admirers. That he possesses a basic human emotion that Trump does not doesn't elevate him beyond criticism.

Do we care about Nancy Pelosi's feelings now that Biden won't return her calls? Do we care about the feelings of the families torn apart by ICE despite Biden "Trump proofing" their citizenship status?

children, their right to decide what to do with their bodies, their right to be trans without governmental intimidation, to walk down the street without fear of ICE. The list goes on and on. These are the people whose feeling I care about. Joe Biden is just one in a whole nation.

I think it fair when Harris speaks of the very short time she had to put together a general election campaign.In However the timing was not as different as many imply. Both Obama and Bill Clinton won the nomination in June of their election years. Every campaign needs to greatly increase from the primary campaign. While she did not have her own primary team, she had the team Biden built to which she added her long term operatives.

As to Biden personally helping her, a genuine question is whether her closest advisors WANTED him to do more. Were there things they asked for that he refused? I could be very wrong, but I kind of think he got his speech at the convention and then they wanted him gone. Not even campaign appearances in Pennsylvania where he had always been popular.

What I wonder is what would have happened had Biden picked Klobuchar rather than Harris. Less Hollywood, but a great story herself and Midwestern. Obviously it would also have changed the VP pick.

Klobuchar did not fit his criteria for VP in 2020, and it would have been very problematic to pass over a Black woman VP for president in 2024.

Biden isn't hurting over any criticism.

whether deluded, racist, sexist, greedy or dumb, they failed the assignment.
She would have been a very good president.

Every expects Dems to leap tall buildings gracefully, while Republicans are praised for not drooling on themselves.