• Kaeru@slrpnk.net
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    1 month ago

    I thought I read he was putting off endorsing her for certain reasons. What changed so that he changed his outward opinion? Don’t say nothing–I thought he was waiting to see a more pragmatic demand for improvement or something?

    • General_Shenanigans@lemmy.world
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      1 month ago

      Aside from having to switch his stance because Biden dropped out, higher profile politicians have to plan out when they announce their endorsements. The ones that progressive and liberal voters really care about are those of Obama and Bernie. You let the candidate build up some momentum to see how they do, and she did pretty well. They also want to make sure they can actually successfully accomplish making her the new nominee, seeing as how this was a weird situation. Then, you start doling out the endorsements at opportune times. You want to spread them out a little bit, but still leave them close enough to give the public that overall impression when they’re reading the news that the candidate is still building and gaining more momentum. As you can see, it works. Excitement about her replacing Biden is a wake they absolutely should ride as long as they can. Go too fast or too slow and you lose the boost.

    • jonne@infosec.pub
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      1 month ago

      I think Sanders along with others was working with Biden to make sure the policies he ran on were as progressive as he could get them to be, presumably he was holding off on whether Harris would change tack or run on those same policies.

    • BananaTrifleViolin@lemmy.world
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      1 month ago

      Probably Obama’s endorsement which finally shut down the prospects of a contested primary.

      The Dems got into the mess with Biden because they wouldn’t test him with an actual open primary process. Not having a contest for Harris may be pragmatic but it may dog the party in the future. If she loses then there will be recriminations. And if she wins they will have to think about what they do in 2028 - does she get a free pass again or does the party get a say? Do all those ambitious contenders step aside again?

      Problems for another day. I think the dems are doing the right thing in coronating Harris now as they have been left with no choice. But they really need to think about what happens with sitting presidents and the primaries - waving Biden through was disasterous, and him dragging his feet on steeping down shut down all other options. I have very little respect left for Biden - he did the right thing but took far too long to do it, risking everything.

      • cheers_queers@lemm.ee
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        1 month ago

        IDK, i think the timing was strategic and about as good as it could’ve been. they wasted most of the GOP resources by dragging Biden out as long as he could, and now Trump is locked in to a fight he didn’t want to sign up for. but it’s too late now. lol

        their shock at Biden actually stepping down kinda tells me that they are not used to leaders who do what the people ask for

        • vzq@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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          1 month ago

          Right? They waited till the GOP locked in messaging AND made a VP pick AND were done with the convention.

          Then they dropped the hammer, denied them the convention bounce by stealing all the media oxygen AND rendered their messaging not just obsolete but actively harmful to them (candidate is old? You’re right) AND now they are stuck with a VP that hurts them with the demo Harris is going to make major gains in.

          If I didn’t know better, I’d think the democrats were actually organized and disciplined for once.