We (read: Dems) can rally around him all we want. The point of the debate was to convince independents, uninformed voters never-Trumpers so that the polls start to look more favorable. Biden failed to do that and has no meaningful opportunity to do so for the rest of the campaign.

The informed Democrats can rally around him as much as they want, but he is still falling short, which is why a pivot seems risky but like the only real shot left

This movement wouldn't have any traction if Biden put on even a middling debate performance. We all saw Biden start to answer a question about abortion, then get confused and switch midway into talking about some woman killed by an immigrant. You don't need a grand conspiracy, it's a simple case of grandpa being too full of pride to give up his car keys. Except in this case the car is American democracy.

Biden was a great president. He should have asked in his accomplishments and set up a new generation of dem leaders. Instead, he let his pride get in the way, ignored his own decline, tried to hide it by refusing interviews and non-scripted public events, even the softball traditional pre superbowl interview, and then had that disaster of a debate. Yes, I'll still vote for the corpse of Biden if it means stopping Trump. But will swing voters? What about Trump to Biden voters in purple districts? What about young people and anyone already pissed about the genocide in Gaza? Is the "corpse is better than Trump" argument going to motivate infrequent voters to turn out? Better fucking hope so, cause Biden has us in this fucked position, is refusing to back down, so I guess we'll find out.

This is just braindead gaslighting. We all saw his performance. Dedicated Democratic cheerleaders like the Pod Save America guys think it's the worst debate performance ever and needs to be carefully considered whether he can turn things around (and frankly, are leaning toward the "he can't" side). Democratic leaders have been giving guarded answers about how they support Biden's decision on whether to stay in, not that he should of course stay in. This isn't remotely "media moguls" doing. The wagon circling is transparent and stupid and not working.

There was an event the next day where he gave a speech to a friendly crowd and by comparison he sounded like a spry well organized guy half his age. Hardly a mention of that out there though. I'm not a big fan of his miliqtost, half steps on a lot of things but it's playing the game with what cards are available and having decades in political office gives you the experience to do it. I'm largely willing to write off the debate as being so flustered with the torrent of bullshit coming from Trump that it put him off balance.

Biden is splitting Democrats. The center-left is split, and now even the centrists are starting to split among themselves.

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Ditching Biden is the only way to unite two important groups of Democrats: those with some grasp of reality, who recognize that Biden is far too old to run again, and those who still have their head in the sand about the issue, but will rally around anyone who isn't Trump.

If we stick with Biden the election is lost. This will not be the last time Biden has a poor showing in public, revealing just how hard it is for him to speak and think at his advanced age. Every time it happens, more voters pay attention, and his poll numbers will sink more.