He’s the current president until January 20th 2025, so if he dies between now and then, Harris steps in. What happens in terms of the election, I have no idea, but there wouldn’t be more than a matter of minutes between him dying and her taking the Oath of Office. That’s just how it is.
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A half-eaten ham sandwich would be a lot better than Trump in all respects.
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An entirely eaten ham sandwich would be a lot better than Trump
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Biden, and thus Harris also, already have a full Cabinet at team of White House staff ready to go on day one. If Biden dies on day one, Harris and team will be there to keep things going.
Remember that most of Trump’s ex-staffers and Cabinet members have either refused to support him, or are spending time in prison.
Which will you vote for?
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An eaten, digested and excreted ham sandwich would be better than Lord Dampnut, despite the obvious similiarities.
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They are. The media refuses to cover it. Competency is boring.
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To the point that when there was a debate where the president actually did talk about his achievements, all the reporting has been about how he had a cold. 
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FWIW, if pollsters took their job seriously, they would acknowledge that much of the voting public isn’t paying attention to the elections right now and this poll is going to be garbage.
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The poll:
Please select yes or no.
- Do you believe kittens harbor the souls of witches as Christ commands or are you a Jew?
- Is Biden’s age costing him the election?
- Can you please free associate three negative words about Biden for our AI to write the next headline with?
0
voters
We have assessed that you are not a robot and that you hate Joe Biden as do most Americans! Thank you for participating in our democracy!
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I’d assume she’d become the nominee, too… The last president who died in office (Kennedy) died a full year before the election, giving Johnson that long to carry on with Kennedy’s agenda and make his own more fully realized to the public. When Nixon stepped own, his VEEP had already left, so it was Ford (who had been speaker) who became President, and he had several years before the election.
Yes, because once again, this has happened several times in US History, and it’s not some mystery what will happen if President Biden dies in office…
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People talk a lot about the way media skews things, but one that could maybe stand more is how everything is totally unmoored from history, so things that are truly unprecedented and things that are routine are all one and the same. Like imagine how different opinions on tax rates would be if people understood Democrats were just being conservative. 
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I think a lot would depend on when, exactly, Biden died. If it’s between now and the nominating convention…then they’ll have to nominate someone new at the convention. Harris would be the obvious choice, but assuming they can assure that some other nominee can get on the ballot in all 50 states, they could choose someone else. It could get ugly if enough people in power decide Harris is not the right choice. Hopefully they wouldn’t do that, but who knows?
If Biden were to die after the nominating convention, then I would assume his name would stay on the ballot, and everyone would just understand you’re really voting for Harris. If Biden died after the election (assuming he wins) but before inauguration, then it’s no different than if he died in office at any time. Harris would succeed him and be sworn in as President immediately, and then again on inauguration day.
All of this would be the same for Trump, really, except that we don’t yet know who his running mate is.
Regardless, as others pointed out, there is no mechanism to delay the election, short of new legislation from Congress, which is so unlikely that we can just safely ignore that. The election will happen on November 5, no matter what.
This is all getting rather morbid. While Biden is old enough that he could just go to bed one night and not wake up, he seems to be in pretty good health, physically. He can’t run a marathon, obviously, but I’m not aware that he has any imminently life threatening conditions, and I haven’t even heard the media speculate that he does. They just think he’s senile. I also haven’t heard that Trump has anything, either, although I wouldn’t be surprised if he had coronary artery disease, given his weight and diet. But some of that is genetic, so it’s entirely possible he doesn’t. Anyway, I don’t think speculating on what happens if either of them dies shortly is very helpful. Interesting, but not helpful.
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I get the sense that this is just the general vibe lately… everything is awful and spiraling downward, our discourse included… I keep thinking about how people must have felt in the late 1920s and early 1930s, and this pit in their stomach must have been it… I even sort of feel like our pop culture escapes are being made more awful by corporate decisions, copyright struggles, AI,and other shit…
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Mother Jones did a good write-up on the situation. The article said the Democrats have three choices, all of which have various risks attached.
- Stick with Biden and risk another blow-up, assuming he hasn’t taken too much reputational damage already.
- If not Biden then who? Harris is already on the ticket. It would look very bad to kick her off, but a black woman candidate may not go down well in some of the southern swing states.
- If not Harris, everything will have to be left to a chaotic, divisive convention only weeks before the election, which isn’t a good look. And the Biden campaign has all the money.
All the above assumes Biden can be persuaded to stand down, because as things are he is The Candidate and apparently mechanisms to eject him do not exist, so the convention would have to invent them as its first order of business.
My opinion is the Democrats should stick with Biden, and use all their energy to fuck up the Republican campaign and get the vote out at street level.
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Like Wisconsin? Or Pennsylvania?
Racism and sexism aren’t a regional thing.
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Ah yes… only us dumb southern hicks are racist… /s 
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The vast majority of the racist, misogynist asshats are already firmly MAGAted, and the black vote, perhaps the key Dem demographic, would likely be energized by Harris. Now, i still think switching at this late date is a bad idea, but this reasoning doesn’t hold water. GA would be the easiest exsmple to put forward.
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While a contested convention makes political talkers salivate and makes them think they can make their names (and some sweet cash) - it is the worst outcome to motivate voters or win the election.
They should know that.
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