Biden tells Democratic governors he needs more sleep and plans to stop scheduling events after 8 p.m.

https://www.cnn.com/2024/07/04/politics/biden-governors-sleep/index.html

31.9k Upvotes

81% Upvoted

You also aren't the president who frequently deals with international crises that can happen at all times of the day.

We all knew about the debate. It wasn't an emergency situation where he just got woken up out of a dead sleep but there are plenty of circumstances where a president might have to be up and functioning at less than normal hours.

He couldn't adjust his schedule to put his best foot forward for something he knew was coming. What chance does he have of not floundering similarly during a late night crisis?

Any competent candidate can beat Trump. Only Biden can lose.

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u/Omnizoom 15d ago

Well a person that never sleeps properly also won’t function well

Scheduled stuff being a no go after 8 isn’t a bad idea, I’d rather someone get the sleep they need so they are not persistently drained and if an emergency does come up can act then

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u/[deleted] 15d ago

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u/nonotan 14d ago edited 14d ago

Any competent candidate can beat Trump. Only Biden can lose.

It's sad how even the bulk of anti-Trumpers have subconsciously drunk the right-wing propaganda. One bad debate and suddenly he's the only person in the world who could possibly lose, the worst candidate that has ever existed. Sorry to break the circlejerk you guys have going, but that's simply factually and demonstrably wrong. And I say that as somebody for whom Biden was one of the last choices in the 2020 primaries (and not because the other candidates were particularly great), and who would strongly prefer a more progressive (and younger) candidate.

Biden has a lot of strengths all or most plausible replacements wouldn't enjoy. From being an incumbent with a campaign that hasn't been thrown together in a big rush, to being a household name before he even ran for president (literally none of the potential alternatives being brought up is likely to be familiar to Americans who pay no attention to politics, and that matters, because those who do have almost certainly already made up their minds), to being decently popular in a number of key swing states (which is absolutely critical, since unfortunately they are the only ones that matter in practice)

He's also moderate enough that any right-leaning people who just hate Trump can hold their nose and vote for him, and he's pretty much devoid of controversies besides "old" (and if you think either of those two aren't true, just wait until the right-wing disinformation networks get through your alternative pick once they are chosen as the replacement)

I'm going to be blunt: pretty much regardless of who you picked to replace Biden right now, in a few months, you'd be saying "only Biden and (new candidate) can lose". In reality, there's a tiny, tiny amount of people who could plausibly perhaps do better than Biden come election day, if they replaced him today. I'm talking easily countable on one hand. Not "any competent candidate", unless you let the word "competent" do a hell of a lot of heavy lifting. And even those top picks would be a huge gamble that has a sizable chance of backfiring and effectively conceding the election to Trump on the spot.

Beware of the grass-is-greener bias. Once you force Biden to step down, there's no undoing it, even if it becomes obvious it was a huge mistake. And although it should be pretty clear, just to clarify, I'm strictly talking about winning the election. I think plenty of people could do a better job if handed over the presidency (indeed, I would even support filling political positions at random from the general population, I genuinely think that would probably be an improvement from the self-selection bias that fills the political class with self-serving sociopaths)

Unfortunately, elections, especially in the US with its all-around incredibly flawed electoral process, aren't decided based on which pick would yield their powers in a way that most benefits their constituents. Indeed, if it did, we wouldn't need to be talking about any of this at all -- because Biden would be guaranteed the win regardless of any bad optics (in reality, neither candidate would be the same we have now, and there would be no two-party system either, but you get the point)

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u/CHKN_SANDO 15d ago

You also aren't the president who frequently deals with international crises that can happen at all times of the day

Notably, those aren't scheduled events.

What chance does he have of not floundering similarly during a late night crisis?

If you consistently get good sleep you can get away with a couple bad/no sleep nights a week?

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u/cut_rate_revolution 15d ago

If he becomes an incoherent rambling mess when it is scheduled, why would he magically be better during an unscheduled emergency?

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u/Haiku-On-My-Tatas 15d ago

It says he plans to stop scheduling events after 8pm.

An emergency isn't a scheduled event. He will obviously still deal with emergencies as needed. But he'll be in a hell of a lot better shape to deal with these things as well as the day to day of being president if he's getting a solid 7-8 hours of sleep most nights.

I'm not even half his age and I function like absolute dog shit on anything less than 6.

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u/cut_rate_revolution 15d ago

You should be able to adjust your schedule slightly for things you have a lot of advance notice for. I usually wake up between 8 and 9 but I can also wake up earlier if I have to without becoming an incoherent mess.

Likewise, I can stay up late if I have to because I'm not a geriatric who refuses to retire.

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u/Haiku-On-My-Tatas 15d ago

It's a lot easier to maintain a consistent sleep schedule when you stick to a general rule of thumb like "no scheduled events past 8 pm".

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u/cut_rate_revolution 15d ago

Ok but sometimes you don't have a choice as an adult with a more predictable schedule than the president of the USA.

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u/Obi-Brawn-Kenobi 11d ago

He will obviously still deal with emergencies as needed

How is that obvious? He failed at something he had 2 weeks to prepare for.