You don’t think that a VP elect Stacey Abrams being inaugurated as president would be fun and games?

I was one of those California Trump votes. Thanks for the vote count BTW. My main motivation to vote was to vote against yet another local sales tax increase.

And, arguably Biden would be the more dangerous President given that he pretends to be moderate. Biden could get ‘moderate’ legislation passed, while Sanders’ desired radical legislation even RINOs couldn’t accept.

Meanwhile, Sanders got a million votes in California. Trump got a million and a half — I repeat, in CALIFORNIA — there were a million and half voters who were willing to go to the poll for what they KNEW was a rubber stamp for Trump.

I also don’t think any of them really wanted to write for a GOP President (except to make fun of him), and maybe the series was being cancelled anyway.

You wrote: “They didn’t manufacture [Biden’s] vote totals in South Carolina.”

That’s true.

However, the way I see it is that in 2008 Biden was not viable as a candidate for anything national. He had a permanent spot (if he wanted it) as senator, but all his efforts to be president had come to naught. Then he was chosen by Obama to be his VP. Why? It certainly wasn’t because Biden was so great, so smart, such a draw himself. It was because he would be seen as older and experienced and sort of generic and wouldn’t give any trouble. He would do what Obama and the party told him.

Biden’s eight year tenure under Obama is the reason he won South Carolina. And that happened because Obama selected him to be ” a likeable (and controllable) mascot for the Democratic Establishment” and for Obama.

They didn’t manufacture his vote totals in South Carolina.

I was looking for the candidate who won his presidential election but dropped dead before inauguration, but I lost patience.

William Harrison gave a lengthy inauguration speech in bad weather, plus some meet and greet activities in same weather, then got sick and died after exactly one month in office. VP Tyler became president and served out his presidency without a VP.

There are a number of presidencies served partially or entirely without VP’s in office. Wikipedia has a nice list.

Agreed. As I wrote in this post: ” Well, [Biden] ain’t no kid, and although it is a remarkable comeback, it’s not really due to Biden’s own efforts.” And as I wrote in another post today: “I believe Biden as president would be more a less a figurehead, and the people in charge would be the same people who were prominent in the Obama administration, doing the same things only more so because they feel the country is ready for more open leftism. “

That can’t be hammered enough. He has zero agency in all of this.

To repeat something I said in a previous post: Joe has been selected, by forces entirely outside his own control, to be a likeable (and controllable) mascot for the Democratic Establishment.

Should he happen somehow to defeat Trump in the general he will be a mostly-titular president, with the Democratic Establishment calling the shots by selecting his personnel for him.

That’s assuming, of course, that he makes it to Election Day. I think there’s a small but nonzero chance he doesn’t, and his Veep choice (likely Warren or Harris) ends up being at the top of the ticket (with the other of those two becoming the new running-mate).

Either way I think the Democratic Establishment are determined to get back control of events, and gamed the process to exclude Sanders quite nicely. That was always their plan, but the question was how to achieve that without permanently alienating the pro-Sanders voters, which would be certain death in 2020 and afterwards.

By having Warren stay in both to distract from, and to attack, Sanders, and by simultaneously having all the “moderates” bail out (leaving ol’ Joe in sole command of the “moderate lane”) the DNC deftly leaves Joe and even themselves looking innocent of the hatchet job. Very smooth.