In reply to: Is there a realistic way for the Democrats to move on from posted by IAND75
...but even a dumb civil litigator like me can read the Social Security Administration's mortality tables.
And rising to a bit over 10% by 85.
Which is averaged over humanity and doesn't factor in good/bad things regarding genetics and things specific to the person.
Of course at a high level, it's more than I'm comfortable with, having a father the same age, but nowhere near "likely".
I just misunderstood the post to be presuming he's likely to die before 1/20/29, which plenty of people have done here but not Tex in this instance.
to nominate someone else?
There obviously has to be some mechanism. Any candidate could have a health event, even death, prior to the nomination or election that could unexpectedly cause them to be unable to run.
They do it as a live poll. So, they could pick whomever they want. However, how do you pass over a sitting VP, if that's what you think you have to do to win?
Have a few impromptu non-binding primaries or stack it so some of the later states have more significance. Release the Biden delegates.
Have the contested part of the convention a month or two before the actual convention. If someone picked up steam in the primary slate the unpledged folks will gravitate that way. There are a chunk of states that vote after Super Tuesday you could do this with.
she doesn't have the votes.
While I think the Obama Coalition is a critical part of Democratic electoral math, Kamala Harris isn't the only option to leverage that coalition together against Trump. A Whitmer/Booker ticket could do it, as an example.
or hurt in this situation? On the one hand, it can't do anything unless there is a contested convention (ie second round ballot and after), but on the other hand, it's a small but significant percentage of the votes which can act on behalf of the party, not a particular candidate.
Acting to select someone who isn't losing it would be a strong contrast to the Romperroom National Committee. Even if they didn't select Harris, the fact that they were willing to toss the old white guy out would seem to be a good message. Klobuchar and Warnick would also be good candidates- Klobuchar actually won candidates in 2020, and Warnick has good name recognition coming off of his recent campaigns. He's also new enough in the Senate that he doesn't have any baggage, and a good campaign message would play up the Obama precedent. Drawback for the party is that they'd be creating two vacancies in the Senate, but it would likely result in only one seat loss (unlikely that Georgia would name a Democrat as the temporary fill until a special election).
Biden is going to have the vast majority of delegates pledged to him. If he's out they could help swing a vote between a few candidates.
The real question I have is where do the delegates fall ideologically? Are they moderate Biden types or are they stuffed with a bunch of squad types?