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Comment by Sajarin | Hacker News Reader

> It’s a miracle, folks. Donald told the truth for once. It’s the most important election of our lifetimes. And I will win it.

Curiously, his tweet from just 18 hours ago seemed like he was still in the race. I wonder what changed.

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I think it was pretty widely understood that he was going to have to be adamantly in the race until the exact moment he wasn’t in the race. The second he showed any public wavering it would have been over.

I can understand that perspective too, but a problem with that approach is that he might seem arrogant and out-of-touch - and I would have difficulties trusting a party who is so clear in their communication for so long, and then abruptly change direction completely

good thing he's not running for anything then

This is how it works everywhere. Do you go to your boss and say "well, I'm thinking of quitting and taking a different job, but I'm not sure yet and I'm still deciding. I'll let you know when I've decided!"

People with good job security and good position in the labor market can do this. Lot of people already do shop around and try to get a raise, etc.

But are they letting their boss know that they are doing it?

Not during the process necessarily, but if they've received a viable offer sure.

Yes for sure, but that is the parallel. You won't let your boss know during the process.

I mean, the US president very much doesn’t have good job security, though.

resignation and successful impeachment rates are pretty low, so basically it's 4 years, and then later basically one can do whatever they want, they instantly have an amazing audience/market.

Once. Never again.

I guess it depends somewhat on your goals? It may not be optimal for your own career but it may be better for your boss to know?

I believe the leaked polling of Harris vs Trump around July 4th was the pinhole that sunk his chances to hold on.

You behave as though you’re in the race right up to the moment you are not.

It's bizarre people don't get this. What's he supposed to do, tweet "thinking about not running" and flip everybody out?

President Biden does not control his tweets. Even if he wanted to tweet that, his handlers would not let him.

The stepping down announcement was probably a layoff notice to his staff. I bet many are/were shocked.

That would be such an Elon Musk thing to do. No fucks given. ;)

I think he would tweet something like "42.0% of all polls are wrong". Like a clever pun using the weed number (420) :)

Heh, you're probably right. ;)

He's so funny :)

Well, yeah.

Then we could have had a better primary process, instead of putting huge amounts of effort into pushing a critically weak candidate.

People have been saying this for many months, and were basically told to stop helping Trump win. Turns out those people were right - so why defend the lies?

They hadn't told the people running his Twitter account yet?

There was already an incident [1] where his press secretary tweeted about running for president on her own account, so she or her people are presumably in charge of it.

1. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politic...

They found out on Twitter: https://x.com/politico/status/1815098672113402138

How is that related to this?

Even if Biden had personally authored and posted every one his tweets, that would have nothing to do with whether aides were kept in the loop about major campaign announcements.

This thread is discussing an alleged inconsistency (or quick reversal) in his Twitter messaging.

How is what related to what?

I agree with what you wrote. The people running Biden's campaign were not told the news 10 hours in advance - nor 10 minutes in advance. I doubt those messages were sent by the same people.

Friday: "The business is doing great! We are expanding on all fronts!"

Monday: layoffs

Exactly, people are overlooking how much he did not want to quit.

Threat that they will use article 25 to get him removed as president if he didn't playball

I was waiting for the House to censure him for not stepping aside. It was pretty clear that the flood of leadership democrats and donors insisting he step aside was building.

The _Republican_ controlled House? Censure a __candidate__? For staying in a race?

25th amendment requires a 2/3 majority of both houses of congress to remove the president if he objects. Not a credible threat to Biden.

The timing of Joe Manchin declining to endorse this morning certainly correlates.

I think the Sheldon Brown announcing he should step down was far, far more impactful. Joe Manchin isn't nationally relevant nor a Democrat anymore.

Does he write his own tweets? He's no Elon Musk or Donald Trump, I would assume some staffer is tasked with writing those tweets. And they obviously wouldn't tell the staffer to do anything different until the decision to drop out was final.

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