The Daily Populous Monday July 1st, 2024 morning edition
Authored by usatoday.com and submitted by z8675309z

WASHINGTON – Allan Lichtman, the historian who has correctly forecast the results of nine out of the 10 most recent presidential elections argued on Saturday that replacing President Joe Biden could cost Democrats the 2024 election.

Lichtman, a professor at American University, rejected the growing chorus of political pundits and Democratic activists who have called on Biden, 81, to bow out of the presidential race after his disastrous debate performance last week against former President Donald Trump. The pivotal moment brought fresh questions about Biden’s age and ability to serve a second term.

“It’s a huge mistake. They're not doctors. They don't know whether Biden is physically capable of carrying out a second term or not,” Lichtman said during an interview with CNN of calls to replace Biden. “This is all foolhardy nonsense.”

Lichtman has correctly predicted the outcome of almost every election over the last half century, except for the race in 2000, using a series of 13 historical factors or “keys.”

The system includes four factors based on politics, seven on performance, and two on candidate personality. Lichtman said the incumbent party would need to lose six of those actors, or “keys,” to lose the White House.

Prep for the polls: See who is running for president and compare where they stand on key issues in our Voter Guide

The keys range from whether a candidate is an incumbent president to the state of the economy and the presence of third-party hopefuls.

Debate performance, however, is not one of the factors that determines the outcome of an election, he argued. Lichtman pointed to historical examples, including the 1984 election in which former President Ronald Reagan swept 49 states despite poor debate performances and concerns over his age.

When pressed about whether the questions surrounding Biden’s age and mental acuity are “fundamentally different” than his metrics as president, Lichtman doubled down.

“Debate performances can be overcome,” he said. “At the first sign of adversity the spineless Democrats want to throw under the bus, their own incumbent president. My goodness.”

Lichtman has not made his final prediction for who will win the 2024 presidential election.

yoho808 on June 30th, 2024 at 22:22 UTC »

The race for 2000 was most likely won by Gore.

This historian probably didn't anticipate the level of cheap tactics that the Republicans were using to trick voters in Florida.

mishma2005 on June 30th, 2024 at 22:15 UTC »

He gave Dana the business about CNN’s lack of fact checking and Dana was like “those are the terms they agreed to sir” and he responded “no, I was told there would be fact checking”. All weekend long on there: “should Biden drop out of the race?” CNN sucks so hard now, not that it was much better before, but still. They’re just after the clicks and Trump was great for business. They’re so dumb. If he wins what do you think he and his thugs will get rid of first? Unless they want to “Dear and Glorious Leader” all day for reporting. Tapper and Bash would do it.

ScooterLeShooter on June 30th, 2024 at 20:07 UTC »

The problem isn't that there aren't better candidates than Biden(there are plenty) the problem is how do you pick one of them, without the others making their own bid for it too?

Let's say for example that Whitmer is the most electable candidate they could choose, but Newsome very well would have big money backers in California and definitely wants to run at the next opportunity because, if not it's gonna be 8 years and he'll probably be out of the limelight too long, and vice versa, not to mention if they passed up Kamala would she not be pissed and want to run anyways?

So now you've got a three way race, where it's too late to run a primary, just let the them figure it out at the convention? Technically yeah. But now we piss off the electorate for not getting a say in who the candidate is. It's one giant cluster fuck