Jeralyn: "I think Democrats need an angel to step in. Joe Biden's legislative record on crime alone warrants him giving serious consideration to withdrawing from the race. Why should we have to choose between bad and worst?"

... toward Joe Biden, and not without good reason, I would also note that the majority of Democrats voted for him to be our nominee. It's a done deal. There are no white knights in politics, and you're wasting your time wishing for one.

And given what we're presently witnessing in our country, while speaking for myself only, I really don't think it's helpful at all right now for you to continue bashing our party's candidate like this over legislation that was passed over a quarter-century ago with substantial popular support. for sure, hindsight's always 20/20, and there are certainly a lot of people who now regret having supported the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994.

But any lingering resentment one may have over that error is no reason to continue talking down and dissing our party's presumptive nominee in such a way that could drive down the vote at the very time we need to maximize our turnout. Do you really think we're going to get a better deal from the Mar-A-Lago Mussolini and his malevolent band of No. 2-for-brains GOP bootlickers?

The former status quo is kaput. We're not going to return to it. We're way past that stage. Even Joe Biden has admitted this. So, please give the guy a chance, and since you're in Denver, please also work hard to ensure that Colorado sends the sort of senators and representatives to Congress in January who will enact the sort of reforms we all wish to see.

Let's not act like Susan Sarandons and Michael Moores and other d@mn fools in 2016 who put us in this h*ll today.

It's Biden or Trump.

It's not just about one man.

But, far sooner than they expected, growing numbers of prominent Republicans are debating how far to go in revealing that they won't back his re-election -- or might even vote for Joseph R. Biden Jr., the presumptive Democratic nominee. They're feeling a fresh urgency because of Mr. Trump's incendiary response to the protests of police brutality, atop his mishandling of the coronavirus pandemic, according to people who spoke on the condition of anonymity to disclose private discussions.

Former President George W. Bush won't support the re-election of Mr. Trump, and Jeb Bush isn't sure how he'll vote, say people familiar with their thinking. Senator Mitt Romney of Utah won't back Mr. Trump and is deliberating whether to again write in his wife, Ann, or cast another ballot this November. And Cindy McCain, the widow of Senator John McCain, is almost certain to support Mr. Biden but is unsure how public to be about it because one of her sons is eying a run for office.

None of them voted for Mr. Trump in 2016, but the reproach of big Republican names carries a different weight when an incumbent president and his shared agenda with Senate leaders are on the line.

Former Republican leaders like the former Speakers Paul D. Ryan and John A. Boehner won't say how they will vote, and some Republicans who are already disinclined to support Mr. Trump are weighing whether to go beyond backing a third-party contender to openly endorse Mr. Biden. Retired military leaders, who have guarded their private political views, are increasingly voicing their unease about the president's leadership but are unsure whether to embrace his opponent.

 "The turmoil across the country, punctuated this week with authorities' use of force against peaceful protesters near the White House, has caused a rethinking for a candidate who once promised donors that under his administration `nothing would fundamentally change' and who, just 11 weeks ago during his final primary debate, offered himself as a pragmatist, unlike his socialist rival Bernie Sanders, declaring: `People are looking for results, not a revolution.'"

"Now, in virtual town hall meetings, media interviews, his own podcast and in a rare formal address Tuesday, Biden has pointed toward a transformational era in which government would play a bigger role in curing the country's public health, economic and racial woes. Far from the incremental administration he promised on the primary campaign trail, Biden now offers Franklin Delano Roosevelt, architect of the post-Great Depression New Deal, as a role model for tackling the damage wrought by the coronavirus pandemic that has killed more than 100,000 Americans and put millions out of work as well as the enduring effects of systemic racism being challenged by a newly energized protest movement."

Joe Biden is on the cusp of formally securing the Democratic presidential nomination after winning hundreds more delegates in primary contests Tuesday that tested the nation's ability to run elections while balancing a pandemic and sweeping social unrest.

Biden could lock down the nomination within the next week as West Virginia and Georgia hold primaries.

Larry Sabato's Crystal Ball says Joe Biden should not be in a rush to name his vice presidential pick. Circumstances may change his list of contenders -- and probably already have.

Here are their rankings:

Sen. Kamala Harris
Rep. Val Demings
Sen. Tammy Duckworth
Sen. Elizabeth Warren
Sen. Tammy Baldwin
Gov. Gina Raimondo
Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer
Sen. Maggie Hassan
Stacy Abrams

Former Vice President Joe Biden has clinched a majority of delegates to the Democratic convention, locking up the party's presidential nomination, according to The Associated Press.

The AP now projects that Biden has won 1,993 delegates to the national convention, just over the magic number of 1,991 required to secure the nomination on the first ballot.