Biden must go? And then what?
Will Bunch observes:
Over the course of a remarkable weekend, I saw the best minds of my boomer generation destroyed by madness — newspaper columnists and other big shots convinced they were cosplayers in a real-world episode of The West Wing, saving America by giving chief of staff Leo McGarry the best words to convince an ailing President Bartlet that it’s time to step down.
Democrats, many of them, are panicked over President Joe Biden’s debate performance on Thursday. This is one time Democrats really do seem in disarray. The press is having a field day, of course. But reporters are wary enough of being blamed for holding the drum while the “Biden must go” team beats it that Brian Stelter tells CNN it is no longer us (the press) but Democratic officials turning against Biden.
In the grocery store, online, on listservs, and in calls, “Biden can’t win” blares self-fulfilling prophecy in spite of the fact that, at least in the polls, there is no Biden free fall.
One in three Democrats believes Biden should leave the presidential race, a Reuters/Ipsos poll that concluded Tuesday finds. Yet both Biden and Donald Trump “maintain the support of 40% of registered voters, suggesting that Biden has not lost ground since the debate.”
(I’d be more confident in a poll of likely voters.)
A new CNN poll conducted by SSRS (again, registered voters) finds:
Three-quarters of US voters say the Democratic Party would have a better shot at holding the presidency in 2024 with someone other than President Joe Biden at the top of the ticket, according to a new CNN poll conducted by SSRS. His approval rating also has hit a new low following a shaky performance in the first debate of this year’s presidential campaign.
In a matchup between the presumptive major-party nominees, voters nationwide favor former President Donald Trump over Biden by 6 points, 49% to 43%, identical to the results of CNN’s national poll on the presidential race in April, and consistent with the lead Trump has held in CNN polling back to last fall.
Philip Bump cautions not to put too much weight on that one poll, but that “there aren’t significant shifts in the favorability of either candidate. Biden and Trump are each viewed more favorably by members of their parties than they were in April.”
In the few conversations I’ve had and read on my lists, panicked Democrats insist Biden must go. But suppose Biden did step aside, then what? What’s the plan? Who’s the candidate? How would this work?
Essentially, they demand that Democrats replace something with nothing. They are freaked out over Biden but offer vaporware to replace him.
The Reuters/Ipsos poll found:
Vice President Kamala Harris, for example, trailed Trump by one percentage point, 42% to 43%, a difference that was well within the poll’s 3.5 percentage point margin of error, making Harris’ showing statistically just as strong as Biden’s.
CNN’s polling queried telephone respondents about several prominent Democrats.
Reuters reports that some 70% of Democrats in its poll had never heard of Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, an upcoming Democrat. Furthermore, “Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer sat behind Trump 36% to 41%, while Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker had 34% support compared to Trump’s 40%.”
The problem with such speculative polling is that replacing Biden with any of these Democrats, capable as they may be, might allow Trump to win in November on name recognition alone.
Meantime, Donald Trump’s verbal gaffs and “glitches” are legend. He blusters through them, changes course, or launches into weird anecdotes about sharks and windmills. Democrats need to get the conversation back onto Trump’s disqualifications for another term. Like 34 felony convictions, multiple indictments, and a childlike desire for godlike powers.
A lot has happened in the last week, and Bunch reviews much of it in a few paragraphs while attacking the “savvy” and the cult that is now the Republican Party:
Except maybe the dangerous cult is the more important crisis, especially when it carries a printed guide to dictatorship and holds six justices in its back pocket. To focus on the actual threat we are facing, I wish America’s top pundits would spend less time watching reruns of The West Wing and maybe pick up a copy of The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich.
The reality of what’s happening in July 2024 — that an authoritarian-minded president, with help from a politicized and unethical Supreme Court, is on track to lead a nation where all power is being vested in him, his MAGA movement, and the corporate polluters — is THE story, and Biden’s health is a subplot in that drama. The current president is walking slowly, but it’s the American Experiment that’s on a ventilator. Journalists aren’t doing their job: performing basic triage and focusing on the sickest patient in the room. With fear for our democracy, I dissent.
For my part, I haven’t heard this much magical thinking from the left since the last (New Age) Whole Life Expo I covered. People are seriously arguing that Biden has to go because he’s not up to doing the job after January 20, as if good governance in the next presidential term is what’s on the ballot and not the fate of our nation. If Trump wins on November 5, we’re a dictatorship on Jan. 20. And right now, Biden is still the best positioned to prevent that.
As I said yesterday, get me an alternate candidate and a plan and we’ll talk.
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