There's one case for Biden staying in race and not even his defenders are making it
Dems still backing president are putting loyalty over country and it's a bad idea
Here is the problem.
Notable Democrats who’ve quickly jumped into the fray supporting the notion Joe Biden should remain the party’s candidate say many things.
They say it’s not solely about how poorly the president performed in last Thursday’s debate, but how Donald Trump began by lying, spent every minute lying — “I did not sleep with a porn star” — and finished by lying.
They say Joe Biden has always been a fighter, has always gotten up after being knocked down, and his most recent failure to breathe confidence into an electorate that must see him as the man to beat Donald Trump and save American democracy only presents another opportunity for him to come back swinging and prevail yet again.
They say he’s been a wildly successful president and in all ways beyond convincing the nation he’s been a wildly successful president, they’re right.
Jobs. Jobs. Jobs.
Inflation dropping like a rock.
Income outdistancing inflation.
NATO expansion and international widespread support from Ukraine, even, eventually, from a recalcitrant speaker of the house.
The bipartisan infrastructure bill.
The bipartisan Safer Communities Act.
The bipartisan CHIPS act.
The Inflation Reduction Act.
The cold hard facts that, coming out of the COVID epidemic, the U.S. economy reigns supreme in the world, in large part because inflation is under control more than it’s under control anywhere else in the world.
A lot of things.
They say Biden’s already defeated Donald Trump once, as though that must mean he stands the best chance to defeat him again … only they never say he stands the best chance of defeating him again.
They never say that.
They never say he will beat him again.
They don’t say he will, or even, post-debate, that he remains the best choice, forgetting it’s the only thing that matters.
Given the stakes, given the Supreme Court’s heart-stopping lunacy, given democracy hanging in the balance, they don’t claim to believe the only reason why he should stay in the race to begin with.
If he stands the best chance to beat Trump, he should stay. If he stands less than the best chance to beat Trump, he should leave.
They never say that.
They don’t get it.
Going through a weekend of e-mails on Monday, I noticed one, arriving Friday, the day after the debate from hell, purportedly from Biden himself, with this first line:
“Clay, I have to tell you this: I have never heard so much malarkey in all my life.”
It said “malarkey.”
Is Biden running for the presidency this year or in 1952?
I’ve only ever said “malarkey” trying to sound 100 years old. I might have heard my father, who died at 79 four years ago, say “malarkey” a few times in his life. His father, born in 1911, said it a lot.
Who’s Biden trying to reach?
Then there’s this other line he loves to say, that Trump has the morality of an “alley-cat.”
Not an “f-ing alley cat,” underlining the gravity of the moment.
Not “He’s cruel, he’s mean, a despicable human being and a travesty of a man bent on destroying every good thing about this country and we can’t let him do it.”
Not something something visceral, but performative, something Biden must believe humorous — can you believe he called him an alley-cat, holy cow! — that might have grabbed folks’ attention in a pre “Mad Men” world if it ever grabbed their attention at all
He must speak to people.
He’s not speaking to people.
Is he capable of speaking to people?
Prior to the debate, perhaps the less Biden said the better.
Most presidential elections involving incumbents are referendums on the incumbent. If Biden could have kept it together on the debate stage, he may well have succeeded in making it a referendum on Trump, not him, and from there, perhaps, he could have retreated into the keep-away strategy that appears to be his campaign’s default setting.
Now, if he’s to stay in the race, he must put himself out there, conspicuously, seeking mass media interaction. He has no choice but to place himself in positions he might fail again, everything his campaign sought to keep him from doing prior to the debate
Because now it’s about him and that’s not good and the Democrats who are so fast to stick with him don’t seem to get it, loyalty being a terrible reason to sell out the nation to an autocrat.
The metric is not what Biden deserves.
It is what the nation requires to say no to Trump.
Think about this:
How many times have Democrats castigated Republicans for putting party over country or individual interest over country?
Every day?
Several times a day?
Well, here and now, Democrats are doing the same thing. Pundits, strategists, lefty media figures are doing it. Office holders and candidates are doing it.
Perhaps, behind the scenes, the fight’s happening; people whose names we know, with real influence, are trying to get Biden out of the race.
In public?
Crickets.
For who wants to risk their place in the party/media pecking order trying to do everything they can to keep Donald Trump out of office?
It ought to be everybody.
It’s almost nobody.
Can you imagine what California governor Gavin Newsom could do with Trump. He might be a better communicator than Bill Clinton.
Or Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer, a popular and, yes, female governor of a swing state not saddled with Kamala Harris’ disapproval ratings.
Or Michelle Obama for crying out loud, who everybody loves.
Want to make the case Biden remains the singular best option to defeat Trump? Give it your best shot, and if you really believe it, stick with him, because it’s the only defendable reason to stick with him.
It’s also far fetched.
Biden has earned plenty.
Something less than the absolute ruthlessness required to defeat Donald Trump after he died on the debate stage, however, is not on the list.
Clay: I don't know why it took so long for Democrats to get to see Joe Biden with all his weaknesses so on display, but now we have and it's not a rabbit that can be stuffed back inside the hat. It only took me about two minutes in the farce debate to realize that Joe just doesn't have any business running as our candidate for the presidency. Then I turned it off. Now we're hearing from HIS own team that Joe is a victim of "sundowning": he functions pretty well between the hours of noon and six, but the rest of the time he's not quite with it. Why would it be Biden's team that pushed for this ill-conceived debate when they have seen his physical and cognitive decline up close and personal for lo these past four years! Heads should roll! Like so many lifelong Democrats, run out that mangy old yellow dog and I'll vote for him...especially when the enemy is that most craven of "things", drumpf. So if Biden is our candidate, I'll vote for him. If Kamala is our candidate I will joyfully vote for her. If Gavin or Gretchen is the candidate, I will vote for him/her. But these decisions have to be made quickly in order to impact those voters who will likely determine this election: the Independents and less likely voters. The Swing Vote.
But for unanswered questions, I simply cannot get away from this: Why oh why does an 81 year old man WANT to continue working? He's served his time for this nation. Allow the old guy to ride off into the sunset without forcing him through the intense mental and physical process that a presidential run entails. Joe Biden deserves it...and we the people deserve it.