MORE on Is It Time for Joe Biden to Step Aside?
Monday, 8 July 2024
So, should Biden step aside?—Further Opinions from Ed and Many, Many Others
It’s been a week and it is decidedly not resolved as to whether Biden should withdraw. The ABC interview with George Stephanopoulis did not greatly weaken Biden’s chances but didn’t seem to strengthen him, either. Stephanopoulis asked pointed and even embarrassing questions—did not seem to pull any punches—but also bordered on hounding Biden with repetition of questions that Biden could not reasonably answer satisfactorily.
In general, the past week has been filled with a media feeding frenzy seemingly self-propelled, a sort of blood-in-the-water, sharks stirred by other sharks more than by actual additional evidence, but also with some seemingly new indications that Biden really has slipped. There has been far less (though some) attention to Trump’s apparent mental unfitness.
Parkinson’s? The scariest and, at the moment, seemingly most plausible basis for Biden’s decline is Parkinson’s—see first link below. My wife noticed, a week ago or more, what she feared was a Parkinson’s gait in Biden.
Next is what I wrote a week ago—and still stand by, with only slight changes shown in [brackets/italics.] Below that are links or excerpts to many others, on all sides of this brouhaha.
My own take is that several things—including some that partially or wholly contradict others—are true:
Joe Biden has done a good job, in often trying times, as President of the United States and should not be punished for a single bad performance night. He deserves to be re-elected and would probably continue to be good at the job, in my opinion, for years to come.
Donald Trump must be defeated at almost any cost.
Joe Biden needed to do one thing above all else last Thursday evening: demonstrate that he has enough vigor and steady sure-footedness to dispel concerns about his advanced age in carrying out the job of President, now and for four years starting in 2025. He failed badly. {Whatever anyone thinks of Biden as president, this is about Biden as candidate.]
No Democrat can possibly defeat Trump in November unless s/he has a unified party strongly backing him/her.
Joe Biden has officially won far more than enough delegates to nominate him as the Democratic candidate at the convention in Chicago on 19-22 August. Millions of people have donated to the campaign to re-elect Biden. There is almost certainly no legal or ethical way to stop him from being the nominee unless he agrees.
If I were a Biden advisor, one he’d accept advice from, I’d suggest that he convene—soon (by mid-July at the latest)—a White House meeting, announced in advance but without press or staff (except a few of his own) invited. He should invite Kamala Harris, Chuck Schumer, Barack Obama, Hakeem Jeffries, Nancy Pelosi, Ralph Warnock, Josh Shapiro, Ro Khanna, Amy Klobuchar, Jamie Raskin, Bill Clinton, Sherrod Brown, Jennifer Granholm, Bennie Thompson, Hillary Clinton, Gavin Newsome, Gretchen Whitmer, Jim Clyburn, Pete Buttigieg, Cory Booker, Antony Blinken, Bernie Sanders, Gina Raimondo, Al Gore, Elizabeth Warren, Beto O’Rourke, David Axlerod, [Al Franken], and any other prominent Democrat he trusts—and Liz Cheney [and Adam Kinzinger].
And he should say something like this to them—
I’m the President and I deserve to be. I deserve to get re-elected in November, and I’m confident I can do the job well for another four years. (Jocularly—“You may now cheer lustily.”) But I blew it big in the debate on Thursday, the 28th of June. Donald Trump is no ordinary loyal opposition candidate—he’s a real danger to our nation and he must be stopped. I think I can beat him—but I certainly can’t be objective about that or at all sure—and it matters immensely. Clips from that debate will be aired repeatedly by the Trump campaign. [I have been diagnosed with Parkinson’s—but a slowly developing version, not an immediate peril.] I am happy to have reassurances from any and all of you about my being a good President and deserving re-election—but that’s not why I’ve asked you here. We—and you need to help me—must decide how best to keep Donald Trump from regaining the presidency.
I invite any of you to speak who want to, and then I’m going to pass out a confidential, secret ballot and ask you— 1. do you think I can still win; —2. if this group votes that I probably cannot, are there Democrats who you think can? (please name your top two or three—including yourself if you wish); and —3. if this group unites behind a single person, will you support him or her vigorously? My own preference, after myself, is Vice President Kamala Harris. But I pledge, here and now—and I’ll reiterate this in public—that I’ll back anyone who the people gathered here unite behind, including releasing all Biden-pledged delegates to the convention in Chicago in August to vote their conscience.
I want to be re-elected and to serve the American people for four more years. But I cannot bear the thought of Donald Trump winning in November—so vote honestly.
Anyone?
[For Kamala Harris to win—if she replaces Biden—she must not act as if it’s “her turn. She must win support and be seen as earning it.] My own bleak opinion is that Biden will not withdraw [I’m edging away from this] and that the Democrats will get hammered, up and down the ticket. (I will vote and will vote Democratic.)
—Ed Buckner
From Ezra Klein—the best recent essay on what should happen next—
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/07/07/opinion/biden-jim-clyburn-democrats.html?unlocked_article_code=1.5k0.DC9t.WcO1KkPmZ_lV&smid=url-share
The Atlanta Journal Constitution posted an editorial urging Biden to withdraw, as I noted last week. The paper has now published a large number of replies to that editorials from readers, some of them quite angry, on all sides. the AJC has pretty firm paywalls, but if you’re a subscriber and missed these letters to the editor, here’s a link—
https://www.ajc.com/opinion/opinion-readers-reactions-to-editorial-calling-on-biden-to-exit-race/D6G555NMDFBEZHMWVNZADQS4JQ/#:~:text=The%20Atlanta%20Journal%2DConstitution%20editorial%20board%20has%20called%20for%20President,for%20former%20President%20Donald%20Trump.
From Maureen Dowd of the NYT—
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/07/06/opinion/joe-biden-power.html?unlocked_article_code=1.5U0.DKTD.8MAonuXOspNL&smid=url-share
From Timothy Snyder—
Fascism and Fear
The Moment, The Media, The Election
JUL 7
Mainstream media have treated President Biden with prejudice and arrogance. Quite a few Democrats, reacting to this, treat any mention of President Biden’s fitness as disloyalty. This is mistaken, if understandable.
One source of the negative energy is Trump’s fascism. Focusing on it will not answer the question of what Democrats do, but will help us to understand the context in which the discussion is taking place. By fascism I just have in mind (1) the cult of personality of a Leader: (2) the party that becomes a single party; (3) the threat and use of violence; and (4) the big lie that must be accepted and used to reshape reality: in this case, that Trump can never lose an election.
From Representative Angie Craig (Washington Post)
https://wapo.st/3Wd9sUf
From Heather Cox Richardson—
From NYT—
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/07/02/us/politics/biden-lapses.html?unlocked_article_code=1.5U0.M1v7.p1Nyn5o2wWnf&smid=url-share
From Dan Rather/Steady—
From Scott Dworkin (two posts)—
From Jay Kuo—
From Robert Reich—
From The Guardian—
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/jun/29/new-york-times-turns-against-joe-biden-in-walter-cronkite-moment?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other&utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
From WaPo—
https://wapo.st/3zwPESQ
A man who was quoted in the Atlanta Journal Constitution questioning Biden’s state of mind on Friday—
https://www.wabe.org/at-99-a-concentration-camp-liberator-tirelessly-delivers-his-eyewitness-account-throughout-atlanta/
https://www.ajc.com/opinion/columnists/opinion-100-year-old-vet-says-he-saw-the-faraway-look-in-joe-bidens-eyes/5JEKJFALYNBJNGPC4JLW4KD6GM/
Note: Anyone may copy and publish what I or my guests write, provided proper credit is given, that it’s not done for commercial purposes, that I am notified of the copying (you can just leave a comment saying where the copy is being published), and provided that what we write is not quoted out of context or distorted.
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I'm torn over this question for several reasons:
FDR was paralyzed and despite the best efforts to mask it, the public realized he was seriously infirm by his third term. He was unable to finish his last term and had replaced VPs but never mid-race. That brings up another observation ----
When candidates at the top of the ticket are replaced, the party does poorly. When Eagleton was dropped, George McGovern suffered one of the worst defeats ever. When the Alabama Democratic Party removed Harry Lyons (admittedly a poor candidate) a squabble to replace him at the last minute resulted in Roy Moore returning to the SCOAL due to tepid support for the replacement.
It is more than likely that neither candidate will survive the next term and be replaced due to death or disability. I wonder if Mr. Trump will suffer a massive stroke or a complete Narcicistic Collapse before election day, but no one seems to be focused on his debate performance or fitness to the same degree as the President.
In my opinion. the Democratic Party needs to take a step back and approach the risks with managerial discipline to determine if the best strategy to either mitigate, avoid, or ignore it. Avoiding it by replacing the incumbent will show weakness while mitigating it by showcasing the VP picks of both parties is perhaps the most viable choice.
The party conventions will be very interesting and I predict, or fear that the fight, that will no doubt happen, will sink The President's chance of being reelected.
Great analysis as always Ed. It's a sad situation since I and many other Democrats continue to feel that Biden is not electable after the June debate, and the growing evidence that Biden is concealing a Parkinson's diagnosis makes the situation even worse than last week. Unfortunately I think Biden has decided he will not leave the ticket despite this or anything else, which is a misplaced show of hubris. I find it rather gobsmacking that Biden said he had not watched his debate performance to get a sense for why there is such a freakout over it. I think at this point Biden's hubris means that Democrats have to drop the idea that Biden will be replaced, as Ed is correct that there is no legal or ethical way to boot him if he won't withdraw voluntarily. I do think that if Democrats get freaked out enough, Dems might get behind a push to 25th Amendment him, which I think would force him off the ticket. But I doubt that will happen.