The left-wing media’s last-minute panic over President Joe Biden is ridiculous.
“God help us,” read the headline of a New York Times article that surveyed the views of 12 columnists and contributors following Biden’s disastrous performance in Thursday night’s debate.
The least morbidly pessimistic comment of the group: “This was a disaster.”
After months of refusing to acknowledge reality, the thunderous drumbeat now coming from liberal America – from the swooning “Gray Lady” to the most deluded remnants of Biden defenders on MSNBC – is that weak, confused old Joe must quit the race or the Democrats are doomed.
Well, I’m here to say: Sorry, Democrats. It’s already too late to change candidates.
They have tied themselves to this dead horse. They will have to ride it to the losing line. And there are many reasons why that is the cold, hard truth.
The last time a major party got rid of an incumbent president running for re-election was in 1856.
Sorry, Democrats. It’s already too late to change candidates.
Democrats dumped President Franklin Pierce at their party convention and replaced him with James Buchanan, who ended up winning the presidency. But back then, presidential candidates were chosen by power brokers in smoke-filled back rooms where favors were exchanged and fortunes were made.
More than 150 years later, American leaders are elected by voters. And that makes things much more complicated.
The only way – in modern political history – for a major party candidate to have been replaced is for him to voluntarily withdraw.
President Harry Truman declined to run for re-election in 1952, in the midst of the Korean War. His wife, Bess, wanted to return to a quiet life.
President Lyndon Johnson withdrew from the 1968 race, as the Vietnam War raged, after Lady Bird Johnson, concerned about her ailing husband’s health, urged him to quit.
Could Joe Biden choose to step aside? And, perhaps more importantly, would Dr. Jill Biden encourage him to do so?
All signs point to no.
Joe has been chasing the presidency for so long that when he supported Jimmy Carter in 1976 it was only because he wasn’t old enough to run.
President Lyndon Johnson withdrew from the 1968 election race, as the Vietnam War escalated, after Lady Bird Johnson, concerned about the health of her ailing husband, also pressured him to resign.
President Harry Truman declined to run for re-election in 1952, in the midst of the Korean War. His wife, Bess, wanted to return to a quiet life.
And it did so in 1988… then again in 2008… 2020… and now, 2024.
Plus, Dr. Jill may like being First Lady as much as Joe likes being President.
And without the agreement of the First Family, it would be almost impossible to replace them.
In 1974, Republican Party elders staged an intervention to persuade embattled President Richard Nixon to resign, threatened with impeachment over the Watergate scandal.
But with Jill and a couple of Delaware veterans (all of whom have no future without ‘the Big Guy’) strictly controlling access to Joe, could the party’s big poobahs even get a meeting?
And who would Joe listen to? The Senate colleagues he once respected are long dead.
The Clintons? The Obamas?
There are tensions between both sides. Michelle Obama is reportedly refusing to campaign for Joe because of how the Biden family treated Hunter Biden’s ex-wife, Kathleen Buhle, Michelle’s close friend, during her First Son’s acrimonious divorce.
No, Joe won’t go. And there is no way to force him to do it.
In the current Democratic primary system, voters elect state delegates to represent them at the party’s national convention.
The candidate with the most state delegates in his favor wins the nomination. And in the 2024 primaries, Biden won 99% of the available delegates.
That aside, perhaps the biggest obstacle to replacing Joe is the difficulty of organizing a movement to unite the party behind a single alternative.
Democrats squandered that opportunity by expelling all viable contenders for the nomination from the race, leaving only party dissidents like Minnesota Congressman Dean Phillips to mount hopeless, thankless, and ultimately doomed campaigns. .
And who would Joe listen to? The Senate colleagues he once respected are long dead. The Clintons? The Obamas?
Michelle Obama is reportedly refusing to campaign for Joe because of how the Biden family treated Hunter Biden’s ex-wife Kathleen Buhle (above, center), Michelle’s close friend, during their bitter divorce from their first child. .
The natural choice to replace Joe would be his vice president, but over the past four years, Kamala Harris has been consistently more unpopular than Biden himself. And choosing anyone other than Harris to replace Biden would spark a painful debate among liberals about why a Black woman is being sidelined.
Surely only Michelle Obama could easily pull off a replacement, but she has never shown any interest in being a candidate.
Democratic activists may have a wish list of dream candidates headed by governors like Gavin Newsom of California, Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan and Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania.
But neither of them is likely to give in to the other and miss their best opportunity in the White House.
After the Democratic National Convention in late August, the window to select a new party standard-bearer will only narrow further.
Wisconsin and Nevada have strict election rules that prohibit replacing a candidate for any reason other than death or institutionalization.
Democrats may risk not being able to get their candidate on the ballot if they switch horses mid-race.
So do you want bad news or bad news, Democrats?
Joe Biden is your candidate.
And he is your only hope.
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