Joe Biden has an A game. Alas, he doesn’t always play it for the whole game.
As we’ve seen, little slip ups on a name or word have frequently overshadowed the substantive riffs and rhetorical heft that also define his career. Switching Trump for Harris and Putin for Zelensky during his press conference at the NATO summit are just recent examples.
Who can forget his turn at the Iowa State Fair in 2019?
Candidate Biden was winding up his widely anticipated 15 minutes on the Des Moines Register’s Political Soap Box stage. He got on a roll with a fine riff on what Democrats stand for. It was uplifting and it was exciting. He was making it easy to think, “This could be the guy.” But then, with the closing crescendo, came this: “Everybody knows who Donald Trump is. Even his supporters know who he is. We’ve got to let them know who we are. We choose unity over division. We choose science over fiction. We choose truth over facts.”
Guess what made the news.
***
I haven't been a regular at Daily Kos for years, but I've been checking in often over the last couple of weeks. I remember this as a community dedicated to getting Democrats elected, so I’ve been curious about reactions here following last month’s debate.
Full disclosure. I was in the cheering section many months ago when folks such as Ezra Klein and Bill Maher were suggesting Biden pass the baton. I was one of the people lightly grumbling at how the Dems stifled the primary process. I recently signed the petition at passthetorchbiden.com. I’m promoting a concept I call #goldwatchclub which I recommend as a friendly and constructive approach for managing the way forward.
My goal is to present a case for selecting a new Presidential nominee. Then, anticipating it won’t be found persuasive here, I’ll propose an alternative way of getting the Democratic Party unstuck.
On with it.
***
In college Poli Sci I was taught that a President has three jobs: running foreign policy, running domestic policy, and running for President. Grading each domain separately, Biden’s performance as a candidate is noticeably faltering. Passing up the traditional Super Bowl interview foreshadowed problems that can no longer be hidden. The concern is not the just word-jumbling gaffes which we learned to factor in long ago. It’s the emerging pattern of disastrous self owns.
Some would prefer not to notice.
I understand.
Since I care about a President’s performance of the other two jobs so much more, if the only choice I'm allowed is Biden or Trump, then reelecting this President is the obvious choice. As I've said, and as most here would likely agree, Biden on a bad day is better than the King of the Birthers any day.
But wouldn’t this be true of any prospective Democratic candidate?
And isn’t it also true that if the President is faltering so consistently at the job of candidate, it should perfectly fair to ask whether he’s been getting shakier at the other jobs as well?
Biden keeps saying he wants to “finish the job.” Is there something making it impossible for him to spell out precisely what that job is – all the tasks and purposes, all the things he intends – so that others can know how to hit the ground running with it?
The point of doing the job we want done for the country is that it be completed, not that it be completed by a particular individual. What’s the virtue of assigning that job to someone whose performance will certainly continue to degrade before our eyes? Why invite the extra risk of that dependency?
Consider this insightful observation from Anthony Scaramucci:
The Democrats are at their best when they are bold, and they go with younger candidates. Barak Obama at 47, young candidate going against a war veteran, beat the war veteran. Bill Clinton, Boomer Generation going against the Greatest Generation… He beat the war veteran. And so the younger people in the Democratic Party do better. Seventy five percent of the people are saying that the President is too old to do this now. I think he’s done a great job, but one has to wonder what he’s thinking right now. Because Charles de Gaulle once said that, “There are graveyards filled with men that once thought they were indispensable.” He could pass the baton to a younger leader… a he or a she… and they could beat the pants off of Donald Trump. But if it’s Joe Biden, I’ll be working for Joe Biden.
***
I’ve been promoting the #goldwatchclub concept because I firmly believe the party needs a fresh candidate to rally the country behind its agenda, and to ensure that Trump does not retake power. The rationale is this:
Democrats could wise up and make the best of this opportunity. President Biden must be in on it to turn things around, and he needs to come on board in some ceremonial sort of way. Then the Democrats could leverage their mini primary, or whatever process the DNC comes up with, into a massive money bomb. And save the country from authoritarian capture.
Counter arguments abound: For example, given America’s balkanized electoral context, changing the nominee at this late date invites daunting logistical challenges. Moreover, the political historian Alan Lichtman insists that plans to ditch Biden “could not be more misguided,” warning that no party has ever won after dropping an incumbent President for a new nominee.
Joe Biden has made it perfectly clear he won’t step aside. His loyalists are no less stubborn. Consequently, I offer the following proposal to those who prefer a more orthodox solution to the Party’s crisis.
***
Consider that no President running for reelection who switched Vice Presidents has ever lost. That list consists of Thomas Jefferson, Andrew Jackson, Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses S. Grant, and Franklin D. Roosevelt.
In light of that historically successful option, consider this scenario: Kamala Harris would bow out gracefully. The Boomer would be replaced by a Gen Xer, allowing Biden to resurrect his 2020 promise of building a bridge to the future. In doing so, he should also reaffirm his 2020 commitment to selecting a female Vice President. The resulting short list includes Gretchen Whitmer, a popular Governor from a critical state, and Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo, a vanguard of the Administration’s infrastructure policy.
Ultimately, make it clear that this campaign is not about Four More Years for Biden, but about elevating a new generation of leadership ready to continue the transformative work of America’s Infrastructure Decade.
If Joe Biden still has an A game, that could be his clutch play. Dark Brandon picks the next President and sets her on her way.