Whatever your stance after the debate, we all must admit we Democrats face a problem that must be solved. How do we either convince President Biden the bell of time has rung, or how do we convince wavering Democrats and the many independents and low information voters who react based on instinct—and thus fall for a seemingly “strong” or “vigorous” leader even if he leads us all to death and disaster. So are there ways to do this? Let’s take the second chance for Biden to make the case first.
One step would be to get MSNBC to host a town hall with Biden and a mix of real voters—Democrats, Independents and persuadable Republicans—and open that town hall up to all other broadcasters to carry just like CNN did with the first debate. That town hall should be scheduled within the next two weeks, at most. It must happen soon if we are to have a chance to change the current opinion climate. Rallies won't do. Teleprompter speeches won't do. Changing the format of spontaneous response might change the outcome. Let Biden interact with real voters in an environment that is not driven by a fire hose of lies and bombast with tight time limits on responses.
With Trump, it’s tough to decide on the fly which lie or lies to ignore or respond to. I have to admit, there were a couple of whoppers from Trump where I caught my own mouth hanging open in semi-shock at the shear nerve of the guy. “I didn’t have sex with a prostitute” indeed! A jury of your peers just found that you did, lied about it, paid to cover it up, and conspired to hide the coverup and in essence, hide the confession of your blatant alley cat immorality, in order to affect the outcome of an election. That’s why you’re a convicted felon.
If his blatant lie didn’t leave you a little stunned, you weren’t paying attention. It was hard to believe he had the nerve (or forgot his 34 felony convictions).
Second might be to schedule interviews with the editorial boards of the NY Times, WA Post, LA Times, and the major newspaper editorial boards in key states like GA, PA, MI, WI, and AZ. Let these boards interact with Biden, preferably with the White House reserving the right to record the sessions, with the follow up right to refer to the record if they feel the editorial board played fast and loose with what went on in the sessions. This might be the only way to change news coverage. Ask the major broadcasters to interview members of the editorial boards on their programs. You could also hold a live session between the President and major broadcast news anchors for NBC, CBS, ABC and PBS, either as a group or individually, one after another. Or bring a team of journalists to follow the President for a day as he deals with difficult issues. Open up the process and make it so the charge President Biden is being sheltered by staff falls apart.
Third option could be to challenge the Republican House and/or Senate caucus to a live, broadcasted Q&A, like Obama did to great effect. Go head to head on policy differences like Biden did in the State of the Union address.
Any or all of these would provide opportunities for President Biden to put to rest doubts that have arisen after his admittedly shaky performance in that first debate. At all costs, we cannot put off real opportunities to reassure until the second debate in September. If Biden were to blow a second debate in September, as badly as he did this time, then our Democratic campaign would be in extreme trouble with no option for a course correction.
If President Biden were to fail these tests above, then the way forward is pretty clear. All the possible contenders for Presidential leadership would need to be called to the White House to work out which team of two would go on with the campaign against Trump. It would need to be unanimously decided for the good of the country among those who would possibly contend with such a decision. Then the President and VP would need to release their delegates to hold a confirmatory or vetoing vote on the proposed successors, or if the VP were to step up to President, on who would be VP. This would need to be done well before the convention in order for Democrats to remain on the Ohio ticket, and anyway, an open, contested convention would be a disaster.
In every case, there is a need for speedily moving forward with some of these steps if we are to settle things down from the current state of affairs.
In any case, we need to stop arguing among ourselves and figure out some ways forward to solve the issues raised by the President’s very public stumble. I believe in second chances and solid evidence of enfeebleness before asking one of the better presidents in our history to, as he feels, leave the job unfinished. But OUR real job, and I include the President and Vice President in this, is to win this election, whatever has to be done. Our Liberty is at stake.