There is no way Nancy Pelosi and other leaders would be saying what they are saying if they thought President Biden was our best chance of success. Pelosi and others would be saying so much more. Pay attention to what they are saying, but mostly pay attention to what they are not saying and the force they are not using when they give support.
I realized today what our party is experiencing is exactly like a family deciding when to take the keys away from dad.
(1) Dad is the least capable person of realizing his limitations. Dad overestimates what he can do. Dad fails to appreciate the severity of consequences created when he makes mistakes.
(2) The family closest to dad is often defensive. They keep concerning incidents secret. They make excuses that even if true are not good enough as excuses to justify dad continuing to drive. They think about all the good dad has done and feel shame at the very idea of taking away the keys. Some may even ridicule those on the outside or the one close family member who does know it is time to act.
(3) When the family is finally ready to act, they do everything they can to let dad make the decision himself. In my family, my mom told my dad the reason he should not drive anymore is that if someone crashed into him everyone would blame him because of his age and difficulties moving his legs. Therefore, him giving up driving would be making sure he was not unfairly blamed. He agreed.
Democratic leaders have been giving public support to allow Joe Biden to exit with dignity. The problem is that Joe Biden and those closest to Joe Biden did not take the hint. Therefore, the public statements are now getting more assertive. This is going to keep getting worse for the party until Joe Biden makes the decision to withdraw.
We do not want the story to be that President Obama, Speaker Jeffries, and Chuck Schumer went into the Oval Office and pressured Joe Biden to withdraw. We want the story to be that Joe Biden did one last, big, selfless thing for his country. Then Joe Biden can campaign from now until November as a surrogate—in many ways freed from the limitations of the office. He can be direct and aggressive. Even if he stumbles a bit, he can still be the most powerful surrogate in American political history. That will be Joe Biden’s final sacrifice for his country and his greatest success because it will be absolutely necessary to preserve all the good he did all of his years.