I really like Lawrence O’Donnell, but boy is he wrong about Biden. He spent half his show last night arguing that Trump, not Biden, is the candidate who should drop out. (He maybe spent the whole show doing that, but I quit early.) It was utterly pointless. O’Donnell ignores the obvious reality that Republicans embrace their convicted (and senile) candidate while Democrats fret over their (accomplished but) senile candidate because Republicans and Democrats are profoundly different.
We all know Trump is far worse than Biden, Lawrence. That’s not the point. The point is that we demand more of our own candidate and don’t give a shit about the fact that Trump enjoys something Biden can’t have: unqualified support from his party.
Here’s a point no pundit I’ve heard has made: Biden is behind in the polls not only because Americans think he’s too old for the job. It’s mostly because he can’t campaign and hasn’t been able to sell the American people on all of his accomplishments for most of his term. If American’s don’t know that inflation is down or that public investment in urgent needs like carbon reduction is way up, whose fault is that?
It’s Biden’s fault. He is the NOT GREAT communicator, to put it mildly. And that’s why he has to step down.
Like it or not, policy achievements in America are only half of the job of a president. The other half is communicating with the American public, especially during an election campaign. That’s what Biden sucks at, because he obviously, despite O’Donnell’s denial, has dementia.
And that’s why, in this most critical election of all time, he simply has to step down.