Joe Biden's Not Going Anywhere
To my friends on the other side of the aisle: best buckle up. Biden ain’t going anywhere.
Much as they are loath to admit it, Democrats are in a very bad position. As the existential threat of another Trump presidency looms ever closer, the party is stuck with a geriatric candidate who refuses to step down.
Joe Biden will be the nominee in November and he will lose to Donald Trump. And there’s nothing Democrats can do to stop it for one simple reason: Biden will not willingly step down. He implied as much during a recent call with MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough, rallying against the “elites” and daring the party to “challenge me at the convention.”
Though Biden initially indicated he would be a bridge candidate and serve for a single term, the allure of the Oval Office was too great for him to resist and he declared he would run again. And why wouldn’t he?
Biden always wanted to be President; he sought the nomination in 1984, 1988, and 2008. He would have run in 2016 but his plans were derailed after his son Beau tragically died, though Biden may not always remember when or how.
So with the presidency finally in his grasp, what motivation would he have to give it up? If he were to drop out now, it’s not like he’ll ever get the opportunity to be president again. He would either deteriorate even further or die before 2028 so staying in the race is his best chance to remain President.
Though it seems less likely by the day, Biden could win. Why would he drop out and guarantee he won’t be President if there’s even a 1% chance he could be?
There’s also the matter of his family whispering in his ear to stay in the race. The media has slowly been picking up on Jill Biden’s outsized influence on her husband like some Geritol Follies version of Lady Macbeth.
Dr. Jill has been one of Biden’s most outspoken advocates, railing against her husband’s naysayers and insisting he continue running. More than one pundit has noted that Jill has been heavily feted by the media, receiving a third Vogue cover in almost as many years. It seems clear that the good doctor may have become infected by celebrity fever and doesn’t want to let go.
Then there’s the crack-addicted elephant in the room. Hunter Biden has been encouraging his father to stay in the race, likely realizing he loses quite a bit of business if he can’t sell access to the “big guy.” And that’s not to mention the high likelihood Hunter will start facing a cavalcade of criminal prosecutions if he no longer has his father to shield him.
There have been reams of ink spilled reporting on how much stock Biden puts into the counsel of his family and how they are part of a nano-sized cadre of individuals who have access to the President. As long as they say he should stay in, he will.
And that means the Democrats are truly screwed.
The whole world was exposed to Biden’s cognitive oblivion at the June 23rd Presidential Debate. The President stumbled and stammered his way through a painful 90-minute slog that felt like an eternity. Conservative media had been reporting on Biden’s mental decline for years prior to the debate, and voters had expressed their hesitancy at handing him the reins to another go at the White House.
Prior to the disastrous debate, a CBS/YouGov poll showed that half of voters didn’t think Biden was mentally fit to serve as president. Those numbers have since ballooned; some polls report that 4 in 5 voters are concerned about Biden’s cognitive health.
Yet all warnings were brushed aside, and the party pushed Biden through an incredibly contentious primary season. Now the bed has been made, the delegates assigned and hand-selected by the President, and the Democratic National Convention set to meet in a little more than a month to crown Biden the nominee.
Thus the dilemma. Biden’s poll numbers against Trump are horrible and getting worse everyday. But his potential replacements aren’t much better. As the party flounders for an alternative, names like Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer, California Governor Gavin Newsom, and Transportation Secretary Pete Butigeig have been bandied about. Each polls behind Biden against Trump. Even VP Kamala Harris still loses to Trump, though by a smaller margin than her boss.
God, someone, anyone, save us!
The only way the Democrats would have even a fighting chance is if Biden were to drop out and endorse one of those alternatives. But as we’ve seen, that’s not happening. Due to ego and court politics, Biden will be the nominee. The political slaughter will be total, with the potential to increase GOP shares of both the House and the Senate rising everyday.
To my friends on the other side of the aisle: best buckle up. Biden ain’t going anywhere.