A comatose Joe Biden would be a better president than Donald Trump. And the president’s power to lead the executive branch, for the most part, far outweighs his ability to speak in coherent, tentative sentences on CNN.
But the idea that Joe Biden is the best possible standard-bearer for the Democratic Party this November has lost all credibility.
In the first presidential debate in Atlanta on Thursday night, Trump spewed an endless stream of delusional lies, painting a portrait of a defunct United States where babies are summarily executed in maternity wards, registered criminals live in luxury hotel penthouses at Uncle Sam’s. , and the world’s richest nation has become “a third world country”.
But Biden’s aging spoke louder than Trump’s ineptitude.
The president spoke in broken sentences through a soft, sometimes shaky voice (Biden’s campaign said he had a cold). At various times, his mind failed to keep up with his lips, causing him to abandon a half-delivered talking point or else lose his train of thought entirely. In an agonizing early moment — while trying to advertise his administration’s efforts to cap prescription drug prices for Medicare beneficiaries — Biden said he was “making sure that we’re able to qualify every single person that I’ve done. … to do with Covid.” Got … sorry, um, dealing with everything we have to … uh … see … if … we finally defeat Medicare.”
The president’s visual appearance during some of Trump’s answers was similarly troubled, with his skin pale and his face hanging awkwardly.
This depressing scene — an unscrupulous insurrectionist turning in a debate performance that, if combined with anything other than the president’s more disjointed efforts, would have seemed surprisingly confused and incoherent — led many Democrats. social media and inside Private channel to call for Biden’s replacement.
Those calls are now irreversible.
Biden’s case was weak even before the debate
Americans currently disapprove of the president’s job performance About an 18-point margin, according to FiveThirtyEight’s polling average. In contrast, voters disapproved of Trump Averaged just 11 pointsAnd Kamala Harris By only 10.
When planning to vote Democrat or Republican for Congress, voters favor Democrats. Margin of 45.6 to 45.1. In its poll Battleground State Constituency, Democratic Senate candidates routinely trail Biden. Democrats as a party have plenty of political challenges, but Biden did more as a candidate before the cameras rolled in Atlanta.
The President has the misfortune of presiding over the highest inflation in four decades. This does not reflect any gross economic mismanagement on his part; In contrast, he hailed the United States as the strongest recovery of the G-7 countries. Yet, across the rich world, more or less Every leader The one who presided over the inflation of 2022 suffered overwhelming public discontent. For many voters, Biden is the personification of price growth. Even if he was at his prime as a speaker, there would be a case for swapping him just because bad luck damaged his brand.
But of course, Biden is not in his prime. He will be 82 at the time of his second debut and 86 at the end of his second term. It strains credulity that the best person to run the United States is an octogenarian. Should the Democratic nominee be anyone else, Trump’s age — 78 — would be a significant liability for Republicans. But Biden is three years older than Trump and Seems almost a decade her senior.
Or so voters think. inside An ABC News poll Since February, 86 percent of voters say Biden is too old to serve another term.
Partly for this reason, Biden has Behind Trump In virtually every swing state poll. And in both 2016 and 2020, polls significantly overestimated Democratic support in Electoral College battlegrounds. Before Thursday night, Model by Nat Silver 66 percent gave Trump a chance to win.
Thus, there was already a strong case for Biden to step aside and let Kamala Harris or another Democrat lead the party into the November election, even before her disappointing debate performance. The most likely consequence of staying this course was the re-election of a corrupt and authoritarian reactionary in America. Rolling the dice on a new candidate was the party’s best move.
Then, Biden went on national television and made it impossible for anyone to honestly say, “I’m sure the president will still be fit to serve in January 2029.”
It’s not too late for Democrats to replace Joe Biden (with his support).
There is no way for the Democratic Party to deny Biden the nomination at this point. But Democratic leaders may privately lobby the president to step down and endorse his preferred successor, preempting the stakes of a contested Democratic convention in late August. Waiting months to anoint a predictable nominee would be too risky. Rallying around Biden’s handpicked successor will be much less likely now.
If one wants to reduce inter-party conflict, Biden can simply endorse his vice president, who is already serving as his default replacement. Few consider Harris the best political talent in his party, but he offers much more upside than the version of Biden we saw Thursday night.
If Democratic leaders believe it will be possible for Biden to back a more electorally strong candidate (perhaps Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer?) without alienating key constituencies, that may be the best move. Sticking with Biden, obviously, is not.
A president’s policy stance and governing record are more important than his current skills as a rhetorician. But given how much is delicately at stake in this election, Democrats can’t bet on American voters changing their minds and deciding that Biden isn’t too old for the job after seeing him struggle to remember the subjects of his own sentences. .
Many aspects of Biden’s legacy are admirable. His best chance to preserve it would be to voluntarily end his presidency after one term before voters get a chance.
