In the past few days, I've struggled to think about much other than President Joe Biden's terrible debate performance last Thursday. It was such a galvanizing and demoralizing moment.
The recent terrible (and partisan!) Supreme Court ruling that gives Donald Trump partial immunity for any crimes he may have committed while president has only increased my fears about a second Trump term. With a compliant Supreme Court, one third of whom were appointed by him, Trump could very well carry out the plan of political retribution and mass deportations of undocumented immigrants that he has outlined.
Since the debate, Biden and his people have stood fast against his resigning. They point to a fiery speech he gave a day later and some high fund raising numbers as proof that he just had one bad night that will soon be seen as a blip. This is crazy: first of all, the mental agility Biden needed to read a speech off of a teleprompter well is a far cry from what he needed to display during the debate. And that debate was seen by tens of millions of Americans, while his speech the next day was watched by only a fraction of that amount. And fund raising numbers are no great indicator of support; any president, by the mere power of the office, can raise money.
Personally, I'm angry not just at Biden and his family's stubborn refusal to accept the ravages of time and gracefully step down, I'm also mad at his handlers and advisors who have been treating him with kid gloves almost from the day he took office. It's been well documented by the media that Biden has done fewer press conferences and interviews than any modern president. And the few interviews he has done have been mostly softball interviews with few tough questions. Plus, the Biden campaign wanted this debate, and even got Trump to agree to the rules for it. Biden's team knew that this was the most important moment for him in the run up to the election to turn around the polls that showed Trump winning in swing states, and Biden put in long hours of debate prep to get ready for it. And look what happened.
If Biden is going to convince the American voters that last Thursday was just a off night for him, he needs to put himself out there for interviews and press conferences where he will respond to questions in real time, showing that he's up for the job. But is he even capable of doing that? The man who froze up so memorably last Thursday doesn't look ready to do that, which is the whole reason why he should drop out.
It's important for me to say that if Biden does remain on the ballot I will definitely vote for him in November over everyone else running, and encourage others to do the same. Trump simply has to lose.
But that's the very reason that I think Biden should step down for; I don't think he can win again. Polls in the time since the debate have shown an increase in the number of voters who think that he's not mentally fit for the job. And some polls have that number as high as 75%!
Some of Biden's defenders have pointed out that no other Democratic candidates poll any better against Trump than he does. But that's impossible to really determine; once other candidates start stepping forward, the media will give them far more attention and they will start doing more interviews and laying out their political views, which could definitely give them a surge in the polls. Plus a younger candidate would flip the age issue back on to Trump, who's mental agility is also in question. And an open Democratic convention, the kind that hasn't been seen in years, would make for exciting media coverage that could help whoever emerges as the presidential candidate.
And there's also some strategy to consider: Governor Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan is a Democrat who's more popular in her state than Biden. Governor Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania is also a Democrat who's more popular than Biden. The important thing here is that both Michigan and Pennsylvania are swing states that would almost definitely vote blue if one of them were on the ticket. (Whitmer and Shapiro together would also make a good ticket, although I don't know who would go on top!) Another factor is that part of the disillusionment that many people on the left have towards Biden is his support (tempered as it is) for Israel's bombing of Gaza. A new candidate more opposed to the bombing could reset the issue and win back those voters. That reset could also be true of economic issues hurting Biden like inflation. Add to that the fact that Americans are always excited by something new, like a new candidate and I think that the Democrats's chances of winning will improve, I really think that any decent Democrat can win this thing. Even a relatively weak debater could have taken apart Trump's absurd stream of lies last Thursday.
Once again I will restate that if Biden is still running against Trump in November I will vote for him, but I really hope that he steps down. Putting things bluntly, one stubborn old man who won't step aside could bring ruin to this country.
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