Posted: 04 July 2024 at 6:02pm | IP Logged | 4
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Rodrigo Castellanos wrote:
There's one side that's saying this is the most important election in American history and another that says it isn't important enough to hurt Biden's feelings over. |
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It's not about "not hurting feelings." First, you don't want to let one bad night outweigh a 3.5 year (and still ongoing) presidency. Since the debate he's done an "after debate" party, campaign events, a primetime speech, a radio interview or two, etc. and there are no reports of him exhibiting similar behavior there.
More importantly, there are the very real considerations tied to switching horses at this stage of game, which way too many of the "drop out" crowd seem to be handwaving away.
There's hardly a unified front behind a "back up candidate," even among those calling for Biden to withdraw. The last time the Democrats tried to swap out an incumbent the year of the election (Johnson in 1968) they ended up losing (that part seems to be left off most of the stories I've seen comparing the two situations for some reason).
Even if party leaders could agree on someone quickly, anyone but Harris would have a severe uphill battle just getting their campaign set-up and any one with national name recognition HAS a job already and there's no telling how voters will feel about not having a chance to weigh in formally on who they'd want (i.e. via a primary).
If the idea would be to nudge up Harris, what would be the point? We're already in a situation where if, at any point, Biden can't perform his duties, she'll be the one to take over. So for anyone who considers her an acceptable alternative, why go through the hassle? If it WAS just a bad night and not The Beginning of Biden's end, Biden's good and if he's in worse shape a year or three from now, so be it.
Plus who would be her running mate? Has anyone been "pre-vetted" for this situation? If so, would they be interested in the position? (One pundit I saw suggested Biden resign as President to give us all a chance to see how well she'll lead, but didn't seem to consider how she'd get a Vice President confirmed. Had to see the current House letting her have whoever she wanted.)
Some states have already locked down their ballots and Republican-led states have already demonstrated their lack of interest in getting the proper name on the ballot. You could argue the replacement candidate may not win the state anyway, but why go in with a handicap? The Heritage Foundation has also said they'll try to block any attempts to swap out candidates as well.
The Biden Campaign, DNC, et al., should definitely be having Serious Conversations right now, and presumably are, but I do think the initial calls for him to drop out were ill thought out. If he flubs the George Stephanopoulos interview tomorrow and/or the Press Conference he has planned for next week, I'll likely feel differently.
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