A review of the reactions to Joe Biden’s disastrous debate performance sets up the scale of the current Democratic conundrum.
Democratic insiders told CNN’s John King that “it was over” and they were exploring ways of removing Joe from the ticket. MSNBC’s Van Jones, who said he “loves Joe Biden,” could barely hold back tears of despair. Rachel Maddow and Chris Hayes coped by insisting that “communication and campaigning” are separate skills from “governing.” Nate Silver likewise suggested the party should dump Biden.
But however real the panic among Democratic elites, the screams to replace Joe show that they are even more out of touch with reality than indicated by their initial support for Biden to run again in the first place.
It is theoretically possible to remove Biden from the ticket in a legal sense, albeit only with his consent. Democratic Party rules require all delegates to vote for the candidate to which they are pledged on the first ballot, and Biden currently has more than enough pledged to him to secure the nomination automatically on the first ballot even if he were comatose. Any scenario in which Joe Biden is not the Democratic nominee would require Joe Biden to decline the nomination after receiving it.
In that case, the floor would be opened – in theory at least. Delegates would be free to vote for whomever they wish, and candidates to woo them.
The reality, however is quite a bit different. It was always going to be hard to bypass Kamala Harris’s claims. One reason it was so difficult for Joe Biden to contemplate replacing her was that it was hard to justify dropping her from the ticket without calling into question the judgment of Biden and the Democratic Party for leaving her one octogenarian heartbeat away from the presidency.
After what occurred last week, any effort to drop Joe Biden from the ticket would make denying Harris the nomination incomparably more difficult to justify, and vastly more damaging politically if by some chance it was successful. Why? Because if Joe Biden is stepping down for reasons of incapacity, it creates a crisis not just of politics but of governance.
Joe Biden is not merely a candidate for president. He is, for good or ill, the sitting president of the United States. If he is unable to conduct a campaign for president, mentally or physically, serious questions will be raised over how he can carry out the duties of his current office. By the act of replacing Joe Biden as a candidate for reasons of capacity, the Democratic Party will be conceding not only that they have saddled the United States with a man incapable of exercising the office in a time of crisis, but that they intend to leave him there for the remaining seven months of his term.
Before last Thursday night, it might have been possible – just – to credibly sell a Biden withdrawal as the result of a desire to spend more time with his family while focusing on the international crisis. Such an argument is laughable now. Biden wanted to serve another four years. There is no way he would have subjected himself to what occurred Thursday night otherwise. In this desire, the Democratic Party and primary electorate indulged him. If he withdraws now, there can be no doubt as to why.
That brings us to the role of Kamala Harris. The logic of a Biden withdrawal following Thursday’s debate almost argues in favor of a resignation from the presidency as well. At the very least, it places a premium on the person who may be called upon to carry out the duties of president if Joe Biden cannot exercise them.
For the Democratic Party to suggest Kamala Harris is not fit to be their nominee for president is to concede she is not fit to exercise the duties of president. That in turn means that not only has the Democratic Party installed a man who is now unable to carry out his duties, which the party only conceded when he was caught, but it also installed in the vice presidency a woman who could not carry them out either.
In short, the Democratic Party will be opening itself to the charge that they have filled the White House with two individuals incapable of leading the country.
This is compounded by the chance that Kamala Harris may well have to step up to fill in the duties of president before the election. In that event, it would create a crisis of legitimacy for a new Democratic nominee, who would somehow have to justify why Harris is somehow fit to be president now but wasn’t for the next four years.
Without a doubt, the correct political decision for the Democratic Party would have been for Joe Biden to opt against running for reelection last year. The correct decision also would likely have been not to nominate Kamala Harris for vice president. Having prioritized short-term expediency over both the nation and the party’s long-term interests, Democrats find themselves trapped.
Democrats could choose to persevere in forcing Biden out and repudiating Harris. They may well reason that the risks justify the rewards, and that neither Biden nor Harris can win an election, while California Governor Gavin Newsom or Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer just might, even with the damage inflicted in the process of switching candidates.
If they believe this, Democrats should pay close attention to what has happened in the United Kingdom. The British Conservative Party has had three Prime Ministers since the 2019 election, removing both Boris Johnson and, perhaps most infamously, Liz Truss after less than two months in office.
The party attempted to take credit for replacing Truss, whom they admitted had “crashed” the economy, with Rishi Sunak, a suave, professional banker. Rather than earning gratitude for having saved the country from Truss, however, the Tories find themselves blamed, correctly, for having foisted her upon the nation in the first place. After all, the Conservative Party made her Prime Minister, and if even they admit she crashed the economy, then the party is by its own admission the type of reckless entity willing to gamble with the nation’s future.
By replacing Joe Biden because he is unfit to be president, the Democrats would be admitting before the entire world that they installed an unfit man in the White House and kept him there, lying about his condition until their deception was exposed.
By bypassing Harris, meanwhile, they would be admitting they put a woman who they now believe to be unfit for the presidency a heartbeat away, serving under a man whose condition they knowingly covered up.
By going before the country expecting gratitude for having admitted the truth after it was exposed for all to see, with both individuals still in the White House, Democrats will be declaring that they see the electorate for fools. Even the most desperate and delusional strategists must comprehend where that will end in November.
Walter Samuel is the pseudonym of a prolific international affairs writer and academic. He has worked in Washington as well as in London and Asia, and holds a Doctorate in International History.
I never recognized FJB as my president since the 2020 election was stolen. Nevertheless, any Joebama replacement would simply carry out the librard communist agenda and ultimately destroy our nation. TRUMP Is our only hope to slow the bleeding.
Joe might want to just get out and back away from all of it right about now, Dr Jill won’t hear of it. She’s lovin’ the lifestyle and all the perks.
President – Dead man walking.
Vice President – Empty shill.
It’s not going to matter, the illegitimate mechanism by which the fool was put in office in the first place is still in place and since the judicial branch is corrupt beyond belief (just ask Sidney Powell) they’ll fraud their way through another one without fear of reprisal and keep the babbling idiot in office yet again.
The burning question is what drove this self-delusion and the betrayal of the public that Democrats have?
65.7% of america says the democrats have been lying about everything for 30 years.
There’s a lesson to be learned here for the Democrats; if you’re going to steal an election at least have a viable candidate, morons! Let’s all pray nothing catastrophic happens on the world stage before we can get Trump back where he belongs! You know China, Russia and Iran were all watching what we saw on Thursday night!
Doesn’t matter as long as the person has a D in front of it whether for Democrat or Dementia the Liberals will vote for them! Win is the only thing that matters. Not the country, democracy or the truth. Why else would they go to or watch The View on television!
FJB’s abusive nurse birthing person will continue to cajole her 1st grader mentality husband to stay on the POTUS election ballot. The entire family cabal’s criminal actions have been so protected by the socialist democrats, this weaponized government, and MSM they speak and act outrageously un-American, all with the tacit approval of obama, his husband, and the diaper-changing, gun-toting handlers they’re surrounded by 24/7. Personally, even were he removed from the ballot and it fell to Harris, I don’t think she relishes the position and would demure. The party would then be on the hunt for another willingly bought and compliant obama puppet. For these reasons I don’t see the potential in most all of the alternate choices being floated as considerations.
Biden was installed as president and he will do whatever they say. He is a criminal with a long list of criminal activities and all is puppet Masters have to do is have one of their flunkies put charges on him for treason etc. So if he continues to run, it’s because his puppet masters want him in there.
Mr. Samuel brings up some good points, but he’s not thinking like a desperate and delusional democrat. There’s not a democrat out there that wouldn’t sell their own mother into prostitution to get and hold power. They simply believe they know more than you and that only they can and should rule the masses.
Remember, only you can prevent Socialism…Vote Trump!
This situation illustrates the folly of the DEI mentality. Choosing leaders by their sex, race, sexual proclivity or any standard other than most highly qualified is stupid.
Now that Trump has been vindicated by the Supreme Court for not incinerating a riot January 6th by making an “official” statement as being the sitting President. The Democrats should stop referring to President Trump as a “convicted felon”!
If it were anyone other than today’s Communist (formerly known as Democrat) Party, one would be confounded. How could a man who Morning Joke said was “sharp as a tack” just 7 days ago, now be political poison? Madcow, AOC, hags of “The View” all praised Slow Joe’s intelligence up until last Thursday morning!! What happened?
He is not fit and should go Who ever replaces him will probably be worse and should it be a woman may God have mercy on all of us for she’ll be worse than any man
American citizens should not tolerate an “…even if he is comatose…” electee in the White House, nor the gang of gleeful enablers who have attached themselves to his tenure as POTUS. Time to employ the pest control units.
They’ve got to keep Joe because his nomination acceptace speech is so easy to write: “Mumble mumble mumble democracy mumble mumble felon mumble Beau mumble mumble Corn Po mumble…”
The sad part is half the people in our country still think the dem party cares about us and the country. Just how blind, biased and hateful can people be? Very sad. IMO
Jill and Hunter won’t let Joe drop out. Jill loves the power too much to give it up. But Hunter has twice as much to lose. If dad loses, there’s nobody to pardon him (or the entire family for that matter) but even worse, Hunter’s “Get Your Back Door Access To Joe Biden” business will collapse and then he’ll have those 20-30 shell companies for nothing!
Will the money sources continue to back Biden? How goes the money, so goes the election.
They spent all their energy on having the power and creating hatred for Trump by brainwashing the country that Obiden was the best person for the job. They kept him hidden. We have known since 2020 and way before when he was Vice president and senator before that, ole Joe is a conniving, narcissistic man who has drifted into dementia and is not fit to be president of the USA. Only his wife and son want him to stay they don’t want to give up the perks that come from being married to or a son of the president. One wants to go down in the history books as the worst First Lady ever the other wants a pardon for all his crimes. The sheep were finally exposed to what we on the right have known all along. He can’t read a teleprompter. All the lies he tells over and over again. The biggest of them all, no military personnel died on his watch. Please let the relatives of the 13 soldiers that died in Afghanistan 8 months after ole Joe was installed, know they are alive. How cruel was that. Or the invaders coming across the border is down 40% from Trumps time in office. More like up 140% or more. Obiden is flying them into the interior of America. And who is suffering from this? All the money for these invaders comes from our Veterans medical care budget, they have to wait to get an appointment or to get meds, the invaders get treated first. Every budget is being robbed to pay for the invaders housing, healthcare and education. And on top of that Obiden with a stroke of a pen they can vote. They don’t even speak the language, don’t care to learn, demand interpreters to be assigned to them when they take the citizenship test. No country in the world does that. When you make it this easy they will never acclimate in America or feel patriotic. It is just a way to import replacements for the educated citizenry they have now, because they can’t boss them around. The invaders are thankful and can be made to obey the dictator in the White House. The worst sentence I heard today was when Jill said we will decide where we will live, nobody else. Excuse me Jill as long as we are still a Constitutional Republic and we still can vote you are dependent upon the citizens to decide where you live, not you, not Hunter not even Brandon. You should be charged with Elder Abuse.
The Democrats and the Left wing Media are now sitting in their own excrement and don’t know what to do about a mess they created. How stupid was it that they chose an obvious incompetent hyena to be Dementia Joe’s VP, as an “Insurance policy” against anyone even thinking to remove him from office if the truth about Biden’s condition should be discovered. Now they have to deal with having made a disasterous DEI choice, which makes it nearly impossible for the Dems to recover after the debate exposed everything, because of the outrage it would cause among the far left organizations who pushed the DEI hiring on us. We have Obama NEEDING to make sure Joe stays in so he can have his 4th term and finish “Fundamentally transforming America” into a socialist Marksist dictatorship using Joe as his front. We have Jill Biden wanting to maintain HER so called power and so is willing to drive her mentally compromised husband to his death to keep it. We have his treasonous criminal family members wanting him to stay in power so he can pardon them, we have Kamala herself wanting to stay him to stay in so, as soon as he steps down or croaks, she can step in despite total ignorance of the job. (Obama would control her like he does Joe), We have the media ringing their hands, scared to death that their careers may be ruined after being exposed as compilicit to the biggest hoax in American politics, The biggest Loser in the presedential election will be the America and the American people if they keep joe in the race and he should win because of voter fraud just like happened in the 2020 election. The ONLY solution is to vote for Trump so he can restore the nation to the greatness it had under his watch. A vote for anyone else will bring America to her knees for good. The only people stupider than the corrupt Democrat party and their bought and paid for media are the Republicans and Independents who refuse to vote for Trump because the “don’t like his personality”. They also were complicit in the disaster we see now.
It speaks to the competency of Obama when he named Biden as his VP and the same when Biden named Harris as his.
Dems seeded this years ago day 1 its on them
I hope sleepy joe stays in. He is the easiest one to beat. I pray that Barry’s wife doesn’t decide to enter to save the day. That would be a disaster for us I’m afraid. And she wouldn’t even have to show up for a debate. We need to pretend we are leftists and email everyone saying we want sleepy joe. Stand with sleepy joe. MAGA
The absolute Insanity of the left wing and the left wing media is on Full display. Van Jones couldn’t make a decision on whether they have a frontal lobotomy or a bottle in front of me. He is a self-described communist and people take his endorsement of Biden as a good thing.
The short answer is that the “Democrats” intentionally installed two non-viable people as President and Vice-President, so they could pull their puppet strings from deep within the shadows to enact the calamitous, criminal legislation we have since been force-fed… with no personal exposure on their own part.
I am deeply curious about who, exactly, has been running our country during “President” Biden’s what’s-her-name’s 4 years in office.
Things are just getting better and better. The Democrats and their liberal acolytes are running around in very small circles shouting at the sky about how unfair all of this is. These are the same people who chose to install a President who was clearly suffering from dementia in 2020, and for Vice President, a female idiot who had dark skin.
The time remaining until November 5th promises to display an even greater clown show of panicky Democrats and their liberal supporters. Jill Biden will push Joe to dig in his heels and refuse to step down. He already has the first vote Democrat convention delegate contest sewed up.
I’m going to stock up on popcorn and refrigerate beverages for the absolute Democrat farce that will be conducted right up to election day.
By the way, those who might feel confident about Donald Trump’s victory still need to make sure to vote for him. And take a hint from the Democrat dirty tricks manual, i.e. let the air out of all four tires on your liberal neighbor’s car on the early morning of November 5th.
I hope Democratic voters particularly in New England, the midwest, and on the left coast watched Thursday night and realized:
“this isn’t the Democratic party that I remember from my youth.”
I have told anyone who is listening that something outside the norm is intervening regarding the exposure nationally and internationally of the corpse that is Joseph Biden, Is the all mighty a Trump fan, not sure but it’s hard to ignore the facts on the ground lately ?
Remember that joe prepped for a week ahead of the debate with a dozen of more debate coaches and who knows what therapeutics. That was joe at his absolute best.
Wouldn’t surprise me, if these demonidots were to bribe Venezuelan President Maduro to accept their demo nomination for their candidate, after all if things there go as they appear to be, Maduro will be voted out (providing Maduro doesn’t murder half of the population before the election this month) The dictator is exactly the person they, the democrats would desire to have as our president.
Tell the author to stop calling the DNC the “demoncratic” party! It is the “Democrate Party the cause of all your problems!
Basicaly Harris got the job cause sheb was a woman and black. Qualifacations ment6 nothing. Kyle L.
What Mr. Samuel is discussing in all the alternatives to the disaster Democrats have painted themselves into a corner over, he insinuates they will do the right and lawful thing.
Democrats don’t CARE about laws or rules or whatever. They do what makes them FEEL good.
It seems like the author missed the point of Joe’s choice of Kamala. For an insecure and none to bright politician, what would be better than choosing someone a couple a couple of rungs down the ladder in terms of both intellect and popularity? You will never be impeached if the next person in line is clearly going to be worse.
Secondly dems have gotten very used to the deep state running the government and in fact generally think that the president is little more than a figurehead (think of King Charles). Why would dems then be concerned about their choice for president? Electability is the only issue and sadly the dems bench is looking awfully weak in that department. Maybe having a party run entirely behind the scenes by a bunch of octogenarians is not a good idea?
With time running short, the Communists will engineer something to replace Brandon and the Ho with whomever they believe would be the most popular and controllable candidate. Electability does not matter as much as popularity, ideology and controllability. Look for the Communists to push for Moochelle or a Hollywood celeb, then push Dome to trot off into the sunset with some cozy job with a fancy title so she won’t make too much of a fuss.
Even if Trump wins, do you think the Deep State will let him actually BE President more than last time? In 2016, Trump won and we had two YEARS of Republican control and they couldn’t get anything done! Most of the politicians, regardless of party are there for themselves, to become powerful and rich and most could care less about we the people who pay for them to be there. The Deep State is NOT going to give up control and, frankly, I no longer have any hope that Trump or anyone else can drain the swamp.
Therefore we have a switch. It is we voters who have no clothes (but don’t tell us the embarrassing truth.)
Sorry 4 Dims NOT!????????????
Not only are Democrats unable to provide a viable candidate of their own, they are set on denying the American people of the Republican nominee.
I loved Biden’s comment on Fridau, “I don’t debate as well as I used to, but I can do this job”What a fool. If he can’ debate across a friendly floor, how can he deal with world leaders that don’t trust him.
Demoncrats always think everyone is a fool, except for them. And think they can do no wrong and if somebody calls it on them that person is wrong. I despise all Democrats.
Absolute most inept president of the now so called ‘ free’ world. But at least according to his Second ( Or really First in command wife Jill) has found her new job to keep Biden on the Stick economics until the next, hopefully real prez). Good lucky Smerica plus)
It’s my belief that FJB’s stubbornness could be to Trump’s triumph! Our best bet to fix this country is to show the Democrat/liberal left and the Marxist Communist that trying to overthrow a republic is futile as well as ill advised! Trump a Republican House and Senate, could save this country? However what FJB ruined will take several decades to properly repair! The worst part, is that the chances of three Republican Presidents winning six terms is next to impossible!FJB!
Horrible as it may seem on first impression, consider the motives and the appeal of the Democrat wizards behind the curtain. If Joe should soon die of a heart attack or a stroke: 1. His replacement would have no criticism. 2. The news media would provide hundreds of millions of dollars worth of free publicity for the Dem campaign. 3. There would be a huge sympathy wave of votes and contributions. 4. No criticism of Joe’s presidency would be tolerated. It would all be praise and tribute for months. 5. Dems would have a fallen hero to rant on about for decades. 5. The corrupt FBI and DOJ would not investigate the death as anything but natural. 6. Absolutely no conspiracy theories would be tolerated, about this “Scalia Scenario.” It is the perfect solution to the Dems’ dilemma.
This entire explanation of the Democratic party election protocols seems to explain the fallacy of their legitimacy.
Well, if the communists pick newsom at least it would be someone familiar pushing drugs like he did as mayor. We could not only have an invation as we currently have but we could also see the drug problem in this country exploed. More good times no matter who the communists pick.
Oh please give Kameltoes a place at the head of the ticket. When the DNC rigs the election again and her ever widening backside is ensconced behind the desk in the Oval Office, the leaders of every country we insist on calling our adversaries will most likely literally laugh themselves to death. With the current Mr. Mumbles their sides are already highly sore from gales of laughter. Kameltoes will push them over the cliff ever bit as much as it will me!
People need to open their eyes and realize that the DNC could put an olive loaf sandwich at the top of the ticket and with the fraud they are so incredibly expert at with a complicit media, that sandwich will win.
For anyone that still believes Mr. Mumbles received more votes, both public and electoral in actual terms then please contact me as I have a 17 year old Toyota Matrix I want to sell them for $45,000.
Damn if you do and damned if you don’t.