Somehow things are not going right for President Joe Biden even if he tries to put the best spin. First was his disastrous debate in Atlanta, when his fumbling and mumbling rattled the wits out of the Democrats. And a group of Democratic Governors heard the President saying that he needed more sleep and that he would have to stop scheduling events after 8 pm.
The saving grace as of now is that Biden seemed to have held his own in his Friday interview with ABC News, but not many have been convinced of an incumbent having to repeatedly defend his ability to lead the United States for another four years. And the clamour has started within the Democratic Party and top-flight donors that in the interests of himself, party and country, Biden should leave the race.
But an embattled Biden who has not faced a defeat in polls in his long innings in Washington DC has increasingly been striking a defiant tone. “… if the Lord Almighty came down and said, ‘Joe, get outta the race,’ I’d get outta the race,” he told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos. But he was quick to add, “The Lord Almighty’s not comin’ down.” Agitated Democrats who are looking at the national polls and battleground states showing the incumbent trailing former president Donald Trump, have started looking for options.
“The President is rightfully proud of his record. But he is dangerously out-of-touch with the concerns people have about his capacities moving forward and his standing in this race. Four years ago at this time, he was 10 points ahead of Trump. Today, he is six points behind,” David Axelrod, former advisor to President Barack Obama has been quoted.
Sounding out colleagues
What started as a quiet murmur has now openly surfaced into a movement among Democrats with at least four in the House of Representatives and Senator David Warner said to be quietly sounding out colleagues in the Senate.
Aside from ruthlessly putting down President Biden’s debate performance on CNN, neither Trump nor his campaign have joined the oust-Biden movement perhaps for one or two reasons: watching from the sidelines with glee Democrats themselves taking apart their candidate; or worried that their entry could hasten the process and produce a candidate who is not only much younger than the 78-year-old challenger but far more aggressive in taking down the falsehoods that Biden gave a pass or failed to respond in the June 27 encounter.
The name dropping has already begun even if every one of the potential candidates are publicly rooting for President Biden to stay on. And heading the list is Vice-President Kamala Harris who is 19 years junior to Trump in age as also a feisty and no-nonsense debater who will have the biggest advantage of campaign funds currently available. But at least six other Governors are being spoken of as possible replacements: Gavin Newsom of California; Illinois’ JB (Jay Robert) Pritzker; Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan; Wes Moore of Maryland; Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania and Roy Cooper of North Carolina. All this is not to forget the name of Michele Obama that gets dropped every now and then. And if a replacement is indeed found, who is the Vice-Presidential nominee on the ticket?
The one thing that Biden and Democrats do not have is the luxury of time, both by way of seeing how things unfold at the National Convention starting August 19 in Chicago or waiting how President Biden performs in the next debate on September 10.
Privately senior Democrats and donors will be hoping for the issue to settle even through a fractured convention, for at stake on November 5 is not only the Presidency, but in the Democrats’ hope of re-taking the House and improving their fortunes in the Senate. Biden may be hedging his bets on The Almighty who may not be interested to get into the mess.
The writer is a senior journalist who has reported from Washington DC on North America and United Nations