Get Out of the Way, Joe. Do It for your Country.

 

by Pa rock

Concerned Democrat

Joe Biden has been an established figure in national politics ever since he was first elected to the US Senate at the age of twenty-nine more that a half-century ago.  He sought the presidency twice, in 1988 and 2008, and both times was denied the prize as he failed to successfully navigate the Democratic Party's byzantine nominating process.  He was quietly nudged aside by the Obama administration in 2016 so that a presumed stronger candidate, Hillary Clinton, could run, but after the Trump victory that year and four years of an inept and corrupt administration, Biden was chomping at the bit to get back in the race.   In 2020 he developed a storyline that he was the only Democrat who could beat Trump, and an early victory in South Carolina put him on a path to the nomination and winning the general election.

At seventy-eight Joe Biden was too old to be President by almost any metric, but he served four years and chalked up some major accomplishments.  He was almost two years into his eighth decade when he made the decision to run for a second term.  His health and stamina had held up during his first term, or at least there had been no obvious lapses to alert and concern the general public, and if he could prevail with voters a second time, and his health held, her could have four more years of public adulation and the opportunity to make his stamp on America even more indelible.  

Biden once again compared himself to the alternative, Donald Trump, and repeated his declaration that he was the only person capable of defeating the orange menace.  Yes, Biden was getting older, but dang it, his country needed him and he was ready to keep sacrificing for the national good.

Biden's team leaned on the Democratic National Committee to rearrange the caucus and primary schedules so that he stood less chance of being embarrassed by some young upstart, and after getting the schedule that he wanted, the aging President was able to run the table and quickly garner enough delegates to own the nomination.

The nomination was in the bag.   All he had to do was keep reminding the country of Trump's many faults while not doing anything to endanger his own chances of re-election.  Yes, he was old, but so was Trump.  If Biden could maintain just a few more months and exude competent leadership, Trump would eventually implode and Biden would be re-elected.

Then last Thursday night happened, and now the nation seems to have paused in order to rethink the situation.  Trump's supporters aren't rethinking anything;  they are where they always were.  But Biden's voters and other Democrats are having serious thoughts about the viability of the man who already had locked up their nomination.  Should Joe Biden stay in the race, or should he release his delegates and go sit on the beach in Delaware?

Biden and his team have been bustling about trying to convince big-money and small-dollar donors that he is still the only person who can beat Trump, and that his poor debate performance was due to inadequate preparation, too much preparation, or fatigue from travel.  His rambling and mental fadeouts were situational and not a symptom of some medical condition.

Biden has said that he will not leave the race, presumably for the good of the country and not his own vanity.  

Now, however, that wall of bravado is beginning to show some cracks.  A Democratic congressman from Texas has bravely stepped forward and said that Biden should remove himself from the race.  News reports today indicate that as many as twenty-five other Democratic members of Congress are also preparing to encourage the President to withdraw from the race.  Nancy Pelosi, another prominent Democratic geriatric, has signaled that it is acceptable to have a "conversation" about what transpired in Atlanta last Thursday night.    Biden himself, in speaking at a private fundraiser yesterday, joked that he had actually almost fallen asleep at the debate, and some in the room laughed when he said that, while other supporters out in the real world groaned.  He is also reportedly saying that the race may not be "salvageable" at this point.

Today some polling that took place after last week's debate is beginning to make its way into the press. A poll by Suffolk University and USA Today that was published yesterday which looked at Biden and Trump in a six-person national race had showed the two major candidates tied a month ago, but now Trump has a 3-point lead.  That could easily be a decisive margin in November.

Another new poll, this one conducted for CNN, shows Trump up by six points over Biden, the exact amount that the same poll had predicted during an earlier sampling - but - this time the poll also asked Democratic-leaning voters if they thought their party stood a better chance of winning with a candidate other than Joe Biden, and 56% answered "yes."

The tide is turning, slowly, but it is turning.  Enthusiasm for Biden is waning.

Get out of the way, Joe - and give us a chance to win this thing.  Do it for yourself, and do it for your country.