'Hey Joe, you gotta go,' calls grow in America; Biden on the verge of bowing out?

WASHINGTON: The prospect of US President Joe Biden dropping out of the 2024 elections increased significantly on Wednesday after he tested positive for covid and appeared even more enfeebled with the illness between strenuous travel and plunging poll numbers. New polls are now showing nearly two-third of Democrats want him to step aside even as a powerful California lawmaker beseeched him to "pass the torch," one of nearly 20 who want him to bow out.
Speculation is mounting in political circles that Biden may take an off-ramp later this week, probably at the conclusion of the Republican National Convention on Thursday, so as to not give the opposition a chance to gloat. The sharp contrast between the disarray in the Democratic Party and the rah-rah celebrations at the Republican National Convention was on display on Wednesday, even as the US commentariat is virtually writing off Democrats' electoral prospect under Biden.
The 81-year old President is being skewered both at the GOP convention and diminished in his own party circles by the hour. The sight of a Covid-stricken Biden shuffling in almost slow motion up the short ramp to Air Force One after canceling a speaking engagement in Las Vegas on Wednesday further demoralized Democrat ranks already wilting under attack from the raucous Republican carnival in Milwaukee.
The concerns prompted top Democrats in Congress to appeal to party leaders to hold off a virtual roll call they had considered starting as soon as next week to rush through Biden's nomination. In another related development, Biden indicated in an interview to a black television network that he could potentially drop out of the race if doctors told him to and there was a medical reason that made it necessary.
“If I had some medical condition that emerged, if somebody, if doctors came to me and said, you got this problem and that problem," then he might re-evaluate his candidacy he suggested in an interview with BET news. It was a significant change from his stance in an ABC interview last week when he said only the Lord Almighty could compel him to quit the race.
Covid is not certainly a serious problem and White House doctors have given him a clean bill of health. But keeping a strenuous campaign schedule while still performing Presidential duties can't be a walk in the park for the 81-year old President who also undercut his re-election bid by revealing in the interview that he initially planned to only be a one-term president, but changed his mind after watching the nation become increasingly divided.
“I said I was going to be a transitional candidate, and I thought I’d be able to move on from this, pass it on to someone else,” he told BET News, adding, “But I didn’t anticipate things getting so, so, so divided. Quite frankly, I think the only thing age brings [is] a little bit of wisdom, and I think I’ve demonstrated that I know how to get things done for the country.”
He said there remains more to do and he's "reluctant to walk away from that.”
Several Democrats are now ready to walk him away amid fears that a Republican Party energized by the failed assassination of Donald Trump is now poised to score a trifecta in November, winning the White House, Senate, and the House of Representatives. Some media reports said that Biden is now more receptive to listening to arguments and seeing poll data showing he could lose in November.
On Wednesday, California's Adam Schiff became the most prominent lawmaker among the score of them who have urged Biden to bow out.
Praising Biden's lifetime of service as a Senator, a Vice President, and now as President, Schiff, a Congressman who is running for the Senate seat opened by the death of Dianne Feinstein, he has "serious concerns about whether the President can defeat Donald Trump in November."
That assessment is now almost universal after the Trump assassination bid, with handwringing from even liberal editorialists.
"Families all across America are responsible enough to engage in difficult conversations about taking the car keys from beloved elderly parents who think they can still drive. If the humblest household can manage this conversation, so can Democratic leaders," NYT's Nicholas Kristof wrote on Wednesday in an oped advocating jettisoning Biden.