Anyone who watched the debate between President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump can't be surprised the current president has withdrawn from the race. From the first question, it was clear that the current president was not up to the task.
His fellow Democrats undid Biden. The drums calling for him to step aside started slowly, then built to a crescendo conducted by former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, no doubt eager to put a fellow San Francisco Democrat in the White House.
The development is probably unwelcome in Republican circles. Since the debate, Biden's numbers have softened while Trump pulled ahead in what, up until last month, were thought of as the swing states. As states like Virginia, New Hampshire, Minnesota, New York, and New Jersey came into play—all states the Democrats thought they would win easily in 2024—senior party leaders panicked, concluding that a ticket led by Biden would lead the entire party into electoral oblivion.
The tweet announcing Biden's withdrawal was followed shortly by one announcing his support for Vice President Kamala Harris' bid to move up to the top of the ticket. It's the logical, politically correct move—but one that's not likely to produce a better result than what Democrats could already see coming.
If, as most of the polls have suggested since pollsters started asking, a Harris-led ticket fares little better against Trump than one led by Biden. Why go through the trouble of making a switch?
There's no good answer. The best anyone can come up with is that the odds are slightly better with Harris at the top of the ticket that the Democrats won't be wiped out everywhere from Albuquerque, New Mexico, to Zebulon, North Carolina, than they are with Biden as the presidential candidate.
What does this say about the Democrats? Not anything good. Pelosi and the other off-stage party elders who maneuvered Biden out of the race are more concerned about their hold on power than the welfare of the American people. It can be the only reason they kept Biden in the race so long, even though they could see behind closed doors what the rest of us saw and were shocked by in the first debate.
The more than 14 million people who participated in the Democratic Party's nominating process now find that their selection nullified by Pelosi and former President Barack Obama, who, former Illinois Democratic Gov. Rod Blagojevich tweeted Sunday, was clearly acting against Biden behind the scenes.
"I've known Obama since 1995. We both come out of Chicago politics. I know how it works. He's behind the campaign to dump 15 million Dem primary voters & replace Biden with his choice. Classic Chicago Democrat machine politics. Selection over election. The bosses over the people," Blagojevich tweeted.
It will be hard for Democrats to get beyond that—and there'll be more of it. You can count on it. The party of the people has become the party of the powerful and the insiders, traitors to their class as much as the much-revered Franklin Delano Roosevelt was to his. Trump, meanwhile, excels in his ability to turn that kind of thing into a positive. Remember how he bragged in 2016 about how he knew the system was rigged because he'd used it to his advantage and how that knowledge made him an expert on reforming it? It's a simple calculation that, as the votes piled up in Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin on election night that year, clearly resonated with enough people to make a difference.
Those states are in play once again. The impulses driving voters away from Biden may cease with Harris at the top of the ticket. Then again, they may not. We don't yet know, as commentators were already suggesting moments after Biden announced his decision, if "it's a whole new race" or not. The vice president will get a bump in the polls, which may only last until the next word salad spews forth from her mouth.
Meanwhile, Harris and her fellow Democrats must prepare for a tough fight. Expect the GOP and the media to start asking how, if Biden's not up to running again, he can remain in office? Expect "Too sick to run, too sick to serve" to be the new rallying cry, at least through Chicago. Perhaps even after the ticket is assembled and a nominee chosen.
Harris might emerge as the nominee. Then again, she might not. The advocates of an open convention might prevail. If they do, and they pick someone else, imagine how hard it will be explaining to the black women who are the party's most reliable voters that "Good enough for No. 2 isn't good enough for No. 1." If that happens, look for a possible "stay at home" phenomenon that costs the Democrats more than keeping Biden would have.
Pelosi, Obama, the Clintons, their consultants, and the other Democrat insiders got themselves into this situation. It will be interesting watching them try to get themselves out of it. Pass the popcorn, please.
Newsweek Contributing Editor Peter Roff is a veteran journalist who appears regularly on U.S. and international media platforms. He can be reached at roffcolumns@gmail.com and followed on social media @TheRoffDraft.
The views expressed in this article are the writer's own.
