An Open Letter to the Democratic Arnolds: It Is Either Joe or Kamala. Decide Now!
To all the Democrat Arnolds calling for President Biden to suspend his campaign: Yes, we are all nervous about Joe after his awful debate performance and the contrast between Trump's defiant stand after being shot and Biden quietly disappearing with COVID does not help. But there are three things we need to get straight.
1. No Half Solutions
Almost all of you calling for Joe to step down have not said, "Joe step aside, let Kamala carry the ball from here." In fact, in looking at the Washington Post tally of the 37 (14 percent) Senators and Representatives that are calling for Joe to withdraw, only two (Reps. Betty McCollum (MN) and Mark Takano (CA)) have said, "let Vice President Harris take over." The rest do not say who should be the nominee. That is not a solution, only half of one, and an invitation to chaos.
To the remaining 35 and whomever else joins the death by 1,000 paper cuts society, you must state the full solution and, if Kamala Harris is not included in the solution, explain why. You are asking the party to jump first and assemble its parachute mid-air. Yes, we have a crop of great Governors plus stars on Capitol Hill, but none of them have been fully vetted, run a serious national campaign nor have the campaign infrastructure to launch a national campaign.
2. No Open Convention
An open convention or Zoe Lofgren's idea of letting a "Presidential Politburo" pick the candidates will not fly. The primaries are over and it's Joe and Kamala or just Kamala - those are the choices. Are there other Democrats who would make great candidates and/or Presidents? Of course (and an even greater number of Democrats who think they qualify). They, however, did not run and any process that selected one of them over Joe and/or Kamala would cause as many problems as it would solve. We must be mindful of history. The last thing the party needs is another chaotic convention in Chicago.
3. Decide Now
It is time for this coordinated "Dump Joe" or "Pass the Torch" campaign to come out of the shadows. Caesar was attacked once in the Senate and stabbed 23 times, but you guys have dragged this out slash by slash, making the President's withdrawal a near inevitability as the perception of his frailty promoted by the Dump Joe members likely will harden voter perceptions of him.
Joe, however, remembers how some of the same people steered him away from running in 2016 (et tu Barack?) and how he was counted out in 2020 but still won. This makes me trust his political instincts over his critics. Joe has the base, the Clintons, and the Congressional Black Caucus while they have former President Obama and the donor class. I fail to see, however, how a donor-led coup with a nominee selected by less than Democratic means helps us argue that we are the ones who will save democracy from Trump.
The Republican convention ended with Trump falling flat in Milwaukee. He is not winning over new voters and Project 2025 and J.D. Vance (with his views on abortion and Ukraine) will not help. These guys are beatable, but we Democrats instead are spending our time proving President Nixon's old adage about never underestimating the Democrats' ability to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. The longer this sideshow plays out, the longer the media will breathlessly cover every defection and not the issues or questions about Trump's fitness for office.
So come out of the shadows, set a time to talk ASAP to do a clear-eyed assessment, and put this issue to bed. By next week the party should be in agreement on its nominee and ready to fight like hell the rest of the way. The GOP convention is over and we need to be on the political battlefield making our rebuttal argument without distraction. Dragging this out any further is simply irresponsible.
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