Biden Is Sputtering Out

By Jim Geraghty

Monday, July 01, 2024

 

Think of Joe Biden as an old plane.

 

In the spring of 2020, Democrats could see the wear and tear on the old prop aircraft. But they chose to get into it anyway. And through three and a half years, through lots of turbulence and ominous rattles in the engine and sputtering noises, the plane was flying just well enough for Democrats to convince themselves that the old bird could still get over that ridge of alpines up ahead labeled “Trump mountains.”

 

And then, on debate night, the plane’s long-simmering problems exploded in a manner far too glaring to ignore or downplay. One engine had stalled, and the other was on fire. The pilot was slumped over the controls, unconscious. Every warning light was flashing, and every surface was shaking from intense turbulence. The altimeter was spinning, indicating that the plane was descending rapidly. There were cracks forming in the front cockpit windows. Beyond that, the Trump mountains were growing larger and larger as the plane plummeted toward the earth.

 

And inside the plane is a pile of parachutes labeled “NOMINATE SOMEONE ELSE.”

 

Now, putting on the parachutes and jumping out of the plane invites its own set of risks. The parachutes might not open. Or they do open but the parachutists might have a rough landing, or get stuck in a tree, or land in a body of water or in the middle of nowhere. But if the passengers put on the parachutes, their fate would no longer depend on a deteriorating plane that’s in a nosedive.

 

The media branch of the leadership of the Democratic Party is picking up the parachutes and wants to put them on. The editorial board of the New York Times. The New Yorker’s David Remnick. The Washington Post’s David Ignatius and David Von Drehle. (Apparently, one of the demographics most shaken by Biden’s performance was columnists named David.) The editorial board of the Atlanta Journal Constitution.

 

But so far, the elected leadership of the Democratic Party, when examining their options and realizing time is running out decided . . . they’re going to stay on the plane and hope for the best.

 

Senator Raphael Warnock, Representative Jim Clyburn, Nancy Pelosi — they’ve all made statements indicating they think the party should stick with Biden. Tweets on Friday from Barack Obama and Bill Clinton also threw cold water on the notion of replacing Biden.

 

And unsurprisingly, it sounds like the entire Biden family strongly believes their gravy train should continue — er, I mean, that Joe Biden should remain in the race. Katie Rogers and Peter Baker of the New York Times offered details on the Biden family meeting Sunday:

 

One of the strongest voices imploring Mr. Biden to resist pressure to drop out was his son Hunter Biden, whom the president has long leaned on for advice, said one of the people informed about the discussions, who, like others, spoke on condition of anonymity to share internal deliberations. Hunter Biden wants Americans to see the version of his father that he knows — scrappy and in command of the facts — rather than the stumbling, aging president Americans saw on Thursday night.

 

Go figure, one of the biggest advocates of Joe Biden remaining in the race is the convicted felon facing up to 25 years in prison and an additional nine charges on tax evasion who’s desperately hoping for a presidential pardon. (Yes, I know Joe Biden said he wouldn’t pardon his son. No one believes him.)

 

The Rogers-Baker article also showcases the Biden family offering up some first-ballot Hall of Fame scapegoating of Biden’s campaign team:

 

Members of Mr. Biden’s family were likewise said to be focused on the president’s staff, including Ms. [Anita] Dunn, a White House senior adviser, and her husband, Mr. [Bob] Bauer, the president’s personal attorney, who played Mr. Trump during debate rehearsals.

 

They were asking why Mr. [Ron] Klain, the former White House chief of staff who ran the preparations, would in their view allow him to be overloaded with statistics, and they were angry that Mr. Biden, who arrived for the debate in Atlanta with a summer tan, was made up to look pale and pallid, said one of the people, who has been in touch with several members of the family.

 

Oh, stuff it. It’s not Ron Klain’s fault that Joe Biden mumbled, stared at Trump blank-eyed and slack-jawed and offered endless servings of barely coherent word salad. Biden wasn’t stuck trying to cram too many facts and figures into his answer time. He was stuck trying to deal with a train of thought that derailed shortly after it departed the station.

 

Here’s Biden discussing abortion:

 

This is the guy who says the states should be able to have it. We’re in a state where in six week, you don’t even know whether you’re pregnant or not, but you cannot see a doctor, have your — and have him decide on what your circumstances are, whether you need help. The idea that states are able to do this is a little like saying, we’re going to turn civil rights back to the states, let each state have a different rule.

 

Look, there’s so many young women who have been — including a young woman who just was murdered and he went to the funeral. The idea that she was murdered by — by — by an immigrant coming in and (inaudible) talk about that.

 

But here’s the deal, there’s a lot of young women who are being raped by their — by their in-laws, by their — by their spouses, brothers and sisters, by — just — it’s just — it’s just ridiculous. And they can do nothing about it. And they try to arrest them when they cross state lines.

 

“There’s a lot of young women who are being raped by their — by their in-laws, by their — by their spouses, brothers and sisters.” Does that sound like a man who’s “overloaded with statistics”? Or does it sound like a man who can’t think straight or speak clearly anymore?

 

Politico reports that the Biden campaign staff contends that Biden’s bad night was caused by CNN’s decisions:

 

Additionally, Biden’s campaign staff only grew angrier at CNN as to how the debate was run, according to several people familiar with the conversations. Their complaints were lengthy, including that the moderators should have fact-checked Trump more often, that Biden was not told which camera he’d be on when not speaking and that the makeup staff made him appear too pale, according to the three people. Biden did, however, agree to the terms of the debate before it was held.

 

According to the president’s family and staff, Joe Biden’s abysmal debate performance was the fault of everyone except Joe Biden. He was the guy up on stage, right? We almost must admire the Democrats’ consistency, the way they reject the notion of individual responsibility, again and again.

 

We’ll get more polling data in the coming days, but the initial assessment from the CBS News survey is that Biden’s bid is in increasingly dire shape. Just 27 percent of registered voters think Biden has “the mental and cognitive health to serve as president.” (Note that just 50 percent say the same about Donald Trump.) The survey found that 72 percent of registered voters think Biden should not be running for president, and 46 percent of self-identified Democrats think Biden should not be running. Just 28 percent of registered voters thought Biden “looked presidential” at the debate, just 21 percent thought he presented his ideas clearly, and just 18 percent said he “inspired confidence.”

 

On the question of whether Biden should remain the Democratic nominee, 55 percent of Democrats said he should stay and 45 percent said he should step aside.

 

Jonathan Martin, writing in Politico:

 

Even more revealing is how word of the call reached me: from someone close to a potential 2028 Whitmer rival for the Democratic presidential nomination. This person said Whitmer had phoned O’Malley Dillon with more of an unambiguous SOS: to relay that Michigan, in the wake of the debate, was no longer winnable for Biden. [Emphasis added.]

 

If that report of Whitmer’s assessment is accurate, and Whitmer has an accurate feel for the political currents in her state, the 2024 presidential election is effectively over. As I’ve pointed out, North Carolina is not a swing state, despite the claims of the Biden campaign. Nevada is looking awfully red as well, and we haven’t seen a poll showing Biden ahead in Georgia since November. Arizona looks even redder. If Trump wins North Carolina, Nevada, Georgia, and Michigan, he reaches at least 272 electoral votes — he doesn’t even need Arizona.

 

The Washington Post editorial board wants the Democrats to host a high-speed mini-primary:

 

So what’s the 2024 Democratic Party to do? In this day and age, imposing a ticket from on high won’t cut it. The best scenario, should Mr. Biden drop out, would be for the party to invite several interested candidates to consider running and ask them to spend the next seven weeks in a series of debates. The convention would then be thrown open to these candidates. The deciders would be Democratic convention delegates, not primary voters. But the process would be transparent.

 

That process, as messy as it would be, would give Democrats a younger nominee, a fresher face, and at least the theoretical opportunity to cut ties from the worst aspects of the Biden record (inflation and cost of living, an insecure border and illegal immigration, chaos overseas, etc.).

 

As of this writing, it appears the Democratic Party, en masse, is going to stick with Biden, even after he turned in the worst performance in any presidential debate in the modern era.

 

Those parachutes are going to be left unused. And the Democrats on the Biden plane are left hoping for some miracle that will lift their plane over the mountains dead ahead.