By Noah Rothman
Monday, July 01, 2024
Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer is standing behind Joe
Biden — where she is apparently eager to drive a knife in between his shoulder
blades.
Politico reporter Jonathan Martin revealed the
details on Monday morning of a call the Great Lakes State executive made to
President Joe Biden’s campaign chairwoman, Jen O’Malley Dillon, over the
weekend in which she attempted to convey her undying loyalty to the embattled
incumbent. Whitmer reportedly expressed her distaste with a nascent whisper
campaign aimed at boosting her profile in the event Democrats throw both Biden
and Kamala Harris overboard in favor of an entirely new presidential nominee.
And yet, as Martin notes, that call was brought to his
attention by what he describes as “a potential 2028 Whitmer rival for the
Democratic presidential nomination.” In it, Whitmer apparently informed the
president’s campaign “that Michigan, in the wake of the debate, was no longer
winnable for Biden.”
All the backbiting is noteworthy as palace intrigue goes,
but Whitmer’s contention that Michigan is off the board for Biden (if that is
what she conveyed to the president’s campaign) is far more remarkable. If
Michigan is unwinnable for Biden, then so is the presidency. Indeed, the
conditions that would deliver that state’s electoral votes to Trump almost
certainly prevail in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and half a dozen other swing
states. If Whitmer’s remarks were conveyed accurately, she has become the first
major Democratic figure to inform the president’s reelection campaign that it’s
already over.
Martin’s report is devoted primarily to the fascinating
dynamic emerging within the party as both Biden and, increasingly, his running
mate deflate before our very eyes. But the reporter couldn’t quote any
Democratic source willing to refute Whitmer’s alleged assessment of the state
of play in Michigan. Indeed, her allies are eager to reinforce the perception
that “no one knows and understands” Michigan voters the way she does.
If Whitmer is right and there is no coming back for Joe
Biden following Thursday’s unmitigated debacle, that should compel Democrats to
take a leap into the unknown. The party would be diving into uncharted waters
if it abandoned its presidential nominee at this late date, but the unfamiliar
is surely preferable to all but certain defeat.
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