BREAKING NEWS: HE DID PASS THE TORCH!
READ ON TO FIND OUT WHY HE HAD TO DO IT AND HOW IT WILL AFFECT HIS LEGACY
With the Threat Level from the MAGA Republicans at Defcon 1…
even before the debate there was deep concern among Democratic voters (not just elites or donors, but voters on the ground living in multicultural and diverse districts, cities and suburbs across America) that Biden was too old to win the coming election. He would be unable to prosecute the case against a newly empowered Trump who gained energy from the indictments and the Manhattan conviction instead of losing ground, and who attained near sainthood with his followers after an assassin’s bullet hit his ear instead of its intended target. Deep concern and worry about Project 2025 added to the fears of Democratic voters who saw Biden as a failing and ineffective voice to fight a more empowered right-wing movement.
The MAGA movement has been joined by Christian Nationalists, White supremacists, six Supreme Court justices, and other right-wing forces on a mission to take down our democracy. Trump is more powerful than he was in 2016 because of that energy and money flowing in from ultra rich donors. The MAGA movement has coalesced around an anti-immigrant, anti-global, grievance, macho male ideology that wants power to be centralized in an alpha male dictator who will get things done that they want done. This movement is funded by a lot of super wealthy guys including bro types in the tech world and rich men in the fossil fuel industries who want to get stuff for themselves and their business interests from Trump when he is elected. They know he will give them what they want if they are loyal to him. A loss to this version of the Republican Party led by Trump would not be a loss to what used to be a normal Republican Party. This is an extremist movement.
BIDEN’S PROBLEM
Before the debate, Biden was not winning against Trump even in districts where Democrats running for the House and Senate were likely to win. Those candidates were running ahead of Biden in polls. But Biden’s campaign operatives could console themselves that he was at least within the margin of error. However, after the debate, polls generally showed Biden dropping further not only in key battleground states, but in states that had been thought to be relatively sure states for Democratic victories. They included Nevada, North Carolina, the blue wall states of Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin and even states like Virginia… all had begun to look like looming losses for the Democrats. Those losses were not made up after the debate.
This downward trajectory may have been the result of the sense of doom and gloom that Democrats experienced seeing Biden’s debate: his shocking struggle to speak, his inability to express himself or attack Trump in that debate, and his inability to articulate a closing argument about why voters should vote for him. Instead of feeling inspired to vote for Biden, many voters reported to canvassers and to their elected representatives, that they were more likely to curl up in a ball and stay home on Election Day.
Biden tried doing more interviews to show he was up to the fight, such as the one he did with Lester Holt. But those efforts did not change the calculus. There was a sense of impending doom that Democrats felt about their candidate. Trump’s campaign pulled their negative ads about Biden, fearing that their negative ads might create just what they didn’t want, namely, different candidate instead of Biden, one that could win against Trump.
THE VOTERS WERE SPEAKING OUT TO THEIR REPRESENTATIVES
Congressional representatives (Democrats) also went home during a break and got an earful from their constituents. Representatives spoke with some constituents who were crying and fearful about a second Trump presidency. They understood what Project 2025 would do to the country and they were terrified. They said they had little to no faith in Biden’s ability to win or to lead or fight effectively anymore. Members of congress realized that they had to speak up to their leaders- Jeffries and Schumer. Their own jobs were also on the line with Biden at the top of the ticket. 65 to 69% of Democrats said they want another candidate. At this point 80% of Democratic members of congress also wanted Biden to stop running. Some were more vocal about it than others.
Members of congress made the views of their constituents known to Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jefferies as well as Nancy Pelosi, who were orchestrating an effort behind the scenes to help Biden understand the need to step down. The first actions taken by party leaders were private meetings one-on-one with Joe Biden by Jefferies, Schumer and Pelosi. Biden’s first response was to resist and dig in. Some members of congress then realized they had to take more action. Mikie Sherrill (NJ) had been in the military. She was one of the members of congress who understood that she had to do more to mobilize a pressure campaign. Reliable polling data our lawmakers were getting began to show the loss of the House and Senate as well as the White House if Biden stayed on. Biden was dragging down the rest of the ticket. Trump was headed for a landslide victory.
PASS THE TORCH
Groups of donors, pro-democracy groups, lawmakers and others also began a more concerted effort to “pass the torch” with the support of Nancy Pelosi and a pointed lack of opposition from Obama. To encourage Biden to move forward in his thinking, Pelosi refused to take no for an answer. She kept asking him publicly using “Pelosi-speak”: about when he (Biden) would make a decision. (He had already made a decision! Her request for him to make up his mind was her way of encouraging him to think again.) At this point it was clear that Nancy Pelosi had read the handwriting on the wall and understood the threat. She had also made up her mind that Biden must “pass the torch”. When she knows something needs to be done to save the country there is no stopping her.
As the pressure campaign gained strength with the Dems and Biden dug in, there were strategic, purposeful leaks to the press. Pelosi was moving the pressure campaign into another phase, a more public phase, to encourage other lawmakers to speak up and to pressure Biden more. Biden was shown his own team’s polling data in swing states, which is allegedly dismal. Biden had all but lost his already narrow path to victory by last weekend.
Biden then came down with Covid and went into retreat at his home. The Clintons, Bill and Hillary, came out in support of Biden. But Nancy Pelosi and the rest of the pressure campaign was not going away.
Many donors were angry because they believed that the White House had engaged in a cover up about Biden’s cognitive decline. Much of the money the Biden campaign had expected to raise was put on hold as some donors make it known they wanted Biden to pass the torch.
This monumental effort resulted in helping Biden to “pass the torch” on Sunday afternoon on July 21st. Biden immediately endorsed Kamala Harris who said she would work to earn her place as the front runner and win the election. There was a collective sigh of relief among thankful Democrats who poured money into her campaign. The fundraising level that day stands to be the single greatest fundraising day in the history of the Democratic Party. Democrats were clearly relieved that now they could have a fighting chance against the Trump/ MAGA machine. If Biden’s selfless act and Nancy Pelosi’s pressure campaign helped to set Trump up to lose, Nancy Pelosi and Joe Biden will both be considered heroes in the history of our country.
BIDEN IS NOT WELL
Many Americans get their information on social media because there is no pay wall there. They have seen Biden on YouTube. If you watch video of Biden on YouTube and see him speaking for an hour or more, what you will see is a man who is seriously diminished in terms of his cognitive abilities. Biden may have some kind of cognitive impairment as well as physical impairment beyond stuttering and old age. If you watch Biden deliver a full speech, not an edited snippet that makes Biden look more cogent, you will see him often lose his train of thought, mumble, be unable to finish a sentence, raise his voice volume, mix up names, look confused at times, read the instructions from the teleprompter (like “look to the left” or “point to the chart”). Biden had gone from a 40% chance of winning to a 20% chance of winning when he stepped away from the campaign that Sunday.
There is speculation that he could have PSP, Progressive supranuclear palsy. It is an age-related neurodegenerative disorder that looks a lot like Parkinson’s. PSP takes its name from the characteristic eye movement abnormalities that develop over the course of the disease, often as a mid to late stage finding. Patients have postural instability, gait disorder, cognitive disturbances and some develop dementia. I am not saying that Biden does have this disease. I am saying that a number of physicians who work in geriatric medicine have speculated and written that Biden could have this disease because he has many of the symptoms which are visible from video content and TV appearances.
THE POTENTIAL FOR MUST SEE TV
If the Dems can pull off slating a new presidential candidate and pull together to get her elected, this could be truly historic. The Democrats have an excellent candidate for president with Kamala Harris and a deep bench of excellent, strong vice presidential contenders- many are governors- who have done a great job in their states. Kamala Harris could decide to choose a governor as her running mate. If she does, it would be good if she could say she would entrust her VP with important initiatives and that they will work as a team together. That could help her, as the first woman president, to win in our still very misogynistic country. According to the same polling data that showed Biden losing in a landslide to Trump, Harris, does better than Biden in a head to head against Trump even before beginning to campaign in earnest.
Biden has been an incredibly effective, very impactful president. It would have been tragic had Biden not understood that by staying in the race this time he could have been the proximate cause of the end of our democratic experiment. It could be equally inspirational if we could show the world how democracy can work. Stepping down and “passing the torch” to a younger candidate, and a woman who is also of Black and Asian descent also stands in stark contrast to the all alpha male all white MAGA party. Biden is ushering in the next generation of leaders the way Nancy Pelosi did, for the good of the country in a selfless act that stands in stark contrast to Trump’s selfishness. Biden could serve as an advisor, a guide and priceless mentor to Harris. Biden will be remembered as one of the best, most consequential, selfless presidents in the history of our country and, hopefully, the man who saved our democracy.
Of course, history is written by the winner. The Dems have to win in November to write the next chapter.
THE CHICAGO CONVENTION AND THE WAY FORWARD
If the convention in Chicago can follow an orderly, fair plan, and the Dems can pull together no matter who the nominee may be, the Democratic Party has the opportunity to show the world how a strong, sane, cohesive, future looking party behaves. It is not a cult. This party faces reality and the truth without gaslighting or denial.
The stakes are high, especially in the face of this fascist movement that is hell bent on installing the first American dictatorship, engaging in mass deportations and concentration camps for immigrants, giving Ukraine over to the Russians, ending reproductive healthcare for women, trashing our economy with tariffs, and ending our collective efforts to combat the climate crisis.
The Democrats should brace themselves for a potentially rocky ride ahead. But it could also be an inspirational ride ahead. If they can pull off having a forward looking convention that is about the future of our country, that would create a lot of excitement and interest surpassing the surreal lie fest that the RNC just had in Milwaukee. It would be Must See TV.
What works in the Democrats’ favor is that Americans don’t like Trump and they don’t like the fascists and weirdos who are trying to take over our country either. The majority is with the Dems. But Democrats had to give the voters a candidate they could believe in who would be able to stand up and fight for what the majority of Americans want in America.
This is a remarkable, existential moment in our country.