U.S. President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris raise their hands
during an Independence Day celebration in Washington, U.S., July 4, 2024.REUTERS/Elizabeth Frantz/File Photo
The debate about how Joe Biden came to his July 21 withdrawal continues. Was it an unjustified anti-democratic coup against Biden. Conspiracy theories abound. Even Donald Trump appears flummoxed and of course disappointed since he wanted Biden in the race.
In an interview with Ryan Schuiling on KHOW 630 we discussed Joe Biden's weekend withdrawal after the painful 24-day defense President Biden tried to make after his disastrous debate performance. My view was that Biden truly did not understand his performance had focused the narrative of the race on his major vulnerability – competence, and reinforced his age problem with voters.
Most important for Democrats were doubts about his ability to engage Donald Trump and conduct a winning campaign. While the problem was self-evident to pollsters and party elected officials and leaders, Biden, his family and top aids isolated and cherry-picked polling data to avoid the reality.
Facing a similar dire situation in 1952, Harry Truman only took 18 days after not winning the New Hampshire primary to withdraw and LBJ only needed 19 days in 1968. Biden created this crisis by pressing for reelection in spite of approval polls below 40 percent and consistently running behind Trump with his age and shaky performances cited as major handicaps to his campaign.
Kamala Harris was quickly accepted as the nominee because the party did not want to continue the chaos, especially after Trump's assassination attempt and the Republicans' generally successful convention.
The history of parties controlling the White House making a switch in nominees and winning the election is not good. Republican Presidents Eisenhower and Nixon followed Democrats Truman and LBJ. Harris will need to establish her own presidential image while initially inheriting Biden's polling numbers. But, with the age issue gone, Harris, focusing on women, people of color, and younger voters, may re-energize the Democrats.
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Wait! You are comparing Eisenhower—the #2 US Army general of WW2—to Fat Donnie—he of the bone spurs?
ReplyDeleteAnd LBJ was hated for the Vietnam War and Nixon promised a secret plan to end it—which he did 4+ years later. No one believes the incoherent, inarticulate, incompetent, incontinent, morbidly obese, hebephrenic psychopath has a coherent plan for anything—except grifting.