President Biden officially announced that he is withdrawing from running for re-election. Although this appeared to be inevitable, as recently as yesterday Joe was allegedly in for the duration.
Biden did not immediately endorse Harris. But a couple of minutes later that changed:
The usual talking heads on TV are, predictably, missing the point. Between now and the Democratic convention, to be held on August 19th to August 22nd, Democrats will have no one available to campaign against Donald Trump. Can Kamala Harris really campaign effectively if it is not completely certain she will even be the nominee. If there is true competition, we will have a fight over the next three weeks. Harris will be spending more time fighting off competitors than fighting against Trump. Those who compete with Harris will make it more difficult for her to win if she does succeed in being at the top of the ticket.
It is possible that Democrats will immediately coalesce behind Harris, but so far there is no sign of that. The dream tickets of Michelle Obama or Oprah or Hillary Clinton are not even on the horizon. If Harris were to be bypassed by any of the above, the anger would be palpable. It could result in a permanent split in the Democratic Party. In addition, the party that had trouble becoming unified in the recognition that Joe Biden was a liability, is extremely unlikely to become instantly united behind anyone.
My prediction is that Democrats will do nothing to choose someone other than Harris. They will instead become totally focused in demanding that Trump withdraw for the same reasons Biden withdrew. There will be the full-throated support of the MSM. But there is a problem. Just like people saw the real Biden during that debate, they also saw the real Donald Trump when he barely escaped being assassinated. In addition, whether you like Trump, hate Trump or anything in between, he clearly is in control and there are zero signs of mental deterioration like that so obvious in Biden. History shows the more they attack Trump, the strong he appears.
In short, this is a complete disaster for Democrats. Their only chance to survive this is for smart and experienced people to meet and use logic, common sense, and wisdom to develop a plan of action. Yet there is zero evidence that such people even exist in the Democratic party. This means the least likely outcome is that the Democratic establishment will come together and do the right thing, for the right reasons. That is simply not in their DNA.
This is Trump’s campaign to lose. If he stays focused on his plan for America and avoids even commenting on Democratic Party three week dating game, that will be very effective. At this point, the only thing that could save Democrats would be for Trump to face plant. I wouldn’t bet on that.
In the meantime, Biden is gone. Someone, possibly Harris, will replace him. This is as close as possible to a worst-case scenario for Democrats, created deliciously entirely out of whole cloth by their own failure to recognize reality and even more importantly to act responsibly.
TDM