You sit back and watch President Joe Biden and it’s impossible to believe he’s on the ball; that he is all there mentally. Granted, with Joe it’s always difficult to tell if his gaffes are because of his age and the natural mental deterioration that goes with it, or just his general low intelligence – he was stupid long before he was senile. As Barack Obama famously put it, “Don’t underestimate Joe’s ability to f**k things up.” All of which begs the question: If Biden is so far gone and so wildly unpopular, why haven’t any serious Democrats stepped up and challenged him for the 2024 nomination?
I understand that Robert Kennedy Jr. and Marianne Williamson are technically running against Joe, but they aren’t “serious” candidates, by which I mean people with a large enough following or holders of high enough elected office to command being taken seriously or even warranting a DNC debate to be scheduled. RFK has the family name, but that’s really it. His anti-vax crusade made him popular with some thanks to the COVID shot failures, but he’s been damn near anti-ever vaccine and pro-conspiracy that they cause autism for years, which is way outside the mainstream and beyond proof. Williamson is essentially Oprah’s guru, and Dr. Oz showed just how loyal a friend Oprah is.
Where is Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, Gavin Newsom or any of the others waiting in the wings for their chance?
Biden is wildly unpopular, with a super-majority of his own party telling pollsters they don’t want him to run. His reelection kick-off wasn’t even an event. Afraid the President of the United States couldn’t attract an enthusiastic enough crowd or mentally focus for a kick-off speech, or bring the energy necessary to make it successful, they opted for a heavily edited video. You have to wonder how many takes were needed to record his limited dialog (I suspect it was many).
When you have an unpopular candidate with limited abilities you do everything possible to insulate them from the public ever seeing them in unscripted moments. That’s why the White House pre-approving questions this week is such a big deal. The LA Times tried to pretend their “reporter” didn’t give Biden’s staff the question in advance, but the White House would have to employ a team of psychics to have gotten the topic and some of the exact verbiage as correct as they did. The inclusion of her picture and phonetic pronunciation of her last name, which Biden didn’t even try, are the type of tricks people use to avoid people not all there from being surprised.
So, why do ambitious Democrats tolerate this and sit on the sidelines when there is clear indication Joe is not up to the job and there is blood in the water?
First, the entirety of the Democrat Industrial Complex is lined up to “Weekend at Bernie’s” Joe Biden for as long as humanly possible. Joe’s whole life has been trying to become President and attain all the trappings that go along with it, he will never walk away from that without a fight. But he also has no core beliefs other than blind ambition and making himself and his family richer, so he’s an empty vessel. This allows activist leftists to get him to do pretty much anything, as long as they don’t challenge him in any way.
During the campaign, Biden was unambiguous that he did not think “student loan forgiveness” was a good idea or something he could do, but he did it anyway to appease radicals. In fact, there is no issue on which Joe Biden has been consistent, not only in his whole career, but in the last 20 years. As a Senator, Biden wasn’t known for any accomplishments or signature issues, he simply portrayed himself as a foreign policy expert (laughingly).
He has achieved his lifelong goal, there is no way he’s walking away. He will take all the slings and arrows, suffer any public humiliation, be viewed less favorably than toenail fungus to maintain it.
Biden’s executive actions also allow the left to get a lot of what they want advanced without having to argue for it themselves, insulating them, to a degree, from fallout.
If you are unprincipled, this is a fair trade. No establishment Democrat wants to disrupt this Faustian bargain, lest the rest of that political machinery come crashing down on you.
There is also another reason, because if it were just a matter of upsetting the establishment there is no way Gavin Newsom would stay out of it. It is the firm belief, and higher than normal probability, that Joe Biden simply won’t make it to the nomination.
If he’s on the ballot and has to drop off, whatever the reason, Vice President Kamala Harris would be there. But if he has to drop out, resign the office, or pass away (and I’m not wishing for it, but he is a frail 80-year-old man and things happen) before being re-nominated, it would be better politically to jump in to “save the day” at that point than it would be to be seen as having pressured him or perhaps having “driven” him to one of those ends.
Biden won’t be booted by the party because he chose the one candidate less popular than any other, while also being “historic,” as his running mate to insulate him from a coup. No one seriously will challenge him because it could be seen as abusive and disrespectful, plus there’s a better than average chance he won’t make it to the nomination, which would free up someone waiting in the wings. There’s a reason Newsom has been traveling the country and it’s not just that he wants to get away from California’s smell, drug, crime and homeless problem.
Joe Biden is as “safe” from a Democrat challenge as he is unpopular. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t players making moves behind the scenes waiting for the wheels to fall off, one way or another, ready to step in at a moment’s notice.
Derek Hunter is the host of a free daily podcast (subscribe!) and author of the book, Outrage, INC., which exposes how liberals use fear and hatred to manipulate the masses, and host of the weekly “Week in F*cking Review” podcast where the news is spoken about the way it deserves to be. Follow him on Twitter at @DerekAHunter.