Democrats are going to continue reeling from Joe Biden’s abysmal debate performance last Thursday night, where former President Donald Trump dog walked the aging Delaware liberal to the point where you did feel a little bit bad for him. But then you remember that feelings are irrelevant here, and we need to destroy this man politically to save the country. To quote James Carville, when your opponent is drowning, throw him an anvil, not a life jacket. Trump did that but there was no anvil. It wasn’t necessary. He simply let Biden drown on his own volition.
Trump’s evisceration of Biden is hardly a secret for most, but liberal America is coping especially hard. There’s no excuse for it. We saw it numerous times. There are polls to that effect. Those surveys are likely worse now. The combination of arrogance and anti-Trump bias is a deadly political speedball that’s left progressives overdosing and in need of Narcan. In Los Angeles, CNN reported on what could be described as a total meltdown among attendees, which included elected Democrats and Hollywood elitists. Jane Fonda was reportedly brought to tears (via CNN) [emphasis mine]:
Multiple Democratic officials and operatives, some of whom are affiliated with alternatives and those who are not, rage that Biden has demonstrated too much of an ego to have bowed out before. The president’s argument that he was the Democrat best able to beat Trump, several said, has now been turned on its head and they are left feeling he’s the option least able to beat Trump.
They say the president’s inner circle who have been running the campaign and prepared him for the debate – and who told some privately ahead of Thursday night that the prep had gone well – are either not being honest or are not capable of steering him either toward an exit or a recovery. At a LGBTQ fundraiser in New York City on Friday night, one attendee said some of the conversations even turned against Jill Biden, with the deep love for her as the quirky reluctant political spouse quickly curdling into exasperation that she is not willing to make the move that would lead to them leaving the White House.
Even as minds turn to a list that includes Harris, Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker, Whitmer, Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, California Gov. Gavin Newsom, Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly, Georgia Sen. Raphael Warnock, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and even relatively new Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro and Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, none have gone public with anything but words of support for Biden. They worry about being called traitors. They worry that it might make Biden dig in more.
A debate watch party in Los Angeles on Thursday night happened to feature Harris’ husband Doug Emhoff, Pritzker, Whitmer and Beshear. There were other high-profile attendees – by a few answers in, Rob Reiner was screaming about losing and Jane Fonda had tears in her eyes, according to people in the room.
The lengthy piece also expounded upon a hypothetical of an open convention, where Vice President Kamala Harris pulls a Brutus. Yet, there’s messy identity politics that leech through this scenario, even if far-fetched. Donna Brazile was quoted wondering how all these white Democrats could be placed ahead of the VP regarding these candidate replacement talks [emphasis mine]:
The vice president’s “I’m not going to spend all night with you talking about the last 90 minutes when I’ve been watching the last three-and-a-half years of performance,” which people in her orbit say she came up with on the fly herself, has since been picked up by campaign operatives in addition to the first lady.
Harris would have other advantages too. A top outside political adviser, Minyon Moore, was months ago named the official in charge of convention proceedings, and others like her former chief of staff Tina Flournoy and Brazile have key committee roles too. Nor are her supporters shy about making their opinions known.
In an interview, Brazile said that her reaction to the calls that she has been getting since the debate with people inquiring about other candidates is: “How the f**k are you going to put all these white people ahead of Kamala?”
Brazile coming in like a “hot sister” again on that one but taking communications cues and advice from Harris is another sign that this party got broadsided, and they don’t know what to do because, yeah; Joe Biden is mentally declining.
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