Joe Biden is toast, and with the media now sharply focused on his medical condition, the best scenario for Democrats is that the president resigns and turns the Oval Office keys over to Kamala Harris.
The debate over Biden’s future has changed its tone and turned more urgent amid new reports that a neurologist specializing in Parkinson’s visited the White House eight times over an eight month period. Reporters also testily sparred with White House officials on Monday over complaints that they’re not being candid with the media about the president’s health.
The discussions have shifted from concerns over Biden’s cognitive abilities to a possible medical emergency. It’s not just an elderly guy in decline any more.
Democrats need an exit strategy to get Biden out of the way and avoid a costly defeat to Donald Trump.
It’s so bad that Biden has lost Michael Moore, Stephen King and Rob Reiner. When you’ve lost them, you know it’s over.
Democratic prognosticator Nate Silver even said that the Democratic president can’t continue, after watching his stammering interview with ABC’s left wing George Stephanopolous.
Biden though has reportedly closed his inner circle of advisers to just a few aides and family and is angrily refusing to step aside. So he needs cover to get out.
Is the party and nation going to be held hostage by Hunter and Jill Biden? Surely party elders will not let that happen.
The reports about the neurologist visits – which the White House press office refused to confirm even though it came from the visitor logs – give Biden an opportunity to bow out of the race or resign with dignity citing a serious medical condition.
That scenario also gives a chance for Democrats to avoid a protracted and divisive debate over whether Biden should hang on or quit, and abandon these crazy plans for a “blitz primary” to determine a nominee. With the president out, he can turn over his delegates and millions in campaign cash to his vice president.
Biden can continue to say he’s a fighter and wants to beat Trump all he wants, but for the good of the nation and party he must resign. He wants to go out swinging to seem like he’s not a quitter. Fine. That way he doesn’t have to seem to have been pushed out.
But right now that’s exactly what it looks like. The stubborn White House and panicked Democratic leaders are on a high stakes collision course and the ending is not going to be pretty.
The fight over Biden’s health will cripple the party and make it much more likely that Trump will cruise to victory. Democrats will be left with a feeble and weak nominee who three quarters of the country say is too old and mentally deficient to govern.
And what about those profiles in courage, Democrats like Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey and Michelle Wu who have been AWOL for the last week and a half? They’ll be stuck with a President Trump, their worst nightmare.
The simplest way to avoid that is a clean cut with Biden announcing he will resign – similar to the way Richard Nixon was forced out by party elders in 1973. Kamala Harris would run as the de facto incumbent president, with a far better chance of beating Trump than Biden. It’s the Democrats’ only play.