Zorn: Joe won't go. Ruh-roh!

& why the seven best arguments for Biden staying in the race fail

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Eric Zorn is a former opinion columnist for the Chicago Tribune. Find a longer bio and contact information here. This issue exceeds in size the maximum length for a standard email. To read the entire issue in your browser, click on the headline link above. Paid subscribers receive each Picayune Plus in their email inbox each Tuesday, are part of our civil and productive commenting community and enjoy the sublime satisfaction of supporting this enterprise.

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Why the seven best arguments for Biden staying in the race fail

Just about every conversation I’ve had and every comment and letter I’ve received in the last 12 days has been about President Joe Biden’s alarmingly poor performance in his June 27 debate against Republican challenger Donald Trump.

Today’s issue will deal exclusively with that topic — with the exception of the visual tweets contest — so if you’re sick of it, just scroll down to here or just re-join me Thursday.

Nearly all of the people I’ve heard from echo the sentiment that it’s time for Biden to step down (see the extensive Zmail below), but I’ve certainly seen some contrary sentiments from Democrats and progressives whom I often agree with on other issues.

So let me take on here some of the points they are raising:

1. Millions of Democratic voters chose Biden in the primaries and it would undemocratic for party elders and insiders to nudge him off the ticket.

Nonsense. The party elders and insiders made sure that there was no serious challenge to Biden in the primaries — no debates, no serious options — so this is what the ballot looked like when most of us went to vote this spring:

Did I vote for Biden? Of course I did! Phillips, a member of Congress from Minnesota, seemed like an OK fellow but even he seemed to admit that his campaign was largely a symbolic call for a challenger of real heft to come along to give Democratic voters a choice.

I voted for Biden to express my hope for party unity in November, not because I thought that he was the best hope for defeating Trump. I had and have no quarrel with the contention that he’s been a good president. My quarrel is with the contention that he will continue to be a good president until he is 86, four and a half years from now.

If we were to conduct a national Democratic primary this week pitting a group of prominent alternatives against Biden — Vice President Kamala Harris, say, along with Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro — he would not win a majority, even though most voters know little about these rising stars.

Conventional wisdom — that it’s destructive for an incumbent to have a primary challenge — is rooted in Democratic President Jimmy Carter’s loss to Republican challenge Ronald Reagan in 1980 after Carter had a bruising primary battle against Democratic Sen. Ted Kennedy.

But not only was Kennedy something of a sore loser — he refused to raise joined hands with Carter at the 1980 Democratic National Convention — but Carter also carried the burden of the 1979 energy crisis and the 1980 Iranian hostage crisis. The nation was in a surly mood, as Carter himself acknowledged in a speech:

It is a crisis of confidence. It is a crisis that strikes at the very heart and soul and spirit of our national will. We can see this crisis in the growing doubt about the meaning of our own lives and in the loss of a unity of purpose for our nation. The erosion of our confidence in the future is threatening to destroy the social and the political fabric of America.

That voters were itching for a change, and the fact that Reagan beat Carter by nearly 10 percentage points wasn’t Kennedy’s fault.

2. Vice President Kamala Harris is the only logical person to assume the top of the ticket if Biden steps down, and she’s a weak, unpopular politician.

I agree that Harris is the logical if not inevitable choice for a party that told us four years ago that she was the best person to be next in line for the presidency should anything happen to Biden. And that relies heavily on support from Black and female voters. But is she weak? Reuters reports:

A CNN poll released on July 2 found voters favor Trump over Biden by six percentage points, or 49% to 43%. Harris also trailed Trump, 47% to 45%, within the margin of error.

It also found independents back Harris 43%-40% over Trump, and moderate voters of both parties prefer her 51-39%.

A Reuters/Ipsos poll after last week's televised debate between Trump and a faltering Biden found Harris and Trump were nearly tied, with 42% supporting her and 43% backing him. …

Internal polling shared by the Biden campaign after the debate shows Harris with the same odds as Biden of beating Trump, with 45% of voters saying they would vote for her versus 48% for Trump.

And all this is before most voters have even gotten to know her. Impressions of Harris have mostly been frozen in amber since her lackluster showing in the 2020 primaries. She was handed the vexing challenge of managing the influx of refugees at the southern border but what sort of authority she actually had is unclear.

She was nimble and forceful in recent post-debate appearances, doing a far, far better job than Biden in gainsaying Trump’s lies and making the case for Biden’s reelection, and clearly has the rhetorical chops to clobber Trump in a debate.

And, to be blunt, she’s already at the top of the ticket in many minds. Republicans have been saying for months that a vote for Biden is a vote for a President Kamala Harris, given that Biden is too enfeebled to complete four more years in office. Many Democrats tended to dismiss that line of attack, but I’m among those who now concedes it’s likely true.

Biden is plainly in decline — his verbal stumbles are too frequent and troubling to be chalked up to a stammer; his train of thought doesn’t stay on the rails; he frequently looks and sounds befogged. He seems to be performing his duties OK now, but I very much doubt he’ll be up to the toughest, most important job in the world four years from now. Smart money says that, if reelected, Biden will die in office, resign or be ousted via the 25th Amendment:

Whenever the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive departments or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall immediately assume the powers and duties of the office as Acting President.

But it will be difficult for Harris to counter the Republican caricatures of her as a shrill, shallow mere diversity pick if she’s running as a loyal deputy to Biden and not her own person. Via Axios:

Trump on Thursday gave Harris a nickname — always a sign he takes an opponent seriously. "Laffin' Kamala Harris," he said on his Truth Social platform, referring to the right's spliced clips of her giddier moments. (A Trump campaign statement the day before had called her "Cackling Copilot Kamala Harris.")

Axios also presented the argument for Harris:

1. She immediately ensures the fall of Roe (abortion rights) is a main focus of the race.

2. With a younger nominee, Democrats would try to make the age/fitness issue the GOP's problem.

3. Harris — who was elected San Francisco district attorney, and was California attorney general — would allow Dems to frame the race as a former prosecutor vs. a convicted felon.

3. Questions about Biden’s age and ability to do the job are just being whipped up by media members who love drama and conflict.

Wrong. Biden’s acuity was a major concern of voters prior to debate-ageddon.

Seventy-three percent of Democrats told pollsters they felt Biden was too old to run for reelection. In February!

That was back when the Democratic Party was in full gaslight mode, dismissing all concerns about Biden’s fitness to continue in office as Republican disinformation.

Democratic voters didn’t have to wait for the broadcast pundits to weigh in after the debate to be greatly concerned about what they saw.

Polling guru Nate Silver offers “12 reasons why this is the biggest story in the world,” and notes, “if you can’t see why this is a huge story, I have to question what we in the business call your ‘news judgment.’”

He compares Biden to Shakespeares’s King Lear, “his judgment clouded by some combination of old age and pride” and adds “It’s actually very hard to persuade people. They tend to be more skeptical than gullible, especially when information comes from sources like the media that they aren’t inherently inclined to trust.”

4. The longer that Democrats quibble about Biden’s fitness, the less time the party will have to highlight and attack the frightening prospect of a return to the White House of the morally bankrupt, floridly ignorant, rapey, power-mad Donald Trump, who is himself clearly addled by age.

I have sympathy with but no patience for the exponents of whataboutism who are trying to distract the public from their central concerns about Biden by contrasting him with Trump, a man for whom my thesaurus does not contain sufficient pejoratives.

Granted: Trump is a looming menace to democracy itself. The Christian nationalists, white supremacists and rabid social conservatives who will comprise his inner circle should he be elected will threaten our institutions and our rights. “Project 2025” from the right-wing Heritage Foundation outlines such a horrific agenda for the next Trump administration that Trump has lately tried, implausibly, to distance himself from it.

But it is precisely because the stakes of this election are so high that Democrats must nominate and run the most capable advocate for the future, not the staunchest defender of the past.

Biden’s defenders whine that those of us urging him to step off are enabling Trump, but the opposite is true. Biden at the top of the Democratic ticket is high on MAGA’s wish list due to a public approval rating in the high 30s and the clamor over his competency.

ABC TV, screen grab

During his 22-minute interview with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos Friday, a strangely orange-faced Biden responded to most questions about the future with recitations about his past accomplishments and emphatic but unpersuasive declarations that he’s up for the job and the best person to defeat Trump.

Reader, he is not.

Vox’s Eric Levitz offered one of many harsh assessments of that interview, which was intended to reassure Democratic and independent voters:

Biden appeared too frail to defeat Donald Trump and too delusional to end his campaign. … (His) attempt to sell the idea that his debate performance was a total anomaly verged on self-parody. Stephanopoulos asked Biden whether he had gone back and watched the debate after it happened. The president replied with an odd uncertainty, saying, “I don’t think I did, no.”

He doesn’t think he did?

C’mon man!

The president denied the validity of all unfavorable poll results, including surveys showing that Trump expanded his national lead since the debate while Biden’s approval rating slid to an all-time low. …

Unwilling to reconsider his candidacy, Biden also proved averse to proving his mental fitness empirically, refusing to commit to submitting to cognitive and neurological tests and then sharing the results with the public. …

The Biden who spoke with ABC News Friday night was enfeebled, ineloquent, egotistical, and intransigent. He was a man who appeared both ready and willing to lead his party into the wilderness.

Jonathan Alter addressed Biden directly:

This is about protecting the country from a vile dictator, not your bruised ego. It’s about democracy, not you getting credit for some legitimate accomplishments. It’s about fixing infrastructure in the future, too, not acting as if you alone can fix it. …

I think you’re better than this kind of Trumpist selfishness, which was supposed to be your main campaign theme, but … you cannot run a selfish campaign against selfishness.

I wish George S. had asked whether you believed Harris could not also beat Trump. And he might have quoted you describing yourself five years ago as a “transitional figure” who was only running because you were the best candidate to beat Trump.

Except that you aren’t anymore. You’re way behind in polls you pretend you don’t read.

Trump spouts unhinged gibberish much of the time, it’s true. I’ve said before and will say again that Biden would clobber him in a civics test, a history test or a current events quiz. Might even beat him in a cognitive test, though isn’t a sad commentary on our political system that we’re debating the mental fitness of our aged, infirm presidential candidates?

There is still plenty of time to focus public attention on Trump and his many outrageous positions, claims and falsehoods. And the sooner the Democrats put Biden in the rear view mirror, the sooner the public — not the media, the public — will engage on that topic.

Hope that voters will unsee and forget what they saw on June 27 is simply not an option.

Meanwhile, we’re left with this self-centered argle-bargle from Biden when Stephanopoulos asked him how he’d feel if he lost and turned the country over to Trump:

I'll feel, as long as I gave it my all, and I did as good a job as I know I can do, that's what this is about. I'll feel, as long as I gave it my all, and I did as good a job* as I know I can do, that's what this is about.

*Yeah, I heard him say“I did the goodest job as I know I can do,” but let’s not quibble.

5. If the Democrats replace Biden on the ticket, the party will be riven with internal strife and appear to the voting public to be in disarray.

The party is already rent by bitter schisms and the public can plainly see the disarray. The voting public doesn’t care about that shit, and may well see it as a sign that the Democrats aren’t a pathetic, ovine cult in the thrall of a deeply flawed leader.

The voting public will be focused on the future and how the party and the various candidates intend to address the major issues that concern them.

I’m not worried either way about those of us in the “Coma Joe” coalition, so energized by circumstances that we will vote for Biden, if he’s the nominee, even if he’s in a perpetually vegetative state on Election Day. I’m worried about the occasional voters and the independent, swing voters who need to be inspired to get out and cast their ballot.

The threat of Trump’s return to power ought to be inspiration enough, true. But it won’t be. Biden 2024 is simply not an inspiring figure. “Oh, what the hell” is a terrible campaign slogan.

The party faithful and others will more easily unify behind a younger, dynamic candidate who can bring the fight to Trump.

6. If the Democrats replace Biden on the ticket, there won’t be enough time to mount an effective campaign against Republicans unified for Trump.

This is such a weak argument, it baffles me that serious people are making it. In this media environment, the 119 days between Tuesday and Election Day is an eternity. A fresher Democratic face will attract lots of attention — negative and positive, to be sure — and by the time voting begins every sentient American will be fully aware of the contrasts.

7. Only a tiny group of elected Democrats are telling Biden to step down. The vast majority are sticking with him.

Could be. But the vast majority of politicians are cowards, and my suspicion is that huge numbers of them — perhaps even a strong majority — are quietly, privately making the same arguments I’ve made here and waiting for the right moment to come out forcefully in a group.

I give a lot of credit to my Congressman, Mike Quigley, for being one of the first to call for Biden to step down. If Biden stays in and wins — certainly a possibility — Quigley and the other early “Joe must go!” electeds will pay a price in diminished power and influence in Washington.

Notes and comments from readers — lightly edited — along with my responses. All are in response to “What everybody now knows about Joe Biden” and “Biden shat the bed, so don’t patronize those of us now wetting it.”

Barron Hall — Dear God in heaven don't let the pantywaist, handkerchief wringing Democrats blow this election. They had one job — to defeat a clown of a supervillain that never should have been allowed to wander around loose after the January 6 insurrection, let alone be in any conversation for any elected position besides cell block laundry captain.

We had your back Democrats! We all wanted the same thing -- Trump removed from office with no chance of ever having to hear his lies again. But noooo, they had to stick their heads in the sand, and now they are dismayed that their butts are getting kicked. Trump isn’t the melanoma you wait to fall off, he is the cancer you irradiate until even the ashes are gone. Drag him through his own mud, dog walk him, put his business in the streets. Put an end to Trump now!

Mark K. — We have to stop the talks of replacing Biden. There is no one else. Trump is beating every other hypothetical Dem by even wider margins. And there is no tested mechanism for this. It will result in chaos and lawsuits and a certain defeat.

We need to close ranks against Trump, with Biden propped up “Weekend at Bernie's”- style if necessary as the figurehead. The single goal must be stopping Trump, and all election discussions should be laser focused on the existential threats he represents, not exposing the faults of our only chance to stop him.

Anyone still undecided or who turned off Biden after the debate will go for Trump over an unknown Democrat on name recognition alone. or will simply stay home

Joan Berman — Do you honestly think that loyal Democrats closing ranks around an obviously failing Biden and propping him up will do the trick? That’s an epic delusion. What about the many undecided voters who watched that debate? Where do you think their votes are going to go? Suddenly, many Democrats are looking as delusional as the MAGA people.

Marc Martinez — Finding a new candidate should have started four years ago, or at least before the primaries. In addition to favorables and familiarity, the primaries could have exposed the negatives that might defeat a candidate. Too late for that now. The Democrats have made their bed and now they have to lie in it. They need to sell the idea that their doddering fogey is fully supported by a highly effective and reliable cabinet and team of White House advisors that the country can count on.

Michael Gorman —The only Plan B for Democrats is Vice President Kamala Harris, who is (quite unfairly and with obvious racial and misogynistic undertones) polling as more unpopular than President Biden. On which planet does a Democratic party shove aside a Black woman who is the sitting VP? Who knows what the reality is of the other possible candidates and their liabilities and flaws that would be exposed by a ruthless MAGA attack machine?

Bob E. — Democrats who support an enfeebled, shuffling, stammering, incoherent Joe Biden continuing in the race should get ready for a shellacking in November on the order of Reagan-Mondale or Nixon-McGovern. His shuffling, his addled gibberish, and his deer-in-the-headlights gaping told everyone watching that debate, most especially the undecideds, that Biden is unfit to continue in office.

Jake H. — Do you think an obviously senile guy asking for four more years is the best way to beat Trump? Are you kidding? Democrats need to get their incredibly shrinking incompetent pathetic brains out of their giant ass.

This is their fault. I blame them for picking Harris four years ago, I blame them for backing Biden a second time, I blame them for failing to have any sort of positive vision, and I blame them for continuing to deny reality, even after we all saw it, to this day. One of Biden's recent emails began, "Humbly asking for $15" or whatever. I wrote back, "Humbly asking: drop the fuck out, you selfish bastard."

I have no more patience with this bullshit. We're so fucked. Harris is unlikeable, inauthentic and grating. She sucked in the debates, she sucked in every assignment the administration gave her and she excels at nothing so much as taking umbrage in a way that, even if it's real, seems fake.

The fact that anyone is concerned about "passing her over" is insane. Nobody is entitled to these jobs. The point is to win, and we're in an emergency. A bumpy road to the promised land strikes me as preferable to the superhighway off a cliff.

Zorn — Harris could be and might be a better candidate than you imagine. She didn’t do well in the 2016 primaries, but she did far, far better in debates than Biden did a week ago Thursday, and she showed herself in recent post-debate interviews to be fast on her feet.

Rick Schwartz — Biden is yet another member of the Silent Generation — along with Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Dianne Feinstein, Mitch McConnell et. al. — who is/was so convinced of their importance that they would risk the nation's welfare to stay in power. The morning after the debate I received more than 60 Biden campaign email appeals. No apologies, no explanations, no straight talk, just "we need money". Those I didn't report as spam, I responded "Withdraw Joe!"

Leon Greenberg — Give me a messy convention with public drama and an eventual nominee that the majority of the group agreed upon. What could be more American than that? Another thing to ponder, if Pres Biden stays in the race until the end and loses to the dictator-in-waiting, Biden's own selfishness will be blamed for the loss and will be his lasting legacy.

Wendy C. — Why should a Democratic candidate "do the right thing" by withdrawing from the race when the Republican candidate has far more reasons why he's not fit for the job? Yet no one, in the media or either party, is suggesting Trump withdraw.

Zorn — The Democrats should feel flattered that people think they are a thoughtful and reasonable enough party to consider jettisoning an unfit candidate. The reason so few voices have issued serious calls for Trump to resign is that it’s widely known there is no chance that Republicans will break ranks. They are besotted with him, willing to abandon just about every principle they once held dear. They’ve known for eight years that he’s an incompetent, narcissistic budding fascist, and they seem to love it.

Peter Zackrison —Let’s take the apologists at their word that Biden had a bad night. Suppose you are looking for a surgeon, you interview one who says “Well, I have good days and bad days”, I thank him/her and look elsewhere. In fact ANY applicant for a job that indicates they have “good days/ bad days” is likely to be turned down. Thus Biden should be rejected for another term.

Melinda A. K. — I look at the election less as a choice between flawed candidates but as a choice between their teams. Which man will surround himself with competent, effective people to do the business of running the country day to day?

Joanie Wimmer — I’m angry and feel betrayed at those who tried to keep Biden’s decline hidden. Are we no better than the Republicans? We complain about the cult of personality surrounding Trump. I thought we were better than that.

David Leitschuh —I am genuinely surprised at all of my liberal/left of center friends commenting here who are expressing anger that the mainstream media has somehow misled them and hidden Biden's cognitive decline. Dear people, it has been on clear display, and only people inside of an insular echo chamber have not witnessed it and shaken their heads in sadness. I did not take pleasure in Biden's cognitive decline — it is sad on a personal level, and scary in terms of his role as commander in chief. But I do take great pleasure in the dilemma that the Democratic Party now finds itself in with regard to Vice President Kamala Harris. Democrats have championed identity politics, and now even though there is almost universal agreement that Harris is utterly unqualified to be president and an even worse presidential candidate, it is going to be a very dicey scenario to not elevate the first black female sitting vice president to the top of the ticket if Biden bows out. A dilemma the Democrats have created all for themselves with their obsession on identity politics.As a conservative I am hoping that Biden remains in the race as I believe that is Trump's best path to victory.

Zorn — I challenge your assertion that there is almost universal agreement that Harris is unqualified. Compared to Trump? She was the elected district attorney in San Francisco, the California attorney general and a United State Senator. Trump was a reality TV star with a sketchy business record.

Garry Spelled Correctly — The entire Democratic Party has been infected with abject wimpiness for several decades. Especially the Senate Democrats, who even when they had a real majority, refused to rid themselves of that anti-democratic filibuster! If they had gotten rid of the filibuster years ago, there were a large number of bills that passed the House, but couldn't pass the Senate due to the Dems appalling cowardice in getting 60 votes due to that ancient atrocity. It's a simple choice, between Biden or an insane outright fascist who will declare himself dictator on Day One!

Zorn — I suspect that we’ll be awfully glad for the filibuster and those arcane, sclerotic Senate rules if Trump wins and the Republicans take the Senate.

Steven K. — The problem is that there are millions of undecided voters who see a simple choice between a cognitively vacant, dazed and confused nursing home prospect, and an agile, energized, invigorating firebrand. They aren’t wrong.

Zorn — Anyone who uses the word “agile” to describe Trump is wrong.

Laurence E Siegel — Eric, calm down! Of course Biden's people are defending him. It's how they got where they are and how they stay important. I don't blame them. I blame the American people who gave us Trump and gave us this dilemma. We now have a choice between an old guy losing his marbles and another old guy that never had any.

Zorn — I, in turn, blame the damn Electoral College.

Ya gotta see these tweets!

Here are some funny visual images I've come across recently on social media. Enjoy, then evaluate:

Poll wording question should refer to Beethoven’s 5th — can’t change it without erasing all results.

Vote for your favorite. I’ll share the winner in Thursday’s main edition.

Usage note: To me, “tweet” has become a generic term for a short post on social media. And I will continue to call the platform Twitter if only to spite Elon Musk:

On this issue and perhaps this issue alone, I am with U.S. Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett:

There’s still time to vote in the conventional Tweet of the Week poll!

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