Fantasies about a chaos convention undermine the case for Biden stepping down
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There are three things about the Democratic presidential nominee discourse I still find frustrating. Like Paul, even if you think that Biden staying on remains the least bad option, I think it’s pure denial to claim that what happened Thursday was just an ordinary bad debate like Obama in 2012. Second, I remain perennially annoyed by people who say “the Democratic Party” or “the DNC” when they mean “Democratic primary voters” — essentially refusing to acknowledge that the weakness of American parties isn’t something that can be overcome by sheer force of will overnight — but let’s leave that to tomorrow.
But what I still don’t understand is why so many people urging Biden to step down immediately leap to wishcasting about a contested convention rather than acknowledging that Harris would (and should) almost certainly be the nominee. Passing her over would lead to serious legitimacy issues and leave tons of money on the table:
The main consideration would be financial. Only Harris could seamlessly use cash already contributed to the Biden-Harris 2024 campaign. Having another candidate use it would be a huge mess. Why hasn't this been in the discussion? It's $212 million!https://t.co/O7bEMtK5jH https://t.co/hRzwo9hgzb— David Dayen (@ddayen) June 29, 2024
What’s the case that Harris is such a weak nominee that all of the coordination and legitimacy problems of an open convention and party elites trying to impose a candidate on the party out of chaos would be better? It’s not polling. It’s certainly not because there’s an obvious alternative that could generate a consensus or is nationally tested. Nothing is going to happen at a convention that will provide meaningful evidence about how someone will perform as a national candidate. What we say on this blog doesn’t matter, but for people who might get the attention of Dem elites I would say that indulging in Aaron Sorkin plots in which the party tears itself up at a convention in the hope that a golden knight will emerge are a good way of convincing Biden and his inner circle that stepping down would be worse than staying on.
If the nominee isn’t Biden, it will be Harris. That’s still the discussion that should be taken place if there’s any chance of Biden stepping down.