A great act of statesmanship
By 
In 2013, a prominent Democrat of considerable accomplishment was given a test of whether she could put the interests of the country ahead of her own desires, and she failed. She failed for reasons that were easily explicable given her history, but she failed nonetheless, with disastrous consequences. Joe Biden faced a similar test, and I can again understand why he was upset about the efforts to get him to stand down, even though I (like most Democrats) thought that they were sadly justified. And he passed the test. I think he deserves immense credit for making this very difficult decision to drop out and to endorse his vice president, who has done well under a close microscope under the last month.
I think it’s a moot point for reasons I’ll get to in a second, but I join Chief Justice Campos’s opinion about an open convention in full. I will add that contested primaries generally require candidates to focus on issues that divide the party rather than those that unite it. In the context of an full primary, this is a price worth paying. In a “primary” that would last 2 weeks at most much closer to the election, the last thing the party needs is to raise the salience of issues like Gaza or climate change without any of the benefits (democratic participation, learning meaningful information about the candidates) of a primary process. And one way you can tell how stupid an ad hoc primary campaign would be is how remarkably dopey the actual proposals are:
Turning the nomination into a talent show featuring…Rick Warren? Tim McGraw? Condi Rice? Do their chairs automatically turn around and they press a button when they like a candidate? Jesus Christ this is somehow even dumber in the execution than it was in the abstract https://t.co/oDxD78RP5R— Scott Lemieux (@LemieuxLGM) July 20, 2024
The good news is that I think this analysis is right — it makes no sense for someone like Whitmer or Shapiro to challenge Harris, and it’s even more true given Biden’s endorsement:
One reason I doubt there’ll be a “mini primary” now is that I don’t think the other major candidates would run. There’s not enough time for them to win support. The process would be too unclear. Party is too exhausted. Harris looks too strong. (People shouldn’t underestimate how…— Ezra Klein (@ezraklein) July 20, 2024
Harris is Biden’s choice, and as Paul says she’s the candidate with by far the best claim on democratic legitimacy. Let’s give Biden all the credit in the world for making a very difficult choice in order to advance the cause of American democracy and get behind the vice president. Let’s go.
Seems like a good ad to me
pic.twitter.com/mGjwfpkJM7— Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias) July 20, 2024
This deserves a separate post, but I think it’s also worth noting now that Biden was a very good president who did a huge service to the country by beating Trump in 2020.
…Obama:
Joe Biden has been one of America’s most consequential presidents, as well as a dear friend and partner to me. Today, we’ve also been reminded – again – that he’s a patriot of the highest order.
Here’s my full statement: https://t.co/Bs2ZumFXxe— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) July 21, 2024