A Clarification
By Since we are still experiencing aftershocks from the Great Biden Should Step Down Fight, I feel that I should make my position clear.
My objection was that we needed a plan. “Biden steps down and we win the election” is not a plan. I usually put it in terms of the underpants gnomes steps.
- Biden steps down (from the campaign or the presidency; both were suggested in the larger conversation).
- ??????
- Win the election.
Step 2 was always the sticking point. The way things happened has the surface appearance that the underpants gnomes may have been right, although we have not reached step 3 yet.
In the broader conversation, beyond LGM, a great many possibilities were offered for Step 2. The early suggestions skipped over the Vice President of the United States in favor of Johnny Unbeatable and thus had the stink of sexism and racism, although it may have been wishful thinking. An open convention was espoused by none other than Nancy Pelosi. After a while, some aspects of reality set in and Kamala Harris was recognized as the frontrunner.
To be honest, I didn’t read much of the LGM front page argument until I thought it might be time to add my viewpoint, and even then I continued to read bits and pieces rather than entire posts. I am not characterizing what other front pagers may have written, but rather my impression of the overall discussion.
Not only did many of the discussants slide easily over Step 2, but they became actively enraged when asked for details. That was scary to me, because I spent a fair bit of my career considering governmental actions and how to influence them. Nothing as big as having an incumbent President step down from candidacy for another term happens by chance. An open convention, given the time constraints, was a recipe for splitting the party, as evidenced by the plethora of candidates and approaches being proposed. Other proposals were, let’s be kind, fanciful.
The easy transition to Vice President Kamala Harris as the candidate could not have happened spontaneously. Someone made sure that there would be a flurry of quick endorsements. Someone had to shut down major Democratic players pushing an “open convention” and other nonsense. Someone had to make sure that Harris was ready and willing to take the reins. At some point, things would take off and become spontaneous. But someone put in an immense effort to prepare the ground for that takeoff.
That someone was Joe Biden. He was the only one in a position to do it.
My evidence for this is as good as others’ evidence that the transition was a spontaneous kumbiyah by the Democratic Party in response to getting the old man out. We won’t know what happened for some time, perhaps years. Part of carrying through a strategy like this is keeping quiet about it.
I am delighted to see Harris and Tim Walz as the candidates. I am delighted to watch the campaign pelt the Republicans with rotten eggs. I think we’re going to win. So let’s go ahead and do that.