Democrats have plenty of problems, but they’re working through them. The party solved the Joe Biden problem Sunday when he announced he would decline the party’s nomination for president. They haven’t gotten any closer to solving the election problem, and they know it — Biden basically booby-trapped the gift box, and the assassination attempt on Donald Trump put a bow on it.
But hey, at least they might have solved the Kamala Harris problem. Here’s how it all plays out.
The deadly July 13 assassination attempt on Trump broke the dam on public, popular, and even celebrity support for a man the Democrats, Hollywood, and the media had spent eight years demonizing.
First, the booby trap. Remember back when Biden put Harris in charge of immigration? Her aides were so angry that they leaked on him to the press. The political realities of the Democratic Party’s base, they cried, barred any politician from any actually workable border solutions. It was political sabotage, they moaned.
Worse: Kamala was totally unwilling to do the work or even read the briefs her staff had compiled. (They leaked this part, too.)
Biden’s goal, they suggested, was to take out an insurance policy against the vice president to keep her ambitions against him in check. In all fairness to the Biden camp, Harris’ lack of political resonance (she came in last in the 2016 Democrat primary) was balanced by her vicious ambitions (she did not hesitate on the primary trail to call Joe a racist).
When you look at the party swinging behind Kamala Harris despite her problems, it’s vital to understand the realities they had confronted. First, Joe Biden was losing to Donald Trump even before the disastrous debate that broke the dam open and Democrats began to criticize their nominee-apparent publicly. That was because of his own record — a record Harris owns and must defend.
Next, who else was going to take the job? The deadly July 13 assassination attempt on Trump broke the dam on public, popular, and even celebrity support for a man the Democrats, Hollywood, and the media had spent eight years demonizing. Less than four months from a presidential election, that’s going to change the calculus for top Democrats thinking about jumping into this race.
If you’re the governor of California, for example, are you going to jump from a semi-floating ship to one that’s clearly on fire and in distress, or will you wait for the next chance? This reality served to shore up Harris. Democrats knew they needed someone — anyone — else, but few wanted the job.
And then there’s the money. We’ve discussed this before. Kamala gets the money. That doesn’t mean the Republican Party won’t challenge it. The GOP absolutely will. But in the end, it’s just about certain that Kamala will get it because it’s going to satisfy donor intent to support her. And that money might help in the House and Senate, where many Democrats are more hopeful.
The first task was the hardest: giving Biden the boot. The job was helped by his declining health, which is reportedly so bad that his brother Frank talked about just enjoying “whatever time we have left.”
By the way: His brother’s candidness was so on point. The Biden machine publicly called Frank an alcoholic to deny it. You can’t make it up about these people.
The second task was avoiding all-out Democrat civil war after Biden was gone. That was almost as hard as booting Biden but was made easier by the assassination attempt whittling down the list of those willing to run on a short runway in an increasingly difficult race.
The third task is going to be winning with a candidate who is closely tied to all of Biden’s failings, particularly stained on one of the issues Americans are angriest about (immigration), and guilty of both propping the president up and openly lying about his obviously horrible mental state. Democrats were stuck with Harris, having picked the vice president to satisfy identity politics. They’d spent the past four years hiding the Hillary-esque politician and were going to have to give her chance someday. Might as well be on a race few Democrats are bullish on winning, right?
And then maybe, in a way, they’ll have solved that last, lingering problem of what to do about Harris. Either she wins, and there’s no problem left — a possibility Republicans ought to take seriously. Or she loses, and the decks are cleared for the next round of Democrat leaders. That’s one way to earn a win on a bad day.
Blaze News: Joe Biden announces he is ending his presidential campaign, will finish term
New York Times: Biden staff found out about their boss’ decision on X
Blaze News: Republicans call for Biden to resign if he cannot finish his campaign
Beltway Brief: Reality check: You can’t just switch candidates
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