Following poll numbers that began plummeting even before Joe Biden's cognitively calamitous debate with former President Donald Trump, defecting Democrat politicos, media acolytes, and deep-pocket financial supporters are now pressuring the incumbent president to stand aside to make way for an alternate 2024 contender.
However, since Joe has already gained enough delegates to win his party's nomination, only he can determine whether to oblige their urgent withdrawal pleas.
More than a dozen lawmakers from his own party have publicly called for him to step aside in favor of another candidate as key elected Democrat leaders and strategists have grown increasingly alarmed that Biden's presence on the ticket could transform some blue states into contested battlegrounds.
The reliably anti-Trump Wall Street Journal editorial board stated that Biden's halting, stumbling debate performance showed "all too clearly that he isn't up to serving four more years in office" and that "for the good of the country, more even than their party, Democrats have some hard thinking to do about whether they need to replace him at the top of their ticket."
The uberleft Washington Post editorial board suggested a concession speech impersonating Joe, stating: "My season of service is nearing its close. But it is the natural course of things — as evident as the progression from spring to summer, from fall to winter. This is why I have decided to withdraw from the campaign for president of the United States."
Noting that Biden had "struggled to articulate policy specifics, statistics and rebuttals, often stumbling or misspeaking," even the excruciatingly liberal New York Times editorial board asked him to drop out of the race.
In a separate editorial, the board wrote: "[T]he greatest public service Mr. Biden can now perform is to announce that he will not continue to run for re-election. As it stands, the president is engaged in a reckless gamble."
As reported in the Times, that's a gamble that several prominent former pro-Biden super political action committee donors aren't willing to take, stating that they will freeze about $90 million in previously pledged campaign contributions if Biden doesn't drop out.
Whereas many influential members of his party see little hope of any clear path for Joe to salvage slim chances to win another White House term, others in his innermost circle remain committed to having him stay in the race.
Included are immediate Biden family members first lady Jill Biden, broadly regarded as the most persuasive figure in advocating that her husband seeks a second term; Joe's sister, Valerie "Val" Biden Owens, who has managed his political campaigns dating back to his first run for a New Castle County Council seat in Delaware in 1970: and son Hunter Biden, whose daily conversations with his dad routinely include offering political advice.
Outside the Biden family, Obama White House and Biden campaign veteran Anita Dunn heads Joe's all-important messaging operation. Dunn, a founding partner of high-powered Washington public relations firm SKDK, is married to Bob Bauer, the president's personal attorney for more than three decades and former White House counsel in the Obama administration.
Steve Ricchetti, a Clinton administration veteran who served as one of Joe's chiefs of staff (along with influential advisers Ron Klain and Bruce Reed), serves as his longtime conduit to Capitol Hill and the business community.
Ricchetti reportedly has been talking with House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y.; Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer: and major campaign donors.
White House chief of staff Jeff Zients has collaborated with Steve Ricchetti in working the phones to manage debate damage assessment and outreach to help ensure important Democrats – including Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer – remain loyal to his boss.
According to The Wall Street Journal, should Joe have an alter ego, it very well could be Mike Donilon, a longtime political adviser who is heavily involved in all of the president's major speeches.
Meanwhile, whereas Biden has said he would step aside only if the "Lord Almighty" asks him, some leading Democrat choir voices are singing discordant notes.
According to Axios, a defecting group of veterans "almost all" of which "are one step away from former Presidents Barack Obama or Bill Clinton" are "plotting hourly to get him to withdraw quickly."
Adding credence, CNN reported Obama has spoken with former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., over their "concerns" about Biden's candidacy.
In addition, CNN's Manu Raju reported in a post on X last Friday:
"Jeffries says he met with Biden privately last night
'That meeting occurred yesterday evening. In my conversation with President Biden, I directly expressed the full breadth of insight, heartfelt perspectives and conclusions about the path forward that the Caucus has shared in our recent time together.'
There are indications that support for Joe is also cooling in his important Congressional Black Caucus base, with CBC member Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman, D-N.J., ducking the question.
"I want him to do what he thinks is best for him and for our country," she said, according to the Journal.
So, according to Democrats, what's really best for the country?
According to a recent Washington Post-ABC News-Ipsos poll, 56% of Democrats say Biden should end his candidacy, compared with 42% who say he should continue.
Whether Joe will put best interests of the country above those of self, honor the wishes of his own party majority over influences of family persuasion, or even heed the advice of the Lord Almighty above political handlers' promises of a historic legacy surpassing FDR is presently anyone's guess.
Personally, I'd call the betting odds a coin flip.
Larry Bell is an endowed professor of spac architecture at the University of Houston where he founded the Sasakawa International Center for Space Architecture and the graduate space architecture program. His latest of 12 books is "Architectures Beyond Boxes and Boundaries: My Life By Design" (2022). Read Larry Bell's Reports — More Here.
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