It’s been two weeks since the first presidential debate, where President Biden looked and sounded old and out of sorts. I absolutely believe he had a bad night. Donald Trump had a bad night too, but that was overshadowed by the past two weeks of hysterical meltdowns by the media and by some (but not all) Democrats and political commentators. From a strategic perspective, President Biden’s reelection campaign should have held emergency meetings, sent out talking points and made sure that high profile surrogates were all visible and acting in lockstep. I think the Biden campaign did some of that, but it wasn’t enough to stop what has become a two-week tornado of bullsh-t.
What has really bothered me throughout this ordeal is that it all boils down to two fundamental things: “we’re worried that Biden is too old/he might die” and “we don’t want Kamala Harris to be president.” Those two “concerns” are connected, because from where I sit, concerns about Biden’s age are already baked into his support. People are voting for the Biden/Harris ticket knowing that President Biden is old as hell, but that Kamala Harris is younger and capable if she needs to take over. In all of these conversations about “Joe Biden must step aside because he’s old,” why are all of these people acting like Vice President Harris doesn’t exist, or that everyone agrees she should be passed over, or that what they’re suggesting isn’t some logistical nightmare which would see Donald Trump crowning himself emperor of the Confederacy of Trumplandia? I bring this up because George Clooney has some thoughts, and he wrote down those thoughts in a NYT op-ed:
I’m a lifelong Democrat; I make no apologies for that. I’m proud of what my party represents and what it stands for. As part of my participation in the democratic process and in support of my chosen candidate, I have led some of the biggest fund-raisers in my party’s history…. Last month I co-hosted the single largest fund-raiser supporting any Democratic candidate ever, for President Biden’s re-election. I say all of this only to express how much I believe in this process and how profound I think this moment is.
I love Joe Biden. As a senator. As a vice president and as president. I consider him a friend, and I believe in him. Believe in his character. Believe in his morals. In the last four years, he’s won many of the battles he’s faced. But the one battle he cannot win is the fight against time. None of us can. It’s devastating to say it, but the Joe Biden I was with three weeks ago at the fund-raiser was not the Joe “big F-ing deal” Biden of 2010. He wasn’t even the Joe Biden of 2020. He was the same man we all witnessed at the debate.
Was he tired? Yes. A cold? Maybe. But our party leaders need to stop telling us that 51 million people didn’t see what we just saw. We’re all so terrified by the prospect of a second Trump term that we’ve opted to ignore every warning sign. The George Stephanopoulos interview only reinforced what we saw the week before. As Democrats, we collectively hold our breath or turn down the volume whenever we see the president, whom we respect, walk off Air Force One or walk back to a mic to answer an unscripted question.
Is it fair to point these things out? It has to be. This is about age. Nothing more. But also nothing that can be reversed. We are not going to win in November with this president. On top of that, we won’t win the House, and we’re going to lose the Senate. This isn’t only my opinion; this is the opinion of every senator and Congress member and governor who I’ve spoken with in private. Every single one, irrespective of what he or she is saying publicly.
…It is disingenuous, at best, to argue that Democrats have already spoken with their vote and therefore the nomination is settled and done, when we just received new and upsetting information. We all think Republicans should abandon their nominee now that he’s been convicted of 34 felonies. That’s new and upsetting information as well. Top Democrats — Chuck Schumer, Hakeem Jeffries, Nancy Pelosi — and senators, representatives and other candidates who face losing in November need to ask this president to voluntarily step aside.
All of the scary stories that we’re being told about what would happen next are simply not true. In all likelihood, the money in the Biden-Harris coffers could go to help elect the presidential ticket and other Democrats. The new nominee wouldn’t be left off ballots in Ohio. We Democrats have a very exciting bench. We don’t anoint leaders or fall sway to a cult of personality; we vote for a president. We can easily foresee a group of several strong Democrats stepping forward to stand and tell us why they’re best qualified to lead this country and take on some of the deeply concerning trends we’re seeing from the revenge tour that Donald Trump calls a presidential campaign.
Let’s hear from Wes Moore and Kamala Harris and Gretchen Whitmer and Gavin Newsom and Andy Beshear and J.B. Pritzker and others. Let’s agree that the candidates not attack one another but, in the short time we have, focus on what will make this country soar. Then we could go into the Democratic convention next month and figure it out.
Would it be messy? Yes. Democracy is messy. But would it enliven our party and wake up voters who, long before the June debate, had already checked out? It sure would. The short ramp to Election Day would be a benefit for us, not a danger. It would give us the chance to showcase the future without so much opposition research and negative campaigning that comes with these ridiculously long and expensive election seasons. This can be an exciting time for democracy, as we’ve just seen with the 200 or so French candidates who stepped aside and put their personal ambitions on hold to save their democracy from the far right.
Joe Biden is a hero; he saved democracy in 2020. We need him to do it again in 2024.
George Clooney can f–k all the way off. Refer to Vice President Harris by her title, George. She earned it. 81.2 million Americans voted for the Biden/Harris ticket in 2020, and millions of Democrats have already cast their ballots in the 2024 primaries. President Joe Biden is the Democratic nominee and the sitting president and this coordinated Democratic bedwetting is unseemly. Especially since Trump has basically been sitting in his soiled diaper in Mar-a-Lago since the debate as every Republican supplicates themselves to their orange fascist god. Be for real.
The Biden camp clapped back:
Biden is fighting back on Clooney.
From a source familiar with event planning: “The President stayed for over 3 hours, while Clooney took a photo quickly and left.”
— Annie Karni (@anniekarni) July 10, 2024
I thought this was a good summary:
Let me be real clear: this same,
High-level coordination to push Biden out will then target Kamala Harris. What the Dems are doing now is dumb. They are spending more time on internal drama as opposed to focusing on Donald Trump. This is political malpractice.— rolandsmartin (@rolandsmartin) July 10, 2024
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