I see the “Let’s replace Biden+Harris in 2024” discussions are picking up again.
Before you so eagerly throw the incumbent President and Vice President under the bus in hopes of chasing after a shiny new thing, consider the following:
If, for some reason Biden decides not to run, he’s not going to anoint a successor so they can just step into the general election in his place. He will announce he’s not running and then get out of the way. Whereupon there will be a knock down dragged out fight for the nomination. And it won’t be pretty.
You wanna see “Democrats in disarray”? Just wait until primary season when a dozen or more contenders jump into the race and begin to tear each other apart.
The money, time, effort and unity that could go into building up Biden-Harris for the general will be soaked up in the first quarter of 2024 in the early primaries as the Democrats battle it out.
And then, when a victor finally emerges – sometime in May or June or maybe even later – and limps, bloodied and battered into a bitter, divided convention, they’re going to have to spend most of their time mending fences, binding wounds, and making concessions to the also-rans to ensure their support.
Wait. There’s more.
When our beat-up nominee straggles into the general election season, they won’t be anything close to a “shiny new thing” anymore. They’ll be damaged goods, dragging the baggage and accusations hung around their neck by their primary opponents that will happily be used against them by the Republican nominee (who will likely have been chosen months before and has been doing a number on them since then).
And what are they going to run on? Their record as a Senator or Congressperson or Governor? They sure can’t run on Biden’s successful record because, guess what? That’s BIDEN’s record, not theirs. And Biden isn’t running because he’s too old or something.
Nah … They have to run on their own record. And no one who would run in Biden’s place has a record that comes anywhere close to his. So good luck with that.
And let’s not even talk about the power of incumbency.
No, let’s do talk about the power of incumbency.
That awesome power would vanish if Biden steps aside. Not being the incumbent, the new candidate can’t use it – the incumbent can’t confer it on someone else – and Biden’s ability to use it would be deeply diminished as soon as he announced he’s not running and becomes a lame duck.
Bottom line: Replacing Biden means squandering valuable time and money, destroying our unity, and losing all the advantages of incumbency.
Replacing Biden would go down as one of the all-time dumbest and short-sighted moves a party has made in recent memory.
Think the long game, people. I am. And that’s why I’m riding with Biden+Harris all the way.