It's gone too far

The news of the debate was not Trump saying crazy, untrue things. It was Biden. 

Between Trump’s lies and Biden’s weak performance, it was not even close. 

The words are from Susan Glasser, former writer at major newspapers, coauthor of two best-selling works of nonfiction and now a weekly columnist at The New Yorker. She's a serious thinker and better yet a non-alarmist. Both attributes set her apart from the same chattering heads who appear on the same networks and rotationally occupy the selfsame chattering panels.

And when a thoughtful, no-knee-jerking commentator such as one of Glasser's strengths begins dropping weighty suggestions of the president's benign weaknesses as more nation-threatening than his opponent's malignant pathologies — more threatening only in terms of upping Trump's numbers; not Biden as any sort of threat himself — you've witnessed Democratic politics' derailment and then ascent into stratospheric chaos, plunging now onto ground of uncontrollable instability.

Perhaps that's better reframed as an intraparty irrepressible conflict, to be resolved in a civil war's hyperpaced offensive. Here the aggressors achieve victory only by leaping from one madness into the next: a yet-to-be-risk-calculated but possible reversal of fortune. Triumph is paradoxically gained, that is, by giving up the game, surrendering to chaos and enlisting what suddenly appears to be another inevitability.

Until tormented last night by Glasser's potentially M.A.D. piece, I was in agreement (here and here) with former UBS chairman Robert Wolf, who summarized the inflamed situation with lawyerly precision: "He had a poor performance, but a 90-minute debate doesn’t offset 3 ½ years of his presidency." 

There's no Romance in politics except among the hopelessly ideological. All others are pragmatists, and this one has a lifetime membership in the Society for the Pragmatic Heartlessness of Reality. Ergo, seeing how party anarchy has set in with the spectre of worsening upheavals, Plan B eases into virtual undeniability. It's jump-time, pull the ripcord and parachute to getting on with it behind a verifiably more promising replacement.

(Rather, with him or her, any but the guy at top, middle. I've nothing against Rep. Ro Khanna. I offer only this one, Who's on First debate shutdown. He was cochair of Bernie Sanders' 2020 presidential campaign. If you think the Rs have fun smearing Biden as a "radical leftist," they'd happily elevate Khanna to Satan himself in Leon Trotsky's clothing — and millions of now-undecideds would believe it.)

The retrieval of internal political stability is calling for a regicide moment. At this rapidly closing stage of electioneering, merely a few more days of intense bickering and factional warfare — each group nevertheless wanting to jump in the same general direction — would amount to a squandering of time that Democrats simply cannot afford. 

Yet any presidential campaign starting from scratch after more than three years of a presumed renomination and much less than five months to go also seems a road to unimaginable troubles. A sitting president and the once-for-sure nominee cannot just step aside, retire to bed and awake to a replacement candidate fully staffed, nationally ground-organized and backed by party unity — that now being Democrats' holiest of grails. 

Before the party teeters into what could be chaos-squared, I'd submit this one request: Ask or beg if necessary Barack Obama to step up as elder statesman and make clear whoever his choice may be. (It could be Joe Biden.)

Whoever it is, party unity will then be Democrats' one indispensability. And Obama's leadership of the crusade would be an excellent re-beginning.

Comments

[DSH]

None of the aforementioned can take Trump down. The media knows it, even the "liberal" media. They all want a second Trump presidency--then they can all sit around and pretend to wring their hands in despair at the loss of the things they weren't willing to fight for, while they sell more soap. I'm glad I have no children.

[Uncle Billy]

Biden may be playing rope-a-dope...

[GWN]

What I chiefly hate about the left-leaning media in this country is that they lack the courage of their convictions. Rather than engaging in a contest to see which of them can drop the biggest load in their diaper, they all ought to be screaming at the top of their lungs that Biden was drugged by Trump operatives. They need to attack. Never defend. Who cares whether it's true or not? Nobody wants truth anymore.

[Halster]

It’s hard to believe these are the same Democrats that were praising Biden’s fiery State of the Union Address just three months ago. Maybe these weak-kneed idiots begging for defeat should watch the 1984 debate between Reagan and Mondale. Reagan came across as confused and tired, much like Biden. He lost that debate by nearly 20 points and dropped to only a 7 point lead in national polls. He still came back to win by 525 electoral votes, 49 states and 58.8% of the popular vote, so it seems one disastrous debate isn’t the end of the world after all. I don’t know how you prepare for a “debate” against a nonstop barrage of lies but it sure wasn’t with the numbered talking points Biden showed up with. Get a debate prep team that knows what they’re doing and forget about taking the high road.

[PM]

To reader-contributor: Moments ago I received an email from a long-time donor saying the "Make a Donation" button was on the fritz. Said he was getting this message: "Cannot POST /webapps/shoppingcart/fallback." So far his alert is unique. Still I need to ask — have you had this problem? If so was it temporary? Continuing? Much appreciation for any heads-up. —PM

[Anne J]

Gavin Newsom, no. He's fine as my governor but I couldn't see him as president of the whole blessed country.

Rho Khanna is a hard pass. I don't even know who the guy in the upper right corner is. The rest look viable for 2028.