The Five-Step Plan for Replacing Biden, Winning, and Saving America | Opinion

The people asking "Should President Biden withdraw or not?" are asking the wrong question.

Those who fear that a Biden dropout could lead to counterproductive chaos, an untested and little-known alternative, or an internecine Democratic Party meltdown are right. Those who hope that a new nominee could clarify voters' choice between a felon and a clean slate candidate while reinvigorating the Democratic base are also right.

The key word is could. Either outcome is possible.

So the right question is "How should President Biden withdraw?"

It does the Democrats and America no good to swap one set of problems, risks, and uncertainties for a different but equally bad set. The objective is to win. That means unifying the Democratic base and appealing to critical swing voters. It means introducing a new name to the country in a matter of months. It means selecting a candidate who must be able to campaign competently on a national stage immediately and who won't have a disastrous October surprise. All of this is difficult enough to pull off as it is. Your strategy better not be to simply fire the starting gun and hope that things will work out.

So again, before you tell me your answer to the question of whether the president needs to go to the bench, show me your game plan for winning.

Here is one possibility for the outline of such a plan. It is not the only potential answer. But it is the bare minimum outline of the kinds of considerations the president and the party should have firmly in mind before making any moves.

Step One: Appoint Barack Obama temporary chairman of the Democratic National Committee and replacement chairman of the Democratic National Convention. This might be the most important step. Obama is the only figure among Democrats with the credibility to unify the party from the start around a replacement process—and the party needs it. Democrats would truly believe that his only objective would be to select the candidate best able to defeat Trump. That level of trust is essential because of the elephant in the room: the very real prospect that Democrats would select someone other than Vice President Kamala Harris. No one but Obama could quell that blowback, or indeed the hurt feelings of any faction that doesn't get their preferred candidate.

Step Two: Obama announces that all Democrats must observe the political 11th Commandment for the remainder of 2024. Ronald Reagan's version was "Thou shalt not speak ill of another Republican." For Democrats, the race to succeed Biden must be a positive-case-only affair for each contender. The rule would have to be enforced, in public by party elders via harsh pushback, and in private with an edict that any Democratic consultants who created negative ads about fellow Democrats would be shut out from future business with the Democratic Party.

Step Three: Create mini-conventions. The ideal would be for each state to hold a nominating convention attended by state party members, who would vote on their selection (there is not enough time for a set of flash primaries, as some have suggested). The vote would be non-binding, but it would confer much greater legitimacy on the eventual national convention selection by demonstrating grassroots party support. It would mitigate the perception that a choice was merely a backroom deal from party elites. But since the calendar is an obstacle, a second option would be to hold regional nominating conventions, probably five of them for state party members from the Southwest, Pacific Coast, Midwest, Northeast, and Southeast. Candidates would speak, state delegations would vote, and a signal would be sent to national convention delegates. Does that sound messy? Absolutely. But that's a feature, not a bug, because...

Step Four: Bring the cameras. Jeffrey Katzenberg is one of the greatest producers in Hollywood history. He's essentially already producing the Biden campaign. So have him produce the runup to the convention. Five or 10 candidates vying to be the nominee, rushing around to mini conventions, hustling and angling and even stumbling, with the threat of the end of democracy or winning the most powerful position on Earth in the balance. Do you think there would be audience demand for the greatest pop-up reality TV show ever conceived? So, lean into the mess, and leverage the promotional bonanza. In addition to the usual media fare of debates, town halls, and interviews, bring cameras inside to film docu-dramas, reality shows, and social media videos. Embed influencers for a six-week wild ride. Suck up every ounce of media oxygen and solve your nominee's name recognition problem in one fell swoop.

Step Five: Use all the dollars. Biden would convert his campaign committee to a political action committee and run independent expenditure ads. It is not a problem, as some have suggested, that this entity could not coordinate with the campaign of the new nominee. Is there any doubt about the message when the opponent is a convicted felon who fomented an insurrection? Nor is it a problem that the Biden dollars wouldn't stretch as far with higher ad rates for independent entities. The new nominee would immediately be flush with his or her own campaign funds from the entire Democratic donor base (there's $100 million already waiting). Added together, the Democratic Party's total budget would overflow within weeks. Not to mention that while the nominee runs traditional ads, the Biden PAC can invest more in creative nontraditional media, resulting in an unprecedented and more effective 1-2 punch in the fight against Trump.

Are there different right answers? Of course. The point is that there are plans available. There are answers available. There are ways to come out of the next seven weeks with a unified Democratic Party, a windfall of free media coverage, a geyser of fundraising, and an unparalleled communications strategy that would put Democrats in the best possible position to win and save America.

And that's what they should do.

Matt Robison is a writer, podcast host, and former congressional staffer.

The views in this article are the writer's own.