Actor George Clooney is more politically astute than New Mexico’s congressional delegation. Clooney says President Joe Biden must end his campaign for reelection or Donald Trump will win the White House in November.
Democratic Sen. Michael Bennet of Colorado has more guts than the five members of the New Mexico delegation combined. Bennet described Biden as an unelectable incumbent. “Donald Trump is on track, I think, to win this election, and maybe win it by a landslide, and take with him the Senate and the House,” Bennet said on CNN.
Unlike the New Mexico Democrats, Richard Nixon understood some presidents must retreat in the heat of summer. Nearly half a century ago, on Aug. 6, 1974, then-President Nixon feigned resiliency by telling his Cabinet he would not resign because of the Watergate scandal. Nixon quit two days later, sparing himself from impeachment in the House of Representatives and conviction in the Senate.
Like Nixon, Biden is positioned to be removed from office. The only difference with Biden is voters would do the firing.
If this year’s presidential election were the twisted plot of a novel by John Irving, no one would believe it. We had to witness Biden’s plodding and muddled thinking to understand how a candidate as weak as convicted felon Trump could become the front-runner.
For public consumption, most of Biden’s fellow Democrats have sidestepped the unfolding disaster of his reelection campaign.
They include the two senators and three House members who represent New Mexico in Congress. All five claim to be leaders while ducking for cover or vouching for Biden’s electability. If they see him as a candidate capable of regaining lost skills, they have watched a different horror show than the rest of us.
Bennet and a handful of House members have started a movement to replace Biden as the Democratic candidate. The opportune moment for Biden’s withdrawal is fast approaching.
The Republican National Convention begins Monday. Democrats in Congress and statehouses should be as public as Bennet was in urging Biden to end his campaign, preferably while Republicans are unloading their malevolence toward the president on national television.
Biden’s exit would reframe the campaign of addled incumbent versus con man. Trump wouldn’t have an opponent to attack until Democrats nominated a candidate at their convention, which doesn’t begin until Aug. 19. Public interest and the electricity of a presidential campaign would shift to the Democrats.
Their attention would be on nominating a candidate who could defeat Trump rather than apologizing for Biden, not an easy task no matter how partisan the defender.
Democrats have a deep bench. My favorites for the presidency, as I wrote in an earlier column, are Gov. Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan and Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey. Either would match up favorably against Trump in the Electoral College.
Neither Vice President Kamala Harris nor California Gov. Gavin Newsom would be as formidable in the swing states of Pennsylvania, Georgia, Virginia, Michigan and Wisconsin. But Newsom or Harris would be an upgrade over Biden.
The worst case for Democrats and the country is Biden remaining on the ballot. It takes 270 electoral votes to win the presidency. Trump would have a good shot at taking 290 to 340 in a matchup with Biden.
In Trump’s victory over Hillary Clinton in 2016, he carried the battleground states of Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Florida and Ohio. Democrat Barack Obama won all five of those states in both of his presidential campaigns.
Florida and Ohio no longer are swing states. They went for Trump in the last two elections.
Biden in 2020 flipped Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Georgia and Arizona on his way to winning 306 electoral votes. He is incapable of repeating that performance. Almost as bad for the Democrats, Biden leading the ticket hurts down-ballot candidates.
Biden was a 32-year-old freshman in the U.S. Senate when Nixon resigned in humiliation. Now 81, Biden wouldn’t face that sort of ridicule if he withdrew as a presidential candidate. Democrats would call him a statesman who set aside his ego for a cause bigger than himself.
Biden must be pushed if he is to do what’s right. For a fresh candidate to emerge, the New Mexico delegation and other high-tier Democratic politicians need what Bennet has — a backbone.
Ringside Seat is an opinion column about people, politics and news. Contact Milan Simonich at msimonich@sfnewmexican.com or 505-986-3080.
