Washington — After what many deemed a disappointing performance by U.S. President Joe Biden in Thursday night’s debate against Republican presumptive nominee Donald Trump, Democrats are discussing whether their 81-year-old incumbent should be replaced at the top of the presidential ticket by someone younger.
The Biden campaign’s strategy “to get an early debate on the books in order to change the arc of the campaign failed,” said Jim Manley, a political strategist who has worked for several top-tier Democratic Party senators over the decades.
Biden needed to reassure loyalists, as well as try to persuade the small but critical number of independent voters in swing states, that he is still mentally and physically fit to lead the nation.
Speaking initially in a soft and hoarse voice, Biden came off as incoherent at times, appeared confused, lost his train of thought and verbally stumbled during his 90 minutes at the lectern opposite Trump, who was more articulate and less combative than usual, although the former president uttered many more untruthful declarations than Biden.
“The most salient detail of the evening was Biden’s tone of voice, which was faltering and not strong. It was his inability to come up with easy-to-follow coherent answers to questions, and he did that half the time, but half the time he didn’t, and in a number of cases he lost his train of thought,” Michael Kimmage, professor of history at The Catholic University of America in Washington, told VOA’s Ukrainian Service.
Biden’s campaign explained that the president had a cold. His performance suggested something more concerning as he stumbled over his words, corrected himself in mid-sentence and flubbed figures.
“There’s panic in the Democratic Party,” Maria Shriver, a prominent member of the Democratic Kennedy clan, said on social media, terming Biden’s performance “heartbreaking in many ways.”
Headlines in major U.S. newspapers on Friday also mentioned panic and alarm among Democrats. Leading web news sites, notable officials in the party and at the White House, along with top donors, began pondering whether Biden could continue to lead the ticket.
“JOE BIDEN MUST DROP OUT,” proclaimed a Friday headline for the first-ever editorial posted by Raw Story, which calls itself the largest independent, progressive news site.
The few prominent Democrats who had previously publicly expressed concern about Biden’s clinical suitability for a second term had been chastised as “bedwetters” for their excessive worrying.
Washington woke up Friday to many more bedwetters.
“The bedwetters and nervous Nellies are going to demand that he step aside — but as of right now I don’t see that happening,” Manley told VOA.
Biden, until Thursday night, had been on course to accept, without any remaining challengers, his party’s nomination at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago in August. That was cast in doubt after his poor performance in Atlanta on Thursday night during the debate hosted by CNN and carried live by some 20 other television networks in the United States.
Unless Biden voluntarily steps aside soon, there is virtually no chance of anyone successfully challenging him for the nomination at this stage.
The party faces a critical deadline on August 7, about two weeks before the traditional convention roll call vote. That is when the traditional bellwether Midwestern state of Ohio requires party candidates to be determined. It had been assumed Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris would again be at the top of the Democrat’s ticket.
Ohio has long favored incumbent presidents seeking another term, but Trump was victorious there in the last two elections.
It has been exactly a century since the Democrats held a convention that was truly an open contest, nominating James W. Davis as their presidential candidate after more than 100 ballots. Davis, a rather obscure former congressman, lost the general election to Republican incumbent Calvin Coolidge in a landslide.
The last time there was significant drama at a Democratic Party convention was in 1968 in Chicago, months after President Lyndon Johnson dropped his reelection bid.
Division in the party grew after one of the leading contenders, Robert Kennedy, was assassinated. Vice President Hubert Humphrey was nominated amid pandemonium inside and outside of the convention hall. Humphrey was defeated by Republican Richard Nixon in the general election.
Looking ahead to another possibly disruptive convention in Chicago, Democrats on Friday began speculating about who might step forward to try to replace Biden, if the president were to bow out. Besides Harris, among those on the short list are four state governors: California’s Gavin Newsom, Michigan’s Gretchen Whitmer, Kentucky’s Andy Beshear and North Carolina’s Roy Cooper.
All have been viewed as likely presidential primary contenders for the party in 2028.
Some Democrats are having none of it — at least not yet.
“Democrats are historically prone to panic, even though their presidential candidates normally fumble the first debate — Barack Obama in 2012 is a great example. The answer isn’t to replace Biden, but to take a very critical eye to what didn’t work about his debate prep,” veteran party strategist Max Burns told VOA.
“Biden is still the best messenger Democrats have for the message they are campaigning on, but there’s clearly work to be done. Their success in November will depend on their ability to honestly assess their weak spots and quickly course-correct,” added Burns, who runs Third Degrees Strategies, a strategic communications and consulting firm.
“I refuse to join the Democratic vultures on Biden’s shoulder after the debate,” Senator John Fetterman, a Democrat from Pennsylvania, posted on social media on Friday morning. “No one knows more than me that a rough debate is not the sum total of the person and their record.”
Fetterman, a survivor of a stroke which compromised his speech processing capabilities, struggled on the debate stage two years ago before defeating his Republican opponent in the general election.
Biden’s physician in February declared him fit for duty, despite being treated for multiple medical conditions, non-valvular atrial fibrillation, hyperlipidemia, gastroesophageal reflux, seasonal allergies and sensory peripheral neuropathy of both feet. Dr. Kevin O’Conner also wrote that the president’s stiff gait and obstructive sleep apnea remained stable.
As a senator in the late 1980s, Biden was treated for two brain aneurysms.
The president, during a midnight visit to a Waffle House restaurant in Atlanta following his face-off with the 78-year-old Trump, was asked by a reporter how he thought he performed during the debate in which each candidate peppered the other with caustic remarks.
“I think we did well,” Biden responded.
He appears to be a lone voice making that assessment.
“I know I’m not a young man,” said a somewhat rejuvenated Biden at a Friday afternoon rally in Raleigh, North Carolina. “I don’t debate as well as I used to” but “I know how to tell the truth. I know right from wrong. I know how to do this job. I know how to get things done.”
Biden coughed occasionally, still showing the effects of what campaign officials said was a cold that affected his debate performance the previous evening. His remarks were interrupted several times by pro-Palestinian demonstrators.
Trump “is literally a threat for everything America stands for” and is motivated by revenge and retribution,” added Biden. “Trump will destroy our democracy. I will defend it.”
Trump is to hold his first post-debate rally mid-afternoon Friday at a large farm and nursery in Chesapeake, Virginia.
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