A Kamala Harris-Gretchen Whitmer ticket could help Democrats avoid a landslide

The Spectator ^ | 07/10/2024 | Ben Domenech

[SeekAndFind]

The mood among Washington Democrats is grim. Understanding that Joe Biden is headed toward defeat, they’ve also come to the conclusion that there’s nothing they can do about it — that unless Biden willingly steps aside, their side is doomed to failure. Three senators — including Jon Tester and Sherrod Brown, fighting to hold on in competitive elections this fall — said this out loud to their colleagues behind closed doors. The third, Michael Bennet of Colorado, was willing to say it publicly on CNN, even invoking the prospect of a “landslide” that results in…

The mood among Washington Democrats is grim. Understanding that Joe Biden is headed toward defeat, they’ve also come to the conclusion that there’s nothing they can do about it — that unless Biden willingly steps aside, their side is doomed to failure. Three senators — including Jon Tester and Sherrod Brown, fighting to hold on in competitive elections this fall — said this out loud to their colleagues behind closed doors. The third, Michael Bennet of Colorado, was willing to say it publicly on CNN, even invoking the prospect of a “landslide” that results in Republicans winning the Senate and the House. Even Nancy Pelosi seemed skeptical of Biden’s prospects on Morning Joe, where she said, “It’s up to the president to decide if he is going to run. We’re all encouraging him to make that decision. Because time is running short.”

The Biden White House’s frame of this situation is that it is “Washington elites” who are pushing him out. In fact, the opposite is true — as numerous commentators have pointed out, the DC elites are late to come to this conclusion. It’s just that, prior to the debate, virtually none of the state activists or leaders were willing to raise the voice of concern lest they be labeled a traitor to the cause of “defending democracy” or somesuch. As one Democratic state party chair admitted to NBC: “I wish I was more brave.”

Now, after nearly two weeks of this story dominating all news, even with Democrat officials publicly voicing opposition, even with the heights of media like the New York Times calling for Biden to step aside, Washington Democrats think they’re trapped with Joe: destined to lose, with no way out of their predicament.

That’s the vibes talking, because this just isn’t the case. It’s also totally at odds with the lesson they and the media spent teaching their voting base for the past several years — that this is a win-at-all-costs election about whether democracy survives or not. If you really believe that fanciful argument, you should be ready to pull out all the stops, including forcing Joe Biden out, in order to win.

Nate Silver writes at length about this in his latest newsletter, and he makes three key points that shouldn’t escape notice. First, Joe Biden was already tracking toward losing this election before the debate debacle. Gaslighting from the likes of Stephen Colbert aside, it’s one of the reasons Biden’s team demanded such an early debate, to achieve a reset. Second, that nothing the Biden White House has done since the debate to make attempts to clean things up has worked, not with the media, not with donors and not with voters. And third, there is no legal requirement for delegates to the Democratic convention to cast their votes for Biden — in fact, they can invoke the “conscience clause” of their party bylaws to oppose Biden. This doesn’t mean that they will do it, or even need to — the point is, they can conceivably make that threat. If Biden wants to go nuclear, they can, too.

There’s another point I’d add to this, which should be obvious to any observer. We’re only beginning to see the fallout from this debate and the following rolling disaster show up in the polling data in swing states across the country. (And not even swing states — the lead headline in Politico today is that Biden could be in trouble in New York.) Those numbers are going to keep rolling in, and they’re likely to get worse — not just because the Biden campaign has no functional strategy for getting back on their feet, but because we’ll almost assuredly see a convention bounce from the RNC next week on top of it.

So what’s the alternative for Democrats? The fantastical suggestions of a convention blitz of competition between candidates isn’t realistic. There is only one alternative: pushing Biden aside for Kamala Harris. Beyond avoiding a host of legal and fundraising complications, she now polls better than Biden against Donald Trump. And for all the concerns about her foibles, delegates and party leaders can make the case that whether Biden really wanted to be a transitional president or not, he was going to be if he achieved re-election. No one thought that he would make it another four years, so cut out the farce and vote for the person who was going to be president by the end of the term anyway.

Democrats were already running behind in 2024 before Joe fell apart. The aim at this point should be to erase the concerns of a landslide election and to protect their hold on the Senate. Achieving this with Harris is at this point much more realistic than achieving it with Biden.

There’s one more step to consider. It wasn’t lost on many of Biden’s allies that perhaps his worst answer to any question on debate night was to a softball question about the issue that has dominated and motivated Democratic wins over the past two years — abortion. As someone who was no rabid pro-abortion advocate until it became necessary for his political career, Joe’s just not comfortable talking about the issue.

Donald Trump wants to make the 2024 election about the economy and immigration, and all his finalists for his vice presidential pick look to be men. If Democrats want to change the issue set for this election to abortion and guns and diversity, if they want to hold on to suburban women and compete in the blue wall states again, then a Kamala Harris-Gretchen Whitmer ticket could achieve just that. It might not be enough to beat Trump, but it could avoid the landslide that Democrats fear today.

[LibertyOh]

Potential replacements know the chance this election is nil, and that a loser will be done. They all are looking at the comeback in 28. Biden will be their nominee unless Mrs. Bill wants to try and take the hit since she’s already done.

[knarf]

There's no way two wimmin are gonn'a get elected.

America has no problem with Trump testosterone and it'll show up in the woke school programs too.

ENOUGH of this shit.

[Governor Dinwiddie]

I don't know how Biden can sleep at night. I'm expecting some Democrat operative to sneak to his beside and hold a pillow over his face, Godfather-style.

From a purely structural point of view, if Biden were to die, it would be the Democrat's easiest out. As it stands now, if Biden withdraws, no change is allowed on the ballot in several crucial states including Wisconsin. If he dies, then it's a do-over.

[Secret Agent Man]

Harris Whitmer 2024: b1tches on wheels tour

[nickcarraway]

Yes, those delegates could go nuclear and vote for somebody else besides Biden. But does that make the Democrats fate in November better or worse? I think it’s likely to make it much worse. Nothing like having a civil war in a party two months before the election

[TheWriterTX]

Cute baby.

[SaveFerris]

Over at The Spectator, Ben Domenech must have gotten into Hunter Biden’s cocaine stash.

Dude is whacked.

[FenwickBabbitt]

Whitmer, like Cuomo, deliberately put COVID positive people into nursing homes infecting and needlessly killing off a lot of old people. Her husband also famously broke the lockdown rules that she put in place.

[SaveFerris]

Oh, he’s married to Meghan McCain.....now it all makes sense

[lee martell]

AVOID a landslide? Is there more than one meaning for the adverb ‘To avoid’? I didn’t think so!

[Owen]

The wording of the Democrat delegates requirement.

Pledge Delegates:

Delegates elected to the national convention pledged to a presidential candidate shall in all good conscience reflect the sentiments of those who elected them.

It is not conceivable that they would backstab their voters unless something like Biden has a stroke situation unfolded. These delegates in good conscience cannot decide to refuse to vote as their voters demanded because there are doubts Biden can win.

And there are almost 4000 of these with only 19xx required to win. You simply won’t get that many deciding their conscience demands betrayal of their voters.

It’s going to be Biden. He has decided and is demanding support.

Think back to 2016. The GOP nominated Trump despite the Swamp filth hating him. They had no choice. The delegate counts were there.

[redheadedshannon]

Yes Trump/Gabbard!!! Would love to see it! 😍😉

[vivenne]

Yes. Two bitchy women running the country—no thank you.

[bitt]

[cuz1961]

yup

more evidence of the duplicitous nature of the uniparty.

[bitt]

NOBODY is going to vote for two women -

especially THESE two women....

[existentially_kuffer]

What a combo, yuk!

[Luke21]

Men would run like hell.

[Luke21]

Whitmer looks like her idol, Nurse Ratched.

[TigersEye]

No way Whitmer would play second fiddle to the cackler.

Trying to think of any Dem who would. Mad Maxine? Mazie Horono?

It would have to be someone of their caliber of insentient stupidity but what would be the point of such a ticket?