The former president has always considered himself to be the ultimate disrupter. But this time, the disruption is on the other side.
Through the weekend, there were an awful lot of questions that were going back and forth from people in the presidentās tightest circle, and one of the questions that kept being asked was whetherĀ Joe BidenĀ was going to endorseĀ Kamala HarrisĀ or not. And the question didnāt revolve around whetherĀ heĀ wanted to or not, but whether people in her camp thought it would be better for her to fight for it, win it on her own, and not be seen as somebody who was tapped by President Biden and so, in her own way, have a fresh startĀ going into the campaign.
So the timing seems to be about as good as it could have been to end what has just been one of the craziest two or three weeks in American politics in quite some time.
Because it hasnāt happened a lot. If you are the incumbent, you are running for a second term unless you are beat or dead. Leaving for whatever reasons is very rare.
People saying that Biden should have dropped out two weeks ago have never, in their entire life, had to make a life-changing decision. Whatever the result, I personally applaud his ability to put aside his pride and his ego for the sake of a cause larger than himself.
The timing was excellent in my opinion. The RNC spent an entire week focused on the messaging against Biden during their convention. Now Bidenās gone, and theyāre not going to have another week of undivided attention from the press between now and the election.
Well played, from my perspective.
Iām not saying it isnāt well played. The DNC always does small little tactic shit like this well. Their issue has always been the longer strategy. That grand reveal. Whatever the Right has, they have played the same game for decades. Whatās saved us is their infighting once they get any sort of foothold. For the first time in our history, so far as I am aware, we must focus on the Presidency as they have gambled everything on securing it. Stop that and we stop them. Donāt stop them and weāll have a long and terrible fight on our hands.
That is unless some of their party is only playing ball and grow a pair when the proverbial shit meets mythical fan of shit flinging. I will say that weāve seen moments where some of the party isnāt comfortable with the way things have gone. Problem is, as fucking classics, they refuse to stand because they know theyāll be pushed out of the club. Better to lay with the herd than be displaced and replaced, possibly by a non-Right.
Cal comes to mindā¦ and thatās the only one that I can immediately think of.
Edit: looked it up: LBJ, Harry S Truman, Cal, Rutherford B. Hayes, James Buchanan, and James K. Polk. So yeah, really short list.
Everytime someone mentions Harry Truman, I have Linda from Bobās Burgers song that she apparently sings while braiding her daughterās hair come to mind:
And, again, disastrous every time. Landslide losses when you switch out the incumbent.