Biden ushers in more uncertainty by stepping aside

It’s odd how things that have been widely predicted and even widely anticipated can nevertheless occur with an emotional thunderclap. I suppose death would qualify as an example. Joe Biden’s announcement on X earlier today that he would not be seeking reelection certainly does. 

The announcement had its curious aspects. For one thing, it came from his personal account, not the account of POTUS. Indeed, for a moment that made me wonder whether it was for real.

A glance at the internet assured me that it was. Most of the letter is political thru-text. The meat of the missive is this: “I believe it is in the best interest of my party and the country for me to stand down and to focus solely on fulfilling my duties as president for the remainder of my term.”

Timing is everything. It certainly would have been in the interests of his party and the country had he decided to stand down when his obvious cognitive incapacity became known. The kicker is that Biden’s incapacity has been known to honest observers for as long as he has been president, indeed from before he was president. I have made a hobby of pointing out Biden’s porous relation to the English language for years. 

What now? The Democratic convention is less than a month away. His letter thanks Kamala Harris but stops short of endorsing her (that came in a follow-up tweet just after: she was then backed by Bill and Hillary Clinton though not, curiously, Barack Obama). What about the 14 million people who voted for the Biden-Harris ticket in the primaries? One of the many things that Jack Smith was prosecuting Donald Trump for was attempting to disenfranchise voters in the 2020 election by questioning the election. 

In fact, Trump did not seek to disenfranchise voters, merely to call attention to irregularities in the election process. But here we have a party that really is preparing to disenfranchise voters, all in the name of holding on to power.  

House Speaker Mike Johnson has said repeatedly that any effort by the Democrats to slip in another candidate now would probably face legal challenges in some states. Biden was the clear and undisputed winner of the party’s primaries — and all those votes cannot simply be tossed out. 

It’s been an interesting week. A nutter tried to murder Trump at the rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. Biden returned to his home, apparently with Covid,  indisputably to huddle with his puppet masters to work out an exit strategy. What was he offered to walk the plank?  

The big question, of course, is who will the Dems manage to put up as his successor? Kamala? I doubt it, but passing over a certifiable person of color, especially a female, is going to be tricky. California governor Gavin Newsom? I doubt that, too. Gretchen Whitmer, the governor of Michigan is slightly more plausible, but does anyone outside of Michigan know who she is? Hillary Clinton? Certainly, she has been panting for the job. And then there is Michelle Obama. She has said she is not interested in the job, but people do sometimes say one thing and then do the opposite. 

The one certainty in this uncertain, topsy-turvy situation is that nothing is certain. That, and that we are going to need a lot of popcorn between now and November 5.