The Tactical Brilliance In President Biden’s Announcement

You just can’t please some people. You give them a hot fudge sundae, and they want chopped macadamia nuts on top instead of cashews. And as the initial glow of the Harris announcement starts to wear off, you’re starting to see it rear it’s ugly head.

Over the last day or so I’ve heard some street interviewees, as well as some should know better pundits starting to grumble. What they’re grumbling is something akin to, Why didn’t Biden do this three months ago? Just look at the enthusiasm and fundraising! If Biden had done this three months ago, Harris would be up by 30 points right now!

What unutterable poppycock. I’m down with casual voters who don’t really tune in to politics until after Labor Day, but people who shove their overstuffed pompous faces in front of cameras and microphones every day should know better.

Look, this whole rebellion about Biden’s electability came down to questions about his mental fitness to serve after his disastrous debate performance. The White House and campaign tried putting him out in front of microphones and cameras more, and while he was better scripted, he still made glaring errors in unscripted interviews, and the internal war grew and raged.

Three months ago, the only question on the campaign and in the party was in Biden’s electability. And the only discussions taking place in the campaign and the party were about how to fine tune Biden’s campaign and messaging to get his approval ratings out of the toilet, and get his poll numbers back within the margin of error against Traitor Tot.

If the naysayers had started calling, either privately or publicly for Biden to drop out of the race, she would have gotten caught up in a literal sh*tstorm. Biden’s loyal base, especially the African American community would be outraged at the thought of jettisoning Biden, dug their heels in and made a fuss. And Kamala Harris would have recoiled from the possibility of replacing Biden on the ticket. After, she is, and always has been a loyal wingman. And the animosity that premature move would have generated would likely have made it more difficult to convince Biden supporters with their heels dug in three months later, when the proper time came.

Instead the Democratic party did what a real political party should. It had a serious, possibly existential problem suddenly appear. They brought it out into the light. And they looked at it from all sides, discussed it openly and sincerely, and when the evidence picked up, even President Biden had to admit the obvious, and do the selfless and patriotic thing. And the immediate and universal unity coming from that was the closest you’re ever going to get to the 2020 Democratic field emptying out after Biden blew the doors off in South Carolina.

But here’s the tactical political gold ring that President biden gifted to the Democratic party with his decision. The GOP has spent three solid years gearing their entire election strategy to rip the aging dotard Joe Biden. Let’s just say that three months ago the Democrats held a protracted and bloody battle to remove Biden from the ticket and replace him with Harris. What would have been the practical effect? It would have given the GOP a precious three month window to begin retooling their campaign against Harris instead of Biden, and firing up their oppo research against Harris and her new running mate.

And instead Biden, whether strategically or by practical necessity, gave the GOP a lousy 107 days to figure this sh*t out and come up with a new attack plan. And they’re totally incapable of that. When the sh*t hit the fan, it took the Democrats about 26 days to work through it. And because they worked through it together, the transition was almost amazingly seamless.

Today’s GOP is the MAGA Cult of Trump. And in a cult, it doesn’t even do any good for underlings or mid level staffers and strategists to bother to try to come up with contingency plans, because all decisions must come directly from Glorious Bleater, and right now His Lowness seems incapable of even changing his socks until you can plant beans in them.

This is going to be a nightmare for the GOP. GOP incumbents in vulnerable districts and states are going to try to tiptoe around the Trump-Vance problem, but they still have to pass the MAGA loyalty test, and their Democratic opponents will hold their feet over the Trumpster Fire every chance they get. And while the Democrats will be well funded with a motivated and energized grassroots base, GOP candidates and incumbents are going to have to live on a shoestring budget, with no grassroots organizations at all, and in some cases non functional state parties.

Biden has done everything he could perfectly, as you’d expect from a guy savvy and tough enough to survive 50+ years in a bare knuckle game like politics. You always knew that Joe would leave on his own terms, as he did in 2016, and fortunately his own terms are to gift the Democratic party with a better than even shot at winning an election they were trailing in. Thank you, Mr. President!

I thank you for the privilege of your time.