President Joe Biden’s debate performance was deeply unsettling. Democrats nevertheless need to calm down, take a deep breath and figure out what matters. Biden is the same man he was before the debacle: solid on policy but short on style.
The president has never been a slick debater and a lifelong stutter has burdened him with a halting speaking style that makes him prone to repeating sentences and phrases. Age has also taken its toll — as Biden himself admits. But there is ample evidence that he has been doing the heavy lifting day in and day out in one of the toughest jobs in the world and logging campaign miles and events at an impressive rate.
Americans have a serious choice ahead of them. Will they be swayed by a charlatan carnival barker hawking lies? Or will they look beyond to the man who speaks truth and facts, albeit in a whisper?
Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, who twice supported Bernie Sanders for president, told me politics has become far too celebrity-centric, and he’s right: “We want someone who’s an entertainer. But at the end of the day, all I care about in a president is that they’re trying to make an economy that I can thrive in, that they’re protecting my rights, and, if we disagree, we can have a conversation.”
Could another Democrat step in to replace Biden? Yes, it’s possible. But the reality is that the process for switching candidates at this late date — the convention is nine weeks away — is excruciating and filled with logistical landmines. A fight among top contenders that stretches over the summer could be a far bigger catastrophe than one bad debate.
Any of the contenders, including California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, would face the most daunting of tasks: uniting a badly fractured party, going up against the best-known figure in Republican politics and managing what only Biden has actually pulled off — victory against Trump.
To the extent that Biden’s debate performance can be seen as an indication of his ongoing ability to withstand and excel at the rigors of his office, there should be searching, honest conversations about his capabilities going forward. Coming events should bring clarity because the race only gets more intense from here.
Even after the convention, after the nomination, there is a fallback plan in the event of what the DNC might call an “emergency.” In that case, Democratic Party Chairman Jaime Harrison, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, as head of the Democratic Governors Association, would make the pick. That would avoid the chaos of an open convention but would leave even less time to campaign against a rival who has shown he will stoop as low as necessary to win.
All that should matter deeply to Democrats, non-MAGA Republicans (yes, they still exist) and anyone who cringes at the notion of a country under the thumb of this petty, vengeful man who talks openly of retribution and has the potential to reshape this country in his own image.
There are no easy decisions ahead and lots of hard conversations. But before Democrats abandon Biden, they must consider that a replacement — no matter how talented — will not have the trust and relationships that Biden has built over decades. Those things are not transferable and they matter.
Patricia Lopez is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering politics and policy.
