The following is presented as part of The Columbian’s Opinion content, which offers a point of view in order to provoke thought and debate of civic issues. Opinions represent the viewpoint of the author. Unsigned editorials represent the consensus opinion of The Columbian’s editorial board, which operates independently of the news department.
‘I think if he is our nominee, I think we lose,” soon-to-be Sen. Adam Schiff said during a fundraiser last week, according to a recording of the event. “And we may very, very well lose the Senate and lose our chance to take back the House.”
This was last Saturday, according to The New York Times, before former President Donald Trump survived an assassination attempt, before the picture of him, his face bloodied, waving his fist and vowing to fight with the American flag fluttering in the background.
Is anyone saying that to President Joe Biden’s face? Or more important, is he even asking the question?
Losing candidates live in a bubble. They have to, to get up and do what they do every day. Biden made that clear in his interview with Lester Holt. Asked about who he consults about whether to stay in the race, “Me. I’ve been doing this a long time.” And then he added, irrelevantly, “Fourteen million people voted for me to be the nominee of the Democratic Party, OK?” he said. “I listen to them.”
He ran unopposed, at a time when Americans had never really seen the Biden who appeared on the debate stage and stumbles through interviews. On Sunday, Slate reported, he fumbled his words and lost his place over 10 times in reading a six-minute speech from a teleprompter.
Biden is not asking anyone but himself whether he should step aside. In a Zoom call with Democratic members of Congress last week, obtained by The Washington Post, he pushed back against concerns that he was not getting enough information to accurately assess his own situation, citing nonexistent polls showing him ahead by four points and no damage from the debate. “The polling data we’re seeing nationally and on the swing states has been essentially where it was before,” Biden said. “You noticed the last three polls, nationally, they had me up four points. And I mean, I don’t have much faith in the polls at all, either way, because they’re so hard to read anymore.” There are no polls since June with Biden up by four percentage points.
And the polls are about to get much worse. Ronald Reagan’s approval ratings went up 11 points after he was shot. The tone of the Republican convention changed after the shooting, to be less fiery and partisan, and this will only help Trump with independents and undecided voters. Candidates almost always get a “convention bump.” The timing could not be worse for Democrats.
The conventional wisdom is that the movement to convince Biden to step aside is fizzling in the wake of the assassination attempt. Biden is doubling down, asking not whether he should stay in the race but how he can win it. The Democratic National Committee is talking about moving up the nomination process in advance of the convention in an effort to enforce unity by fiat. It won’t work. –Those around him are clearly still focused on how he can best fight to the finish and not whether he should. Speaking truth to power is never easy. Trying to get the man up for fighting every day is different than telling a candidate what he needs to hear. Biden doesn’t trust polls, giving him a ready excuse to dismiss the bad news that is sure to come.
“He is not getting the honest truth,” one House Democrat told The Washington Post. He needs it.
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