For a long while, conventional wisdom held that President Biden, at nearly 82, should run for another term because nominating Kamala D. Harris is a riskier bet against former president Donald Trump. But that difference in approval ratings has grown narrower and narrower, and they intersect. The vice president is, at least by a small margin, more popular and the safer bet.
As of this writing, FiveThirtyEight’s aggregation of polls puts Biden’s approval rating at 37.5 percent. Harris’s is 39.4 percent.
The latest national CNN poll finds Trump leading Biden 49 percent to 43 percent. The same poll finds that, in a hypothetical matchup between Trump and Harris, Trump leads by a narrower margin — 47 percent to 45 percent. That’s not a lot better, but at least it’s within the margin of error.
CNN also finds Harris running a bit better than Biden among “women (50 percent of female voters back Harris over Trump vs. 44 percent for Biden against Trump) and independents (43 percent for Harris vs. 34 percent for Biden).”
Democratic Rep. James E. Clyburn (S.C.) and former congressman Tim Ryan of Ohio have already indicated they would support nominating Harris.
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Sure, Harris has her own flaws, but at 59 years old, no one thinks she’s too old to perform the duties of the presidency or unable to handle a rigorous campaign schedule. On a debate stage, she’ll likely make her own stumbles, but she won’t mumble, offer half-sentences or claim, as Biden egregiously did last week, “I’m the only president this century that doesn’t have any — this — this decade — doesn’t have any troops dying anywhere in the world.”
A Harris nomination instantly makes the age question go away, and Democrats can then fairly ask whether the 78-year-old Republican, with his own history of crazy statements, is in any mental or physical shape to handle the duties of the presidency. (Trump would turn 80 in June 2026.)
Nominating Harris would also offer Democrats a chance to stop being the party of the status quo. No, Harris would not be able to separate herself from Biden’s record on inflation, the border, wars overseas, etc. But she would be able to say, “I love Joe, but when I’m president, we’re going to do things a little differently. Instead of A, B and C, we’re going to do X, Y and Z.” The alternative is to offer Americans four more years of that guy with the approval rating under 38 percent.
Following Biden’s disastrous performance at the debate, White House aides said he was temporarily impeded by a cold. Horsepucky. If he had a cold, why did he go to a Waffle House afterward and shake hands with all the patrons? If that was just an off night, why hasn’t Biden held a televised news conference? His first lengthy, on-camera sit-down interview will come Friday — more than a week later! — with ABC News’s George Stephanopoulos.
We all know why Biden doesn’t do lengthy press conferences: It’s because he can’t. What we saw on Thursday night is now par for the course for him.
I say this as no fan of Harris’s politics; as a president, she would be a progressive Democrat moving policies in the opposite direction of what I generally prefer. But what we saw from Biden last week — and his general minimal appearances since then — affirm that we have an administration full of Edith Wilsons. Biden is not mentally or physically capable of doing the job anymore. Harris is. By that fact alone, she should be taking the oath of office as soon as possible.
A braver Democratic Party would recognize the undeniable with Biden, nominate Harris and have her select some normal, bland, pleasant Democrat such as Sen. Michael Bennet (Colo.) or Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro as her running mate. Is that a surefire formula for beating Trump in November? No. But Democrats are all out of good options. Nominating Harris is the least-bad option.
Source link : https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/07/02/kamala-harris-biden-democrats-president-2024/
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Publish date : 2024-07-02 21:27:51
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