Biden deserved better treatment from Democratic Party

Count me among the minority in the Democratic Party — at least according to national polls — who didn’t want President Joe Biden forced to drop his re-election bid.

But Biden dutifully followed the script crafted by other party leaders, donors and the mainstream media Sunday, withdrawing from the race after a drawn-out, bitter battle. He endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris, which was exactly the right thing to do, but may not be what all the doomsayers wanted.

Tumultuous back-to-back weekends that began with a registered Republican attempting to assassinate former President Donald Trump, upended a contest between the two oldest presidential candidates in U.S. history. Republicans were united and Democrats in disarray, at least for the moment. But the GOP became unglued about its rival changing candidates, sputtering that it was somehow illegal and threatening to sue!

Let’s dissect what’s happened, how it could impact the race, and mix in some history for context. Biden’s departure isn’t likely to paint Wyoming a lighter or deeper shade of red, since the state gave Trump his two largest margins of victory in 2016 and 2020. But there are factors that could impact some down-ballot races.

I talked to Andrew Garner, a University of Wyoming political science professor, shortly after Biden’s announcement. He said even major political events like the first debate and the attempt on Trump’s life didn’t shift poll numbers as much as many expected. What happens after a new Democratic nominee is chosen is anyone’s guess.

The reason, he explained, is a combination of party polarization and party identification. Only about 5% of Democrats and Republicans are now willing to vote for the other party’s presidential candidate. In 1980, by contrast, 20% of Democrats voted for Ronald Reagan, he said.

“It’s not that people like their party, or support their party, they just hate the other side,” Garner said. “That hatred, that disgust, that fear of the other side is what drives them consistently to vote for their own party, regardless of what happens.”

The situation is why the outcome in swing states is so important. Biden won the popular vote by nearly 7 million votes in 2020 and carried the election by 74 Electoral College votes. But Arizona, Georgia and Wisconsin were all decided by .7% or less. A total of just 44,000 votes for Biden in those three states determined the outcome of the election. Without them Trump and Biden would have secured an Electoral College tie.

Biden had a national 2% lead over Trump in a NPR/PBS/Marist Poll a week ago. But when major Democratic donors saw Trump pulling away in the majority of battleground state polls, the president was on the ropes.

The question now is how will Democrats choose Biden’s replacement. Immediately after he endorsed Harris’ candidacy, many party leaders closed ranks behind her, including Bill and Hillary Clinton. As of late Sunday, nearly 160 Democratic governors and members of Congress announced their support.

That bodes well for Harris, but the nominee will be chosen by Democratic National Convention delegates. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez (D-NY), who backs the vice president, warned some “party elites” wanted both Biden and Harris off the ticket.

Garner compared the challenges Harris will face to the campaign of former Vice President Al Gore, the party’s 2000 standard-bearer who narrowly lost the Electoral College to George W. Bush.

While many voters know about Harris from serving as Biden’s VP, Garner said, it’s not the same as an incumbent president seeking re-election. He added if another candidate is selected when Democrats meet next month, “it could demoralize or decrease enthusiasm for people who really want her.”

I think not coalescing behind the nation’s first Black, first Asian American and first woman vice president would be political self-sabotage for Democrats. I really hope they’re smarter than that.

The repeal of Roe v. Wade galvanized millions to vote for congressional Democrats in 2022, helping take over the U.S. Senate and stopping a predicted “red wave” in the U.S. House. With the GOP ticket led by the man who orchestrated the assault on reproductive rights by appointing three so-called “pro-life” Supreme Court justices, Harris has been handed what could be a winning issue in swing states.

With two Wyoming abortion bans passed by the Legislature to be ultimately decided by the state’s highest court, the issue could bring more pro-choice voters to the polls to back like-minded Democratic and traditional GOP Wyoming Caucus candidates over extreme right opponents.

Some Republicans at their national convention last week declared divine intervention saved Trump from the bullet that grazed his ear at a Pennsylvania rally. They blatantly ignored the same cognitive decline in their hero that they disparaged about his former opponent. Yes, Biden is 81 years old; he stutters, occasionally misidentifies people and was clearly ill when he debated Trump.

But unlike Trump’s bizarre, endless acceptance speech, Biden has never rhapsodized about a fictional cannibal, “the late great Hannibal Lecter,” nor promised to round up more than 10 million immigrants and deport them. Biden’s rallies never went off the rails with insane stories about sharks and the dangers of electric batteries, both of which apparently scare the bejeezus out of Trump.

I’d love to see the national media examine the new oldest presidential candidate’s mental acuity with the intensity they spent grilling Biden about his debate mistakes. It’s unfair and unethical to give Trump a pass on his off-the-rails blather just because his party doesn’t care he’s unhinged.

And more fact-checking is needed. CNN later reported Trump made more than 30 false claims at the debate and 20-plus at the convention, but his lies received scant attention.

Democrats reacted to the June debate as if Biden must be immediately jettisoned. Has everyone forgotten the panic within the party after President Barack Obama’s disappointing showing in his initial 2012 debate with Mitt Romney?

An ill-prepared Obama took Romney for granted, got smacked down and for the first time fell behind in polls. Fortunately there was no cry to “dump Obama,” and he won the next two debates and a second term.

Biden deserved the same courtesy and respect after four years in office building a record his party should be proud to run on, especially fixing Trump’s colossal economic failures, tax giveaways to the rich at the expense of the middle-class, and catastrophic handling of the worst health crisis in a century. 

Instead, Biden was pilloried by party leaders and media giants like the New York Times and Washington Post and cable TV networks of all political stripes. Combined, they effectively inflicted more damage to the president than the Trump campaign did. The same politicians he campaigned for wouldn’t take no for an answer when Biden fought back and reminded them he’s the only person to defeat Trump, a demagogue more dangerous to democracy than ever because he wants revenge against his political enemies.

Could Biden have done it again? We’ll never know. I didn’t ask Garner that question, but he volunteered that too many people are emphatically declaring what will happen. “I’m not sure anybody knows where this is going,” he said. “We’re in unchartered waters.”

If Harris replaces Biden as the nominee, I hope for the desired surge of support by suddenly enthusiastic Democrats and independents to defeat Trump. Will it be enough to win? For me, it’s way too early to predict.

But I’m curious how the Democratic National Convention decides to treat Biden. Some who acted like he’s a doddering old fool leading them to disaster will probably fawn over his legacy and try to mask the damage they did to it. I understand their motives, but it won’t make me any less sick about their tactics.