Biden Out

“I love it when a plan comes together.“ – Col. John “Hannibal” Smith.

Someone’s plan came together on Sunday in a big way. In a one page letter, Joe Biden said he would “stand down,” removing himself from consideration for the Democratic nomination for President. He thanked his Vice President for being an “extraordinary partner” but did not endorse Kamala Harris as his successor in the letter. He did endorse her a hour later in a post on X, and claimed to have donated to her through the Biden/Harris ActBlue portal—which is now the Harris portal.

It was a very nice letter in both tone and form. Joe may even have had parts of it read to him before the Autopen signed it, not that it matters.

So, whose plan came together? It certainly wasn’t Team Biden’s. As recently as two days prior the campaign was still insisting that Biden would not pull out, and actively talking about the Biden/Harris fundraisers scheduled for the upcoming week.

Will those fundraisers still be held? It’s unclear, but likely they will, because Harris will need the money. Joe’s schedule for next week has been cleared as the staff struggles to adjust to their new reality. Can the campaign staff pivot immediately to “just Harris” and carry on as before? Possibly. The change in the ActBlue portal indicates they’ll make the attempt. How many of them will stay on, given Harris’ well-known difficulties in keeping staff? And how motivated will this staff be, given the abysmal polling and other forces arrayed against their new candidate? These are just some of the many questions we have at this point.

A few of these questions should be answered by Biden himself. His letter promised an address to the Nation “later this week.” It’s likely he’ll formally release his delegates to “vote their conscience” at the Democratic Convention, or perhaps earlier if the DNC decides to go forward with the virtual nomination in early August they’ve been planning.

As for the two big questions we all have? Namely, whose plan was this, and who’ll be the Democratic nominee?

At this point, I don’t think the Democrats themselves have any idea about their nominee. VP Harris would seem to be the obvious choice, but her polling numbers are as bad as Joe’s. Last week, Kamala was polling a distant fifth behind Arizona’s Senator Mark Kelly and Democratic Governors Wes Moore (Maryland), Josh Shapiro (Pennsylvania) and Gretchen Whitmer (Michigan). Kamala’s iron-clad support from the ladies of The View and the Congressional Black Caucus notwithstanding, it’s doubtful the donor class and Dem elites will support Kamala. After all, if you’re going to literally throw a coup against the sitting President to oust him from the race, why would you back an almost-certain loser to replace him?

Gavin Newsom doesn’t see it that way. Sunday evening he endorsed Kamala on X, calling her “Tough. Fearless. Tenacious.” He didn’t even wait six hours before he started kissing up for that VP slot.

Then there are the two elephants in the room: Hillary and Big Mike. Saturday, The Hill dropped a truly cringe-worthy article basically endorsing Hillary as the Dem’s only hope. Interesting timing of the article aside, she’s been suspiciously visible these past few months. I’ve been saying for a while now that she’s been actively running behind the scenes (and I’ve been ‘poo-poo’d’ for it) but there’s a Dem faction who truly believe Hillary is their only hope to beat Trump. The signs and portents have been there, if you bothered to notice them. Hillary still hasn’t gotten over 2016, she’s younger than both Joe and The Donald, and she (or the body double) has apparently had some of the same juice they gave Joe before the State of the Union speech. You know, the really, really good stuff.

And Big Mike? She’s said a zillion times she doesn’t want it, but once more, I’m going to say that she may not have a choice. She may be “voluntold” to suck it up so her husband can have his fourth term. Granted, she has no real qualifications, but she’s a “Black woman” and an Obama—which is more than enough for most Democrats.

Can I say now that I want to see a chain-of-custody karyotype on every Presidential nominee? Just out of scientific curiosity, no other reason.

If we knew whose plan this was, we’d know more about what to expect in the next few weeks. But, we don’t. We know some of the people who’ve been pushing for it—the Future Forward donors who threatened to pull $90 million from the PAC, Pelosi and Obama, certainly; Schumer, Schiff and several Democrats in both House and Senate who’ve called on him to step aside—but precisely who finalized the deal with Dr. Jill and Hunter? We may never know for certain.

As for the deal, we know that Dr. Jill was asking for $2 billion for Joe’s Presidential Library, prosecutorial immunity for the family and a $100 million book deal for her. We’ll have to see just how much of that she actually gets. And Hunter? I fully expect the undated, signed Presidential pardon has already been handled. He won’t risk Joe having an “accident” now that there’s no more influence to be peddled.

Biden’s status since the June 27th debate has had more whiplash-inducing back and forth than the finals at Wimbledon. Now, the Democrats have to scramble to make an 11th hour nomination. What they should have started years ago—choosing Biden’s replacement—has to be done in weeks. The pain they’re going to experience is entirely of their own making, and will be complicated by the fact that too many people have lost all faith in what the party and media tell them. The debate opened a lot of eyes, most of whom will see the plan to replace Joe for exactly what it is—a desperate attempt to hang onto power by replacing a lousy candidate at the last minute.

Whatever happens these next few days, it’s going to be interesting to watch it play out.

We’re going to need popcorn. Lots and lots of popcorn. That’s my plan, and it’s coming together rather nicely.