Democrats are beginning to realize that there really isn’t a viable alternative to a Joe Biden candidacy in 2024.
To drive that point home, Amie Parnes and Hanna Trudo of The Hill have written an excellent analysis of the Democrat’s conundrum for 2024. Not only is the Democratic bench aging and out of touch — much like the president — but it’s made up of political lightweights and losers.
No one will ever mistake Vice President Kamala Harris for presidential material. Her ratings are actually lower than Biden’s. And two other prominent Democrats who have run before — Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) — are even less in step with the electorate than Biden.
There’s no doubt that Biden wants to run. And, given the alternatives, it appears that the job is his for the taking.
But if he doesn’t run, do Democrats really want to nominate Kamala Harris to replace him?
She has been staying mostly in Washington after a series of internal office and personnel changes rankled her first year. Harris would almost certainly run for the Democratic nomination if Biden decided to stop at one term, and her stature and personal story — she is the first Black, the first woman and the first Asian American to hold her position — would make her a formidable candidate.
Yet her missteps in office and her struggles as a presidential candidate in 2020 have raised questions about her political strength.
That means she’s likely to have challengers for the nomination if Biden steps away.
“I’m not so sure whether any Dems will defer to the VP if President Biden decides not to run,” said Manley. “If he decides not to run, I don’t think she has a lock on it.”
Democrats believe it matters to most voters that she’s a black, Asian-American woman rather than a competent leader, which she clearly is not.
How about the second team?
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, who also ran for the White House in 2020, is keeping a busy travel schedule to promote Biden’s $1 trillion infrastructure bill, which became law six months ago.
Some view him as eager to launch a second bid, noting his meteoric rise and success in the early primary contests. But at just 40, he doesn’t have the experience of other Democrats like Biden himself, and he also failed to get much traction with Black voters, a key constituency where Biden thrived.
As Ed Morrissey points out, Biden put Pete in charge of unsnarling the supply chain crisis. Perhaps we should ask parents who can’t find infant formula for their babies how he’s doing on that score.
Besides, as Morrissey also correctly notes, it would be ludicrous to replace one failed White House official with another.
Then there are the Democratic governors to choose from. It’s a very thin bench both in numbers and in potential candidates who might prevail in 2024.
One possibility is Gov. Andy Beshears of Kentucky. He’s a moderate as Democrats go and could possibly draw some GOP votes in the Midwest.
But Beshears would have to win the Democratic nomination first. Unlike Ted Kennedy in 1980, Beshears has no natural constituency he can rally to his cause. The radicals in his party just wouldn’t allow it.
Morrissey sums it up nicely: “There really isn’t any question at all about Biden’s 2024 bid. If he’s still breathing, he’s running, because Democrats really have no other option.”
Ain’t it the truth.
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