Former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi was talking with California Democrats last week, discussing the ongoing crisis regarding the continuing candidacy of Joe Biden.
Pelosi was talking about "next steps" if Biden were to quit the race. She stressed the need for an "open process" to avoid the appearance of party elites choosing the candidate.
“Nancy was leading that charge that it needed to be an open process,” according to a person briefed on the meeting, who was granted anonymity.
Not everyone who is calling for Biden to step aside agrees. The easy road to take would be for Kamala Harris to declare her candidacy immediately after Biden steps aside and claim the right to the top spot. She will have 200 million very good reasons behind her. Biden's campaign war chest cannot be transferred to any other candidate or organization. It's Harris's or no one's.
But beyond the money, there is chaos, bitterness, hurt feelings, and betrayal. The intense scramble for the nomination in an open convention would be wildly entertaining and, for Democrats, terrifying. With the world's media scrambling around on the floor trying to scoop each other by reporting rumors as fact, literally no one will know what's happening leading to even more confusion until you end up with whichever candidate comes out on top making their acceptance speech at 1:00 AM like McGovern did in 1972. We saw how well that turned out.
Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.), a longtime ally of Pelosi, made the case for a "transparent" (open) process on Friday.
“Should he make that decision, there will have to be quick steps. I don’t think we can do a coronation, but obviously the vice president would be the leading candidate,” Lofgren said
One top Democrat told NY Times columnist Maureen Dowd, “Everyone’s waiting for Joe,” said one top Democrat. “And he’s sitting at home, stewing and saying, ‘What if? What if? What if?’ We’re doing things the Democratic way. We’re botching it.”
Dowd titled her column, "Lord Almighty, Joe, Let It Go!" When you've lost Maureen Dowd,...
But let's say Biden remains in the race all the way to the convention. There, he risks being humiliated by being rejected by his hand-picked delegates.
Delegates won in the primaries are not bound to vote for the candidate they're pledged to at the convention, however, they can be replaced with an alternate if the candidate determines they may not be loyal.
In 1984, Democrats changed the rules and opened up the possibility of an open convention.
Recognizing the possibility that some event — an illness, a scandal — might cause a change of heart, Democrats instead adopted Rule 13.j which says: “Delegates elected to the national convention pledged to a presidential candidate shall in all good conscience reflect the sentiments of those who elected them.” That rule is still in effect. And it gives these elected delegates more than enough running room to drop their support for Biden.
The president’s disastrous debate and subsequent stories about his decline were factors unknown to delegates when they won their slots. Polls show a significant portion of the Democratic electorate want a different nominee. Even Biden himself has said the delegates are free to vote their conscience. (Some state laws require delegates to vote as they pledged, but those laws are unenforceable at the convention and very possibly invalid.) This is why the Biden campaign is reaching out to delegates, to measure just how firm their support is.
The ugly truth for Democrats is that it's probably already too late to salvage the candidacy of any of their potential presidential candidates. And an open convention would be the icing on the cake for Republicans who would be watching with wonder and disbelief.
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