Obama elevated Biden to presidential prominence; only he could remove Biden from it. Biden’s leftward policies had created a political deficit that his June 27 debate performance proved he could not communicate his way out of. Democrat elite’s efforts to prod Biden off the ticket had not succeeded. With time running short, push came to shove, but to succeed, that shove could not come from them alone.
Despite Biden having spent more terms in the Senate (six) than Obama spent years (four), the latter raised the former to presidential level by making him his vice president. Exact opposites in every respect, Obama had finally done for Biden what Biden couldn’t do for himself in two short-lived, ill-fated presidential runs (1988 and 2008).
Even in Biden’s 2020 run, he nearly lost it. Trying to run as a moderate establishmentarian, he was lambasted by Kamala Harris in a 2019 debate. Early in 2020, Biden finished dismally in Iowa and New Hampshire, his campaign being resurrected only at the last instance in South Carolina. Despite COVID, lockdowns, and their economic devastation, massive civil unrest, and a divisive opponent, Biden still came within just 77,000 votes (spread across four states) of losing to Trump.
The Left’s demand of Biden was that he govern their way. Biden complied and compiled a leftist record that left him with a huge political deficit. For 2024’s first six months, Biden tried to extricate himself from his policy-generated political sinkhole: his SOTU, administration surrogates, liberal use of incumbency’s executive tools, massive campaign spending, and establishment media aircover — nothing worked.
Out of options, Biden’s campaign gambled on a debate with Trump. It lost badly. With time running out and patience having run out, Democrat elite pivoted instantly; declaring almost before Biden had exited the debate stage that he should also exit the race. These clearly coordinated calls came from commentators, establishment media, and elected Democrats.
The sensitive serenade of “I love Joe Biden, but…” and tepid leadership support churned on for two weeks. Then came the July 13 assassination attempt of Donald Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania. Suddenly there was no oxygen for Democrat elite’s departure drumbeat.
Biden got a reprieve. Democrat elite got desperate. During the hiatus, Democrat elite realized how badly they had miscalculated throughout 2024’s first six months.
Prior to the debate fiasco, they had not thought that Biden’s policy deficit was so stubbornly large. They had also thought this deficit could be removed by a concerted communication campaign.
Then they had thought that sufficient pressure could be slowly, subtly applied through their entreaties and that Biden would see their implicit threat: that Democrat elite could — and would — create the crisis they had once worked so hard to keep from public view. They had not thought that Biden wouldn’t take the hint, that he would so adamantly insist on remaining. And they had not anticipated the reluctance within their own ranks: that the presidency creates its own gravitational forces that buoy Biden (his influence over the DNC for example) and Members’ hesitancy that comes from the knowing that “the hand that wields the knife shall never wear the crown” — and that their futures could be as comprised as Biden’s already was.
Finally, they had certainly not thought that an event could transpire that would make Trump appear heroic to so many Americans — and sympathetic to even more. That this near tragedy would further undercut their message that Trump was a threat to democracy.
In the wake of their own six squandered months and a week’s uninterrupted streak of Trump momentum, Democrat elite returned to their effort to remove Biden from the ticket — this time, sans subtlety and the slower pace. It no longer mattered that the now unmistakable effort to forcibly oust their duly elected leader directly and blatantly contradicted their campaign message that they were fighting to save democracy.
They had barely three months left. Their earlier half measures to oust Biden had only wounded him, not dispatched him. It was not just their messenger who was in jeopardy but their message: vilifying Trump to raise his negatives above their own.
All this brought Democrat elite back to Obama. Just as only Obama could make Biden presidential, only Obama could unmake Biden — could take the presidency from him. And they knew he would. After all, he had done so before. In 2016, Obama passed over Biden for Hillary Clinton. It was Obama who had warned in 2020 “Don’t underestimate Joe’s ability to f**k things up.”
No other Democrat had Obama’s standing within the party. It bordered on being above politics. And therein lay the problem: the job Democrat elite wanted done was the most political of jobs. Obama alone could commit and provide cover for the regicide the Democrat elite sought.
If Obama hadn’t blessed removal, Biden could stay. Biden had been clear he intended to remain. Obama had been clear that he did not want to appear involved in Biden’s removal. If both remained so, Biden stayed.
That Biden finally withdrew adds also a final clarity. It is one that rises above even Obama’s role in it, Democrats’ hypocrisy of negating their entire primary process, their lying about Biden for months (if not years), and their message that Trump is a threat to democracy and they are the vehicle for saving it.
It is that the Democrat Party, the party of America’s elite, is thoroughly ruled by its own elite — and that they will use whatever means they must to get their way.
J.T. Young was a professional staffer in the House and Senate from 1987-2000, served in the Department of Treasury and Office of Management and Budget from 2001-2004, and was director of government relations for a Fortune 20 company from 2004-2023.
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