
Feature, Musings —07.04.2024 05:33 PM
—An open letter to Democrats: call Doug.
Dear Democrats: call Doug Ford.
Doug, in case you are unfamiliar with him, is the Premier of Canada’s most populous province, Ontario. He’s a populist in the true sense of the word, too: he believes politics is for, by and about people. He believes that, to be a successful politician, you have to love people and you have to love the place you represent.
And he does. He does. Ford has a folksy, regular-guy persona that is entirely authentic. He obliterated his main opponent in his first general election at the provincial level, and he mostly has not looked back. Through the pandemic, through what has felt like a recession, through controversies, Ford has maintained his popularity and a very significant lead over all of his political opponents.
He became leader of his party during very unusual circumstances. And this is where you need to be paying attention, Democrats.
The job he now has, as Progressive Conservative leader, abruptly became available in January 2018. Despite having never run for anything outside of the municipal level, Ford threw his hat in the ring.
Just 156 days later, he was Premier – the equivalent of your Governors – of the most powerful province in Canada, and head of one of the most significant governments in North America. From no job to the top job in 156 days. Not bad.
This is why you need to call Doug, Democrats. As you ponder whether you have enough time – time to secure Joe Biden’s pledge to resign, time to have an open convention in Chicago, time to select a new presidential candidate, and time to win on the evening of November 5, 2024 – rest assured. The answer is yes. You do. You’ve got time. It’s possible. It’s doable.
But, you say, there hasn’t been a presidential candidate selected in this way – that is, without having been through months of primaries – since 1968. True: in that year, Hubert Humphrey won the Democratic Party presidential nomination without having gone through the primaries. That was the last time that happened. Doing things the same old way is important, you say.
But is it? You live in extraordinary times, Democrats. There ain’t a playbook for this. Joe Biden – who I have proudly worked for, and who I have great affection for – is going to lose, badly, to Donald Trump. As of this morning, the gap is six points nationally, which amounts to a massacre up and down the ticket. The gap among independent voters is even worse.
So, Joe has to go. You know it.
If you have an open convention, it will be the most exciting political event of a lifetime. It will attract more attention than the moon landing. It will generate a ton of publicity for your party and your policies and your people. It is the thing that Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans fear the most.
It will be messy, sure. But democracy always is. And nothing could be messier than your current predicament, from which you need to quickly extricate yourself.
Consider: at first, you suggested that Joe Biden’s debate performance was fine and people should stop complaining. When that didn’t work, you said that he was tired because of international travel – travel that had taken place nearly two weeks earlier.
When that didn’t work, you suggested that he had a cold, which was apparently serious enough to affect his debate performance – but not so serious that you’ve actually had him see a doctor since the debate.
Now, today, your latest excuse is that if Joe Biden goes to bed early, and doesn’t do anything past 8 o’clock in the evening, it will all be fine. Gotcha. (Memo to Vladimir Putin: make sure to fire your nuclear warheads after 8 PM – because the leader of the free world will be asleep.)
See? None of your attempts to spin Biden’s cataclysmic debate performance are working. And Donald Trump is getting stronger by the day. There is no time to waste. No dilly should be dallied. No sticks should be fiddled. You need to do these things, pronto.
One, secure Joe Biden’s agreement to relinquish the presidency when a new one is sworn in, come January next year. Get him to agree to release all of his delegates at the Chicago convention. Three, finally, call Doug Ford, who knows how to pull one of these things off. He knows how to win, and win big, in a very compressed timeframe.
It can be done, Democrats. It has been done.
Pick up the phone, and call Doug Ford. You’ll be glad you did.
Sincerely,
Warren
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If Biden isn’t fit to run for President, shouldn’t Biden step down now and turn the Presidency over to Kamala Harris?
Harris could thus run as an incumbent President. This would save a messy, divisive, convention.
Couple this with the selection of Mayor Pete as Kamala’s VP. It would reinforce the Dems commitment to diversity and inclusion.
Nope. If Joe goes Kamala has to go too. She’s not popular and to make her the presidential nominee pretty much guarantees that Trump wins. While diversity and inclusion may look good on pride march banners they don’t win elections.
Same goes for Gavin Newsom. They need someone new, someone who connects with the middle class and one who doesn’t appear beholden to the wishes of the hard left. The Doug Ford example is a good one.
WestGuy,
Not necessarily. Harris is more popular with women and independents than Biden. One poll does not a trend make, but it’s positive. As the sitting VEEP, she is first in line to run at the top of the ticket if Biden withdraws. But so far, all of this is neither here nor there, since Biden is refusing to leave the race.
Now a group of Democratic senators are about to take a crack at Biden. IMHO, it will take a full court press to get Biden to stand down. That means tons of Senate and House members. Otherwise, Biden stays and Trump more than likely wins in November.
Warren,
From The Independent:
“Biden insiders think there’s ‘no question’ Kamala Harris will move to top of ticket”
“One Democratic strategist who worked on Biden’s 2020 campaign and still speaks regularly to senior campaign officials told The Independent on Wednesday that there’s “no question” that Harris would soon be passed the torch and described it as not so much a matter of whether Biden will make the unprecedented decision, but when.”
“The strategist said campaign officials have been counseling prominent Democrats to refrain from explicitly calling for Biden to withdraw his candidacy in favor of letting him make the decision on his own.”
“’He doesn’t want to be pushed out. He wants to make the choice,’ he said.”
There is no question I would be considered right of centre. That does not make me a Republican supporter. I am certainly no fan of Donald Trump. I saw the orange wave though and was not in the least surprised when he defeated Hillary Clinton. Democrats are a lot like Liberals in Canada though, they are so convinced of their moral superiority they cannot comprehend that others opinions are valid.
This is important because I feel it helps explain why the entire Democrat brain trust turned a blind eye to how Joe was deteriorating. They all felt that they could run on not being Donald Trump and scaring people over values that not everyone holds so sacred and perhaps only prioritizes differently (for example I don’t agree one fucking bit that we on the right are not compassionate we just have different takes on how to address some issues).
Now my point. The Democrats have a rot just as the Republicans do. Last Friday Joe Biden said that he may not debate as well as he used to but he knows how to tell the truth. The problem is while he may KNOW how to tell the truth, he DID NOT TELL THE TRUTH.
He and Democrats addressed his age in 2020 by saying he would defeat Trump then serve as bridge to new leadership in 2024. That script did not last past his inauguration. Worse there are indications that this health condition has been a concern a HIDDEN concern for several years.
I hope that Democrats do look at the Doug Ford example and see it possible to win. They need to get their shit together AS-fucking-AP or they share the blame for another Trump presidency
Was wondering where this was going but it is 110% true. Actually, a perfect analogy.
If there’s one things Americans love – to their core – it is a contest. If there’s one thing they despise it is someone appointed / kept in place by “professionals” who think they know better.
Lastly – anyone who thinks average voters give a flying f$%k exactly how a person becomes a candidate…. has never worked the trenches in a campaign…. They couldn’t care less.
Warren,
Let’s face it, the candidate’s identity will determine if the Democrats can hold on to the presidency. Choose the wrong candidate and it’s Humphrey all over again. Choose the right one and Trump’s goose could be cooked, but there is no certainty there as in the past. Democrats, choose wisely. It’s definitely for all the marbles, and the country’s future may depend on whether Trump can be stopped.
Warren,
I simply can’t resist this one: Starmer has a huge majority mandate for change, but his days will be hell regularly, what with both Farage and Corbyn returning to Westminster. Both of them will be politically up his ass more often than not. Too funny. It’s beyond glorious.
Meh, they’ll be backbenchers seated far away in the nosebleed section. It’s not like they’re going to be the one asking the PM questions.
As for Biden, jesus he has to go. And you’re right WK that an open Dem convention would rivet US voters and breathe new life and momentum into the defeat-Trump campaign.
Derek,
Farage and Corbyn are master media manipulators. They’ll do far more damage than people think. Watch both of them take the lead in undermining the credibility of this newly minted government. Put another way, the honeymoon phase will set a record for being incredibly short thanks to these guys.
“Starmer has a huge majority mandate for change”?
He won with less than 34% of the popular vote.
Yes, Biden has to go, but the two people whose advice he trusts implicitly – his wife and his son – are insisting that he hang in there. I don’t know how he can be persuaded to leave and the Dems may have to invoke the 25th Amendment. It would be an undignified and humiliating end to his career, but at this point I don’t see any other option.
Montréalaise,
This is all Hunter’s doing. He’s supposedly his father’s best friend. Hunter doesn’t want to meet the slammer as a possible result of two trials. Biden has said that he won’t pardon or commute but no one believes that he won’t. The old man is Hunter’s stay-out-of-jail card. That’s why Jill looks the other way. A future president Harris would be unlikely to pardon or commute Hunter’s likely sentence.
Biden = the law of rapidly diminishing political returns. Biden is needlessly dragging this out. In the end, he’ll fold like a cheap suit. The pressure is relentless and building.
It has to be Harris given her position. Both will serve out their term and hopefully Harris will become president-elect. The demon seed must not be allowed to return to power. He must be stopped politically at all cost.
I’m beside myself that we’ve just spent the last week hearing all the reasons that Joe Biden needs to drop out summarized in the following list:
1) Democrats will lose an election scheduled for four months from now
-30-
Not once did I hear anything about this office controlling a historically unimaginable amount of firepower and he guy with his finger on the button isn’t sure what year it is.
Maybe before Democrats consult Doug Ford, they should watch Oppenheimer.
St-Hubert,
A lot is made of the nuclear football, the briefcase with the launch codes. In fact, it requires a double authorization: missiles can’t be launched on the president’s orders alone. The defence secretary must enter a second code at a different location. Otherwise, launches are impossible.
Fair point, but what is the Defense Secretary’s duty in this case? Prior to Biden (except for Reagan’s second term), there was never any doubt about who ultimately got to make that call. This isn’t a situation that should be on-hold for half a year, especially in our current geopolitical climate.
St-Hubert,
In almost all cases, it’s a rubber stamp but with one major proviso: if the commander-in-chief is mentally incapacitated or suffering from other debilitating mental illnesses, the defence secretary can refuse to enter the codes.
Warren,
If this is accurate, then I’m headed for a rage. Reports indicate that Biden is refusing to submit to an independent medical and cognitive evaluation. No kidding. The guy is already so out of it, and yet what remains ALREADY knows that he’s unfit to serve as president in a second term. Can you be more hypocritical and self-serving than that? He’s acting like an asshole…get him out as nominee now!
“By the way, [Biden] I’m proud to be, as I said, the first vice president, first black woman, to serve with a black president,”…
There’s a good piece in the Atlantic this week that goes into Biden’s personal history. It makes a persuasive case that in Biden’s mind, the big “lesson” that he learned from adversity that he faced throughout his life (his childhood stutter, being bullied etc.) was to never give up, bravely soldier on etc. But of course the problem with that is that sometimes in life, you actually should cut your losses and throw in the towel.
But to some people, they take that “never give up, never give in to your enemies” thing way too far and it becomes positively Nixonian. You develop a siege mentality and a sort of delusional hero/victim complex.
Related to that, the stories I’ve heard from seasoned US political pros and observers suggest that the Biden White House has unfortunately become a bit like the notorious Nixon White House in that regard. Total siege mentality, ridiculous loyalty to The Boss, and, most insidious of all, engaging in a cover-up.
Doc,
Joe Biden lost in November the moment he refused to submit to an independent mental and cognitive examination. He blew himself out of the water right then and there. It’s obvious what the results would show: that he’s already cognitively unfit to serve as president for any extended period.
I understand that the debate put a light on Joe’s decline, something that happens to all of us if we’re lucky enough to live that long – i see his decline, and I understand the urgency in replacing him to beat Donald Trump (Asshole). But, I have to say, I appreciate his wisdom, I’ve watched him perform in the aftermath of the debate – I’m in Joe’s corner, even though I can’t vote in the states, until he’s ready to go – I appreciate his knowledge, his wisdom, his fight – I see his decline, but I really like Joe Biden – as much as I see his replacement as necessary, I’ll be heartbroken when he leaves – he really is a champion for the people, and that’s rare in politics.