www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/columnist/2024/07/01/biden-replace-age-debate-trump/74264221007/
Calls to replace Biden vs. silence on Trump? America has lost its political mind.
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They really should replace Biden, and they should replace him with Pete Buttigieg. Here’s why.
Joe is a nice guy and all, and he’s had a long and storied career in public service, as well as a difficult and troubled personal life. However, it’s clear that at 81 years old and counting, he’s just not up to the task anymore. Voters can smell that a mile away. Biden was the right man for the job in 2020, but that was 4 years ago, and now running him risks handing the election to Trump. The first party to dump their 80 year old candidate will win, and since it’s clear the Republicans have no interest in dumping Trump, it’s on the Democrats to ask Biden to step aside gracefully. To that end, it’s also clear that the White House has not been entirely honest with the public about Biden’s fitness for office. If this charade continues, it could destroy Americans’ faith in their government.
Politically, if the Democrats are going to win, the path to victory runs through the Rust Belt. It’s likely that Georgia and Arizona - and perhaps even Nevada - are lost to the Republicans. So, barring a very long shot victory in Florida (I’d say maybe a 10% chance Dems can win FL), the path runs through Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania, and the top of the ticket needs to be someone who can win all three of these states.
For this reason, the democrats need to run Pete Buttigieg. Unlike Harris, he actually appeals to these states, having lived and held office in Indiana (he’s also now a Michigan resident, which could actually be an asset). He’s also a white guy, and he’s moderate, and in 2024 I don’t think him being gay will elicit too much attention, because it’s not like he talks about it every 5 minutes. Unlike 2020, he now also has added federal experience as Transportation Secretary, and has been one of Biden’s most effective lieutenants, putting to ease concerns about his youth (if anything, I think voters are now more concerned with running candidates who were born before jet planes were a thing).
It should be him, because running Kamala will hand the election to Trump, and running anyone from outside the administration will be a tacit admission that the administration has failed, and that won’t look good either. To ensure black voters don’t feel spurned though, keep Harris on as VP. She seems to have learned from a few of her earlier missteps and can probably stay on in her role as VP, but at the same time, she simply cannot win as the top of the ticket.
If the Dems successfully execute this reboot, they’ll be able to defeat Trump once and for all, as well as chart a path forward towards ending the country’s divisions and ending the gerontocracy that paralyzes government. We’ll see what happens.
I love Pete and think he could really be the future of our party, but there are logistical hurdles we'd fave subbing anyone in outside of Harris. The biggest issue is that the new ticket would not have access to the campaign war chest, essentially starting from scratch. You bring up an interesting point that I agree with though, that any substitution should come from within the administration to maintain faith in it.
If there is a new candidate subbed in for Biden, it has to be someone from within the administration. Running someone from outside (like Andy Beshear) may sound good on paper, but would at the end of the day be terrible PR, because again you're basically acceding to the narrative that the public has lost confidence in the government. And if you're running someone from within, you're basically limited to Harris and Buttigieg - nobody else with any credibility has any aspirations of being President.
I have seen the campaign war chest issue brought up, and to that end, I'm not sure if Buttigieg would have access to it either. I'm also not sure if the pros of keeping those funds would be worth gambling on Harris with all of her political liabilities. I wonder, if Harris was kept on as VP, would the Democratic nominee still be able to access all existing campaign funds? Genuinely curious, because we are kind of in uncharted waters here.
One other small issue. I do know that to run, obviously he'd have to immediately step down as Transport Secretary due to the Hatch Act, but that is a minor issue that can easily be fixed by having the Deputy Sec take over.