I Was Wrong And I Feel Fine

This feels like Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign, only bigger.

by Bob Cesca

WASHINGTON, DC – I’ll get right to the mea culpa. I honestly didn’t believe the Democratic Party could execute a change in the nomination without erupting into a cat-herding shitshow – a face melting 58 megaton Tsar Bomba-sized detonation of thermonuclear disarray. My concerns were backed by perfectly valid and evident reasons, namely three weeks of disarray beginning with the CNN debate and ending with this past weekend’s announcement by President Biden, relinquishing the nomination to Vice President Kamala Harris.

Besides, being somewhat pragmatic, I’m immensely averse to risk-taking in politics, especially when a fascist authoritarian is the Republican nominee. I foresaw the very real possibility that upon Biden stepping aside, Democrats would continue the relentless shovel fighting circulating around who the nominee should be – how to properly apportion the delegates and so forth. It was all on the table during the debate about the debate with some Democrats insisting it shouldn’t be Kamala, despite the fact that it had to be her. We saw people digging in with alternative tickets that included Maryland governor Wes Moore, California governor Gavin Newsom, Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer – I’m fairly certain my Mom was name-dropped somewhere in there, too.

I only need to point out the 2008, 2016, and 2020 primaries as recent examples of how bloody Democratic in-fighting can be, and we were looking at the distinct possibility that we’d have a tragic repeat of all that but compressed into a few weeks and amplified by a news media that’s inexplicably thirsty for another Donald Trump presidency. 

None of it transpired, and I’m incredibly happy to have been wrong.

Much of the credit for disproving my warnings, and the warnings of others I respect, should go to both the president and the vice president. 

I don’t have hard information to confirm this so it’s just a theory, but I suspect the reason he ultimately decided to step aside was because he spent his time recovering from COVID calling delegates, donors, and party dignitaries to gain assurances that if he were to bow out, they would all coalesce around Kamala Harris. Once he did, he gave up knowing that the threat of disarray was all but eliminated.

It’s not beyond the realm of possibility. The president is a Jedi Master level politician. How else could he have achieved such an historic, record-breaking series of legislative and executive achievements despite a deeply partisan Congress without knowing politics inside and out? No one understood the potential for danger that would accompany a change in the nominee better than the president. Better yet: he did it immediately after the Republican convention, depriving Trump of the ability to attack Kamala all week long on prime time television. The last time we saw timing like this was when John McCain announced Sarah Palin as his running mate immediately following the 2008 Democratic convention – a move that became known as the “game change.” Only this time, Biden’s game change was significantly more impactful.

I’m not alone in saying I couldn’t be more relieved about the unprecedented level of unity, energy, support, volunteerism, and donations to the vice president’s newly launched campaign. It was a lot like being on an airplane during severe turbulence with crap falling out of the overhead bins, babies screaming, passengers gripping their armrests until suddenly…it stops and there’s nothing but that satisfying feeling of smooth skies.

This feels like Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign, only bigger – rocket launched into the stratosphere with greater force and momentum. Once again, “the fierce urgency of now” writ large, given the stakes. We have the prosecutor nominee against the convicted criminal, potentially clearing the way for prosecutors Jack Smith and Fani Willis to finally nab Trump for his many other crimes. Even better, a Harris administration would push us even closer to out-running the climate crisis, it’d secure the Supreme Court for perhaps another generation, it’d re-establish reproductive freedom, and so many other positive forward-facing achievements. And if the energy persists and grows, she could very easily win a mandate and secure both chambers of Congress.

I’ve never seen anything like this.

Kamala Harris hasn’t won the election yet and my first rule of electoral politics is “don’t get happy,” but for the first time this year we all feel like there’s a better than good chance we can win, with the vice president making history in more ways than one, while also hammering another big nail in Vladimir Putin’s global authoritarian plot – averting fascism in the nick of time.

Read an excerpt from the latest for Banter Members:

Donald Trump Has A Very Big Problem

Voters have been looking for any excuse not to vote for Donald Trump. Now they have one.

Image via The AP.

by Ben Cohen

Democrats’ fear over removing Joe Biden from the presidential campaign was entirely understandable. As a rule of thumb, incumbency is one of the most powerful tools in a political race. As president, Biden had the power and prestige of the White House to attack his opponent and persuade the public to give him another four years. He had name recognition, an aura of authority, and on demand media coverage from the press.

Another candidate would not have those advantages, and Democrats were terrified that giving up their already proven candidate would be a huge disaster. I shared many of those fears, but believed it was probably better to go with the unknown than risk more severe stumbles from a badly declining Biden. As the pressure mounted on the president, I wavered. Would Kamala Harris or another candidate be able to hit the ground running? Did they have the ability to build broad coalitions like Biden? Would the party rally behind them?

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Donald Trump Has A Very Big Problem