(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Pundits are calling for Biden to drop out. They've got the wrong guy [1] ['Daily Kos Staff'] Date: 2024-07-01 Following the first presidential debate of 2024, the editorial board of a major American newspaper called on one of the two candidates to drop out of the race. “There was only one person at the debate who does not deserve to be running for president,” The Philadelphia Inquirer wrote. “The sooner Trump exits the stage, the better off the country will be.” Unfortunately, the Inquirer seems to be the only major media outlet to recognize that, while President Joe Biden had a “disaster” of an evening, Donald Trump delivered a “litany of lies, hyperbole, bigotry, ignorance, and fear mongering” that showed he was unfit for office. That Inquirer editorial was a nice moment of relief from a long weekend in which many editorial boards and political pundits shared their wisdom about how Biden should drop out of the race. Those editorials were full of expressions of sadness over the supposed end of a long career of public service. They were full of hand-wringing and pearl-clutching in defense of democracy or the nation. But mostly they seemed like a toxic mix of hubris and a dark desire for chaos. On Friday, The New York Times editorial board called on Biden to “serve his country” by dropping his reelection bid. That editorial begins by saying that Biden is correct in identifying Trump as “a significant jeopardy” to American democracy and runs through a list of some of Trump’s past misdeeds as well as how a second term would allow Trump to “carry out the most extreme of his promises and threats.” But it’s Biden the Times asks to withdraw. The next day, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution followed suit, writing, “Biden should withdraw from the race, for the good of the nation he has served so admirably for half a century.” From there it seemed like a pile-on. At The New Yorker, editor David Remnick declared Biden’s continued candidacy “a national endangerment.” On CBS’ “Sunday Morning,” John Dickerson was willing to admit that Trump had “delusions” and “a mind that prefers fiction to inconvenient facts.” Still, he said it is Biden who needs to “look in the mirror” and decide whether he would be “the agent or the impediment” to keeping Trump from office. Many pundits seemed to have some thoughts on Biden’s “ego.” Others were happy to bask in earlier predictions that Biden’s age would be the dominant issue of the cycle. Others were content to wax lyrical about Biden’s need to step aside for “the sake of democracy.” The New York Times may have struck first and garnered the most well-deserved hate, but it was actually The Washington Post that walked away from the weekend with the Most Pearls Clutched Award. First, the Post featured Steve Bannon doing his best imitation of Brer Rabbit as he explained that Biden withdrawing would be so very bad for Trump. According to Bannon, Trump was going to rue the day he forced Biden to withdraw. “You’re going to take out a guy you know you can beat and beat badly,” Bannon said, “and we’re going to have a wild card.” So please don’t throw Trump into that briar patch. Then the Post hit a ridiculous peak in calling on Biden to do the popular thing—like Lyndon Johnson. “Johnson surprised the nation by taking himself out of the 1968 campaign,” wrote deputy opinion editor David Von Drehle. “Johnson’s decision to honor the public mood and take himself off the ballot was hugely popular. Far from sending the system into chaos, it gave Americans an event to applaud and a leader to approve of.” And then it gave the nation Richard Nixon, Watergate, and a cycle of political instability that created much of the divisive politics that exist today. Hardly the moment of history anyone would want to repeat. And Von Drehle seems to be ignoring the fact that Johnson’s action came after the first presidential primary, meaning that voters had a means of choosing his successor. Even had Biden wanted to imitate LBJ, the time for that is long past. Nearly all of these voices calling on Biden to get out of the way for the sake of the country or democracy acknowledge that Trump is far worse. But the Inquirer editorial may be alone in suggesting Trump is the one who should withdraw from the race. Maybe that’s because no one believes Trump would respond to any plea, no matter how strident or universal. Maybe it’s an acknowledgment that there is no “sensible center” of the Republican Party remaining to pressure Trump the way Barry Goldwater and John Rhodes laid it out for Nixon. Maybe it’s because the narrative of a good man enacting enormous self-sacrifice for the sake of his nation simply appeals to their English major hearts. It’s not that Biden’s performance wasn’t painful. It’s not even that whether he can or should continue as the Democratic candidate isn’t a valid topic for discussion. It’s that the same media that published a flood of articles in 2016 declaring Democrats were panicking because the 69-year-old Hillary Clinton had a cough may not be the most trusted source of advice to the president. When it comes to reports of panic behind the scenes following the debate, there’s no doubt that some Democratic advisers and operatives are hysterical, just as they were during “cough-gazi.” It’s not difficult to find people upset over any statement or event. If you go looking for panic among political insiders, you can always find it. Pundits and editorial boards are paid to have opinions. They certainly have them. And they have barrels full of ink and pixels to make sure their opinions are heard. But it’s astonishing how little thought they give to using that platform in ways that might actually save America—joining their voices to report the truth about Trump, highlighting his lies, and focusing on the danger he represents, without somehow turning his inadequacies into Biden’s responsibility. [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2024/7/1/2250183/-Pundits-are-calling-for-Biden-to-drop-out-They-ve-got-the-wrong-guy?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=top_news_slot_3&pm_medium=web Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/