Plan B, If Leaders Have the Courage to Execute It

I see trees of green, Red roses too, I see them bloom

For me and you. And I think to myself, What a wonderful world.

Even Louie Armstrong's songwriters (their lyrics above) wasn't as divorced from reality as this economist, as well as others who want Joe Biden to persevere:

be a huge improvement -- would tear Trump to shreds https://t.co/na8qqsbJCi

— Dean Baker (@DeanBaker13) June 28, 2024

The main task now is to defeat Donald Trump and the Republican Party which adores him and would view his election as confirmation of its obeisance to a candidate who has openly advocated termination of the Constitution. Thanks go to Pete Buttigieg for his service to his country serving in Iraq. However, my guess is that the American people are not yearning to vote for a short, small, gay man. And as a nominee for President, he'd have to answer for the Administration's response- or lack thereof- to the Norfolk Southern train derailment in East Palestine.

Also, a white man. The Democratic Party is not going to persuade Biden to throw in the towel and consider an alternative to the sitting Vice President in order to nominate a white male, especially if his name does not rhyme with "Calvin Gruesome." This pertains to a statement about the incumbent President- threat, really- uttered by Democratic strategist Karen Finney, reported last September and which I've quoted several times:

When you had people who were trying to test the waters, the party rose up and made it clear to those individuals — who were mostly white men — that to disrespect the vice president would not be well received by women and people of color within the party. They got a little bit of a smack in the face. 

President Biden now is dead man walking, thus Kamala Harris, dead woman walking. Twisting Joe Biden's arm to persuade him to exit the race no longer would be disrespecting either of them. Joe Biden is concerned about not only the country, but also about the Democratic Party and his own legacy. Continuing with this charade of a race would doom a great many Democrats down ballot and tarnish substantially and irreparably his own legacy.

So, what to do? 

If you're the last ex-President of the Democratic Party, you convene a gathering of party leaders and other possibly influential parties. It should be not very long nor very short and in addition to Barack Obama, probably should include Eric Holder, former Attorney General, now head of the National Democratic Redistricting Committee; Nancy Pelosi, former House Speaker, still a congresswoman and party heavyweight; Nanette Diaz Barragan, head of the Hispanic Congressional Caucus; Representative James Clyburn, who made Joe Biden the 2020 nominee; perhaps Val Demings, formerly both a police chief and US Representative from Florida; and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, because even the Democratic Party needs a white male here and there. One or two of these may balk at being involved and could be replaced by another individual.

The group's major order of business would be to agree upon a viable alternative to Mr. Biden and Ms. Harris, the latter of whom was selected by candidate Biden and who is even less popular (at least until Thursday night) than the President. It must, however, be a package deal, with both a Presidential and Vice Presidential nominee selected.

I'm partial to to the sound of "President Sherrod Brown" or "President Rafael Warnock." However, the latter may not be saleable to the American electorate and the former not saleable to the Party. (See "Finney, Karen" above.) And now is not the time to be stuck on our favorites, nor on the incumbent being the best President of our lifetime, even of those of us who are elderly

Therefore, given the overriding importance of defeating Donald Trump and of electing Democrats throughout the country, would be Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer in the top spot and the young governor of Maryland, Wes Moore, in the bottom spot.

Agreement would have to be reached with those two individuals, contingent on President Biden bowing out. The latter is the easy part; if there is a consensus ticket determined and Joe Biden does not step aside, the Party has a far greater problem than it now appears to have. And I think it very unlikely that under those circumstances, Mr. Biden wouldn't discover that the needs of party and country are greater than his own.

And if he doesn't, we will learn that the Democratic nomination for President is worth about as much as John Nance Gardner reportedly believed the vice-presidency to be: "not worth a bucket of warm spit."

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