BYEden
Plus: Kamala Harris enters the race, unlicensed pot shop crackdowns, Ozempic dupes, and more...
He's out: Yesterday around 2 p.m., President Joe Biden published a letter on X announcing some welcome but not altogether surprising news: He is suspending his campaign to be reelected president.
This comes on the heels of his abysmal performance in the June 27 presidential debate, which, interesting, Biden's campaign had lobbied for. They wanted the first debate to be held earlier than tradition calls for, seemingly aiming to shake up the race (Biden was lagging in the polls) and to draw attention to Donald Trump's recent felony conviction.
The debate succeeded at changing the race. Biden, once on stage, appeared in the throes of astonishing cognitive decline, unable to string together a cogent sentence at times. Whether this was dementia or Parkinson's or just the type of normal deterioriation one might expect from an 81-year-old man, it became clear to pretty much everyone that Biden would be unable to serve another four years as president.
Clear to everyone except those in the true driver's seat, that is. His wife, Jill; his sister, Valerie; his son, Hunter: They all were reportedly advising him to stay in the race (surely not self-interested parties themselves). His campaign manager, Jen O'Malley Dillon, and his former chief of staff, Ron Klain, also urged him to stay in the game and publicly professed their support.
Attempting to keep a well-meaning elderly man with a poor memory in the presidential race is an unkind thing to do. Attempting to install a president who is ill-equipped to make sound decisions, in order to have personal proximity to power, is a dishonorable thing to do, and it ought to be a career ender for these political strategists.
Postmortem: Nate Silver writes, in Silver Bulletin, of the many ways Biden's campaign was flopping:
Biden's fundraising was drying up;
Every other public appearances was a disaster;
Many prominent Democrats had called on him to exit the race or shared damaging stories about him;
A majority of Democratic voters also wanted Biden to leave—which wasn't true for Trump in 2016 and could have produced epic problems in terms of voter enthusiasm;
Many White House staff and prominent Biden supporters had begun to lie to people and lie to themselves about the polling and how feasible it was to prop up Biden's candidacy;
And voters weren't buying any of this, so Democrats risked damaging their credibility—and further downballot losses—by pretending it was a good idea for Biden to run for another term until he was 86.
Dropping out was the rational choice. But now Democrats must figure out where to go from here.
About 30 minutes after releasing his initial pull-out announcement on X, Biden endorsed his vice president, Kamala Harris, as his pick for nominee. (Why the two announcements weren't better synchronized is unclear.) Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, California Gov. Gavin Newsom, and Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro—the latter two generally regarded as figures who could take up the mantle and run themselves—all threw endorsements Harris' way.
Progressives in the House—Reps. Pramila Jayapal (D–Wash.), Cori Bush (D–Mo.), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D–N.Y.), and Ilhan Omar (D–Minn.)—all endorsed Harris immediately as well.
Former President Barack Obama is less sure. Instead of endorsing Harris, he said he has "extraordinary confidence that the leaders of our party will be able to create a process from which an outstanding nominee emerges." Neither former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi nor Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer nor House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries threw endorsements Harris' way.
Harris, if she does become the nominee, has an uphill battle ahead of her, particularly in Pennsylvania, a notoriously close swing state that Biden only narrowly won in 2020 following a Trump win there back in 2016. Biden was born there and has ties to that region; Harris has no such advantage. Trump just picked a Rust Belt figure, Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio, as his running mate, and Trump survived an assassination attempt at a rally in Butler, a town a little north of Pittsburgh near the Ohio border.
Scenes from New York: The city's crackdown on unlicensed weed shops continues apace. It's not clear who is helped by this, though.
QUICK HITS
- Lefty pundits are taking to X to express their extreme appreciation for Joe Biden, including some lauding him as a hero and "feeling overwhelmed" at his "sacrifice." I am sorry, but he just did the bare minimum in stepping down while clearly cognitively inept. This was the lowest possible bar to clear.
Feeling overwhelmed with gratitude toward Joe Biden for making this sacrifice. His incredible presidency has surely been the best of my lifetime and one of the greatest in history. His achievements in office will make the country a better place for decades to come. What a legacy.
— Mark Joseph Stern (@mjs_DC) July 21, 2024
- What might White House economic policy look like if Harris is elected?
My way-too-early impressions of Harris on econ policy based on a few calls & reporting:
- Very close w/ labor. Opted out of LA hotel in solidarity with worker strike in 2023 & out of TV interview due to writers strike. Particularly allied w/ SEIU/care economy advocates - think…
— Jeff Stein (@JStein_WaPo) July 22, 2024
- Ozempic dupes are all over the place, reports Bloomberg.
- Inside all the issues with Airbnb: regulation, dips in demand, and algorithm struggles for hosts.
- Heartwarming:
Family photo! pic.twitter.com/UlWLsW5MPL
— Stella Assange (@Stella_Assange) July 22, 2024
