Biden Replacement Theory: Fact or Fever Dream?
The presidential election is less than five months away, and the Democratic National Convention that will officially nominate sitting President Biden is exactly two months away.
You’d think by now, and with these events fast-approaching, we’d have finally moved through the stages of grief to acceptance that Joe Biden, for all his flaws and weaknesses, is the Democratic candidate.
But it seems some are still stuck in denial and bargaining, and they’re offering up speculative, baseless, and, in some cases, delusional hypotheticals to soothe their anxious minds.
Talk of replacing Biden with someone like Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer or California Gov. Gavin Newsom started way back in 2022, perhaps a reflection not of Biden’s unpopular policies but of his advancing age and increasing missteps.
As time to decide approached, a never-ending swirl of speculation and stories about whether he would run again — and whether he should run again — became a regular distraction for the Biden administration, with reporters stopping Democratic members on Capitol Hill to ask if Biden was fit for reelection. Enough hedged, wavered, or flat-out said no to be worrisome.
But the time to turn worry into action was then, years ago, when Democrats could have given voters time to get acclimated to the idea that there would be a new nominee.
As we all know, in April of 2023 Biden formally announced he was running for reelection. For better or worse, that should have ended all hypothesizing about a Biden replacement.
Instead, the speculation has continued to stalk the Biden campaign, and it’s finally reached a ridiculous fever pitch.
Here’s Business Insider earlier this month with the “7 Democrats Who Could Replace Biden if He Drops His Reelection Bid.”
And pollster Nate Silver, founder of FiveThirtyEight: “Biden just hit a new all-time low in approval (37.4%) at 538 yesterday. Dropping out would be a big risk. But there’s some threshold below which continuing to run is a bigger risk. Are we there yet? I don’t know. But it’s more than fair to ask.”
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