Over a momentous 24 hours, our columnists wrestled with Biden’s withdrawal, Kamala Harris as possible nominee and what comes next.
By Drew GoinsJuly 22, 2024 at 4:57 p.m. EDTYou’re reading the Today’s Opinions newsletter. Sign up to get it in your inbox.
In today’s all-Democratic-shakeup edition:
Time casts its vote against BidenRepublicans scramble for a new messageDemocrats need to figure out how to proceedThree cases for lining up behind VP HarrisThe case against the case against HarrisThree cases for a contest and open conventionHow Biden ought to be rememberedThe context of all in which we live
You might have woken up this morning a little lighter than yesterday. Could it be that you are feeling, perhaps, unburdened? By what has been? Maybe even eager to see what can be?
To borrow some of the favorite lingo of Vice President Harris, the “what has been” of which America is suddenly “unburdened” in this instance is the precarious 2024 candidacy of President Biden, which ended Sunday with his announcement that he would stop seeking reelection amid voter concerns about his age and fitness.
“In a sense, Joe Biden was trying to hold back the tide of history, pushing heavy furniture against the door of time,” writes David Von Drehle, “and now the flood has burst the windows.”
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David praises the development as one that will reboot the Democratic Party for a new generation and upend the presidential race. He writes that Donald Trump “is enough of a TV star to know what it means to flip the script, which is what Biden has done to him” — by turning Trump into the old guy in the contest.
Dana Milbank catalogues how Biden’s “patriotic sacrifice” has scrambled the GOP, which can’t seem to settle on a message beyond demanding that Biden resign today. (“By that reasoning,” Dana notes, “Republicans also would have required the immediate resignation of Lyndon B. Johnson in 1968 — and George Washington in 1796.”)
But, in the immediate aftermath of the decision, all was not unity within the Democratic Party either. “Now that Biden has acted, Democrats need to settle swiftly on a new nominee — and a process to bring the party together,” E.J. Dionne reported Sunday. “Being Democrats, they are split on both these questions.” Basically, the options are 1) unite swiftly behind Harris as the uncontested nominee; or 2) undergo a mini-primary that culminates in selecting a candidate at the convention.
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Our columnists have been trying to keep pace with the ensuing deluge of support for Harris, who in a mere 24 hours has lined up nearly every major Democratic figure to endorse her.
Jen Rubin is certain that this is the wiser move. The notion that some “random White governor … could jump the line ahead of the vice president to take the nomination beggars belief,” she writes. She sees a party “meltdown” if that happens.
Michele Norris agrees that a challenge to Harris could cause enormous........