The Democratic Party has time to make a better choice.

Follow this authorMegan McArdle's opinions

Passed in the wake of John F. Kennedy’s assassination, Section 4 of the 25th Amendment works well if the president is in a coma: The Cabinet and the vice president can vote to make her “acting president,” then hand that power back if and when the president recovers. However, for obvious reasons, Section 4 makes it easy for the president to reclaim his powers, which makes it ill-suited for sidelining a president who becomes impaired, but not entirely disabled. A conscious but erratic president can declare that “no inability exists,” which gives the Cabinet four days to either return power to him or refer the question to Congress.

If it’s thrown to the House and Senate, lawmakers can take up to 21 days to deliberate before voting on whether to pronounce the president “unable.” To pass, such a vote requires a two-thirds majority; otherwise the president resumes his powers. And if he loses the vote, he can restart the process by once again declaring that “no inability exists.”

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If Congress sends a clear enough message, he might not bother trying again. But of course, the reason for invoking Section 4 would be that the president has started making bad decisions. More to the point, sending this message would take a lot of Democratic votes. And if his party is finding it too difficult to force him out now, consider how much more difficult it would be after he is reelected.

At that point, no one could sugarcoat the issue as a question of whether Biden has the physical stamina to campaign. The only way to say it would be: “Sir, you’re no longer competent to be president.” This would be hard for either the Cabinet or party leaders to tell the big boss, especially without some assurance of support by two-thirds of Congress. (Imagine their future if they lose the vote and he retakes power.)

This would be only the first of many obstacles to invoking Section 4. Consider the political fallout: It would amount to a confession that the party was wrong to renominate Biden and to insist he could still do the job.

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Mustering the necessary courage becomes........

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