Is Joe Biden Honestly the Best Chance Democrats Have to Defeat Donald Trump?

There has been a tension within the Democratic party over the last six months between those who have steadfastly supported Biden as the Democratic nominee and those who still believe there is a chance to replace him on the ticket at the Convention. The Biden enthusiasts were so adamantly against the idea of replacing him, and those who wanted to replace him were so worried about undermining the only realistic canddiate that the latter have mostly kept their thoughts to themselves and quietly hoped for the best (give or take a Jon Stewart or Ezra Klein, here or there).

After Joe Biden’s dismal performance at last night’s debate, those worried about nominating Biden are going to get a lot louder, and those steadfast supporters — I think — are going to start to soften to the idea. Don’t get it wrong: Donald Trump was a disaster of lies and nonsense, but I still think he probably got in the defining line of the night: “I don’t know what [Joe Biden] just said, and I don’t think he does, either.” That line, combined with the thought that we all had when CNN moderator Dana Bash put in our minds what Joe Biden might look like as President at the age of 86 — given how he looked last night at the age of 81 — was probably enough to doom Biden’s campaign for good.

Biden had one job last night: Assure voters that his age was not a concern. He failed. He did the opposite. Did he improve over the course of the night? Slightly, but I know that many people — including many of our own readers — quit after the first 15 minutes because they couldn’t stomach to watch anymore. It’s hard to even say that Biden improved that much given how horribly he botched the abortion question — his biggest strength — and the fact that he took the bait on the golf exchange. I still cannot believe that it was Trump who said, “Let’s stop being children,” and Biden who shot back, “You’re a child.”

A couple of months ago, my wife was invited to the White House as part of an effort by the Biden Administration to speak to community leaders and have them take the Administration’s accomplishments back to their communities. Several administration officials spoke, listing off an impressive list of accomplishments that the Administration is quietly doing behind the scenes. Most people have no idea how much good this Administration is doing for farmers, for veterans, to the blue-collar voters once the backbone of the Democratic party.

But Biden has not been able to communicate that effectively, and he rarely even tries anymore (how do you skip the Super Bowl interview?). President Biden has been a good President (notwithstanding some disagreements many of us have had). He has been an effective President. But he is a lousy campaigner and an increasingly terrible communicator, and it won’t get better. It’s going to get worse. The stronger-than-usual State of the Union speech was the exception, not the rule. Biden was similarly weak, soft-spoken, and raspy as the closed-door fundraiser in Los Angeles a couple of weeks ago. The fact that a cold set him back as much as it did during the debate is not comforting. What does the flu do?

Four years ago, Joe Biden ran as the guy who could take on the bully. We hate a bully, and Trump is as big a bully as there is. Last night, Trump bullied the hell out of Biden, but the President did not punch back, metaphorically speaking. In those split-screen shots, Biden looked like a wounded man being beaten up who had no ability left to fight back. Every time he tried, he stumbled. I think undecided voters — the tiny, tiny slice of those who remain, but who will ultimately decide the election — probably thought Donald Trump was a real asshole but worse than that, they felt sorry for Joe Biden. When you’re running to be the most powerful person in the country — or arguably, the world — you’re not going to win a lot of support from those who feel pity for you.

I’m reminded of something that Jon Stewart said in his return show back in February. “If the Barbarians are at the Gate, you want Conan standing on the ramparts, not the ‘Chocolate Chip cookie’ guy.”

Joe Biden is not the “chocolate chip cookie guy.” But he’s not Conan standing at the ramparts, either. If this is the most important election in the history of our democracy — as we all keep insisting it is — we need to put our best candidate forward. It would be a dereliction of the party’s duty not to. Is that an increasingly frail 81-year-old man with a long list of accomplishments who is unable to campaign on those accomplishments effectively? Or is that a lesser known candidate — Gretchen Whitmer, Josh Shapiro, Kamala Harris — who can more effectively communicate their vision and stand up to the bully? I don’t know if anyone else can beat Trump, but after last night, I know that Joe Biden cannot.