‘It’s time to go’: Only question Joe Biden needs to answer after debate disaster
The first presidential debate was a disaster for Joe Biden. And right now there is only one question about the US President that is relevant.
Opinion
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Analysis: Right now there is only one question about when Joe Biden’s presidency comes to an end.
Will it be on the first Tuesday of November where, if all the polls are correct, the Democrat will face a trouncing?
Or will it be sometime sooner, after senior Democrats tap the president on the shoulder and say, “for the good of the party and the country, it’s time to go”?
Friday’s first presidential debate was supposed to reset the narrative for the president and show voters a fit and vigorous and most of all mentally sharp Joe Biden.
It was not to be.
RELATED: Recap how the debate unfolded
All the rules were tilted to give Biden an edge, from the lack of a studio audience to the unprecedented ad breaks.
And yet even then, Biden couldn’t manage it.
Glassy eyed, hoarse, and at times barely able to finish a sentence, Biden put on a performance that would have seen him denied entry to all but the dodgiest Sydney pubs.
Viewers who watched the debate with the sound off uniformly said Biden looked like a shambles.
Viewers who listened but did not watch said Biden came off even worse.
It will be left to others to catalogue all of Biden’s stumbles, though it was remarkable that the first major derailment came less than 12 minutes into the debate.
“Excuse me,” Biden said, trying to wrap up a rambling answer about the tax code.
“Dealing with everything we have to do with…”, he continued.
The president then paused again.
“Look, if we finally beat Medicare …”.
Oh dear.
Time and again Biden’s brain seemed to jump tracks, his mind hurriedly trying to get out
But what is truly extraordinary is that not even the most sympathetic Biden supporters or the most rabid anti-Trumpers have tried to spin this as a win.
Within minutes, The New York Times’ website’s lead headline opened with the killer words: “Biden Stumbles”.
On CNN, which hosted the debate and assigned two of its most rabidly partisan hosts to moderate, the panel looked more akin to a wake.
The network’s on-air team spoke openly of “aggressive panic” within the Democrats as panellists checked their phones for text messages from clearly addled officials.
It was the same elsewhere, with a general agreement that finally after months if not years of denial it was time to have a chat with the president about giving up his metaphorical car keys.
CBS reported that “There are at least some House Democrats ... talking about talking to the White House about having (Biden) step down.”
On NBC, Democrats were quoted saying is effectively over (with) some even starting to question what happens moving forward.”
The question now for Democrats, amid rumours that big money donors are about to demand a change, is what do they do?
Democrat rules allow a change to be made even after the August convention, when party bigwigs would be allowed to anoint a new candidate.
Possible candidates include California governor Gavin Newsom, who has been running a virtual shadow campaign, and Minnesota senator Amy Klobuchar.
A more complicated move would involve invoking the 25th amendment to the Constitution, which would be a headache for all sorts of reasons including that it would make Kamala Harris president.
And of course there is the issue of First Lady Jill Biden who is said to be absolutely one hundred per cent against her husband stepping aside.
All of which underlines the heart of the Democrats’ problem.
On the one hand, they claim that a re-elected Donald Trump would destroy democracy as we know it.
On the other, they are unable – for the moment – to put up a candidate they think could stop that from happening.
This may change, and change quickly, in the weeks ahead.
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