As of today, the conventional wisdom in Washington, D.C., holds that Democrats prefer a 2024 candidate other than President Joe Biden, but feel the incumbent has earned the right to run.
Nonsense!
Under no circumstances will the power-hungry Democrats let Biden, unwilling to engage primary debate challengers and refusing to campaign in the time-honored fashion, again become the party’s standard bearer.
Seven months remain until Chicago hosts the Democratic National Convention, an eternity in politics.
That’s doubly so if party leaders and donors perceive that former President Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican Party nominee, continues his upswing while Biden drops even further in national polling.
Influential Democrats and deep-pocketed party supporters could lean hard on Biden to withdraw gracefully with their promise that on his way out, they would hail him as a modern-day FDR.
If Biden resists, Democrats could play hardball, a technique the party is familiar with. Since there are no secrets in Washington, everyone who’s anyone knows about Biden and his family’s nefarious dealings.
Threaten to leak internal dope on the Biden family to the Republican-led House Judiciary and Oversight committees and Biden might change his mind.
The scenario may appear improbable but it’s not impossible.
Should Biden exit, voluntarily or otherwise, that would solve only half of the Democrats’ problems. The other half would be to choose a viable replacement.
Many of the names floated don’t resonate with the general public — Vice President Kamala Harris, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm, also a former Michigan governon. All have net negative polling.
Still available is Gov. Gavin Newsom, anxiously waiting in the wings, fingers crossed, ready to pounce should the opportunity present itself.
But if Newsom is tapped, a vexing hurdle remains: he would need to script a platform that will connect nationally, a tough task given his abysmal record in California.
Typically, a stumping candidate highlights his successes. Not only does Newsom have no tangible, tout-worthy achievements, his failures and misjudgments are colossal.
The elitist, multimillion-dollar net worth Newsom will never shake his Napa Valley French Laundry birthday party fiasco. During the COVID-19 pandemic when he was shutting down Orange County beaches, he dined maskless with lobbyists.
The incident, which showed Newsom’s disregard for his constituents, will haunt him.
The dinner is a small-potatoes blotch compared to California’s exploding homelessness, widespread poverty, soaring housing prices, rotten public education system that ranks 44th nationwide, rampant smash-and-grab crime, and dramatic cost of living spikes.
Although California’s bullet train debacle has dropped from the national news, the story reflects another costly Newsom blunder.
Four years ago, when he unveiled his scaled-down concept for the bullet train, he proposed constructing a 171-mile starter line in the Central Valley that would begin operating in 2030 and cost $22.8 billion.
Today, the projected costs are $35 billion, and exceed by $10 billion future committed funding.
Adding to the bullet train’s woes: an official estimate of future ridership has dropped by 25%, and the operating schedule has been pushed further into the future.
Waste, waste and more waste on a project that Californians didn’t want, and few would benefit from.
Newsom’s gravest miscalculation is — during a sustained southern border illegal alien invasion — his immigration advocacy. California’s official government website prominently includes a section called “California for All” that reads: “every person can achieve a better life regardless of where they start out,” an open invitation to illegal immigrants.
Newsom is out of step with public opinion. At a time when the nation is coping with an estimated 8 million aliens released into the interior since Biden’s inauguration and coming from more than 150 nations, Newsom as of Jan. 1, will provide all low-income illegal aliens, regardless of age, with Medi-Cal, the state’s Medicaid program.
As many as 764,000 illegal aliens could be added to Medi-Cal, costing California taxpayers an extra $3.1 billion annually.
The rub is that pursuant to the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996, illegal aliens are generally barred from receiving federally funded means-tested public benefits like Medicaid.
Therefore, the burdensome cost falls solely on California’s residents, a foolish, inexplicable decision since the state is sinking under a $68 billion deficit.
Deservedly, California is synonymous with failure. Residents are fleeing for more hospitable states.
Newsom would have to be a magician to sell his California as a model for the other 49 states.
If Democrats examine his résumé and conclude he’s not electable, then they may be stuck, like it or not, with an equally unelectable Biden.