Biden's Out

What's Next?

Ten minutes ago, Biden dropped out of the campaign.

From the New York Times:

“It has been the greatest honor of my life to serve as your President,” he said in a letter posted on social media. “And while it has been my intention to seek re-election, I believe it is in the best interest of my party and the country for me to stand down and to focus solely on fulfilling my duties as President for the remainder of my term.”

This was a surprise. I thought it was going to happen, just not this afternoon.

I was glued to the Sunday morning news shows this morning, and while party elites were gently nudging him to step down, Biden’s closest confidents were insisting to Jake Tapper that he would stay. There were reports that Jill and Hunter were telling Biden to stay. AOC made great points about the practical problems of walking away from Biden’s campaign at this last state.

I thought we would be fighting this out all week. Whew!

I think we still need to address AOC’s viral video. She said that it takes weeks, if not months, to get union leaders and other key Democratic grassroots figures to support the next candidate.

This was the right move. Trump’s people have been trying to get Biden to stay. They think they can beat Biden, but aren’t sure that they can beat Harris. That’s good news.

Also, various embarrassing stories about Biden’s health were starting to leak out. It would have been an humiliating autumn.

Biden just endorsed Harris. Whose is she going to pick as a partner? It’s going to be a midwestern moderate, I think. She’s going to need to balance out her negatives with someone with someone with mirror image positives.

We don’t know what’s going to happen to the money and the names on the ballot. So many unknowns.

Thoughts?