The most amazing 4th of July!
Don't begrudge my historic scoop. Just be amazed I got back in time to share it!
5 July 2024
Yellow Springs OH
I am more than amazed to recount yesterday’s historic and frankly stunning events.
First, let me tell you how relieved I was when I first heard about Biden’s surprise press conference at the White House at noon eastern time. The second it flashed on my iPhone around 930, I knew he was going to do right by the republic and step aside from the 2024 election.
While I was one of those deeply intrigued by the notion of an open convention, I submit to the collective wisdom that says the easiest procedural path forward is for Biden to first release and then advise (because that’s all he can do ) his delegates to support Kamala Harris for the nomination in August. No fuss on campaign finance (she now gets the money he raised for his candidacy with no complications), no issue about getting her name on the ballot on all 50 states, no big fight that leaves us divided.
We Dems all voted for her in 2020 to serve as Veep, knowing full well Biden’s age (even then) meant there was a good chance she would serve as POTUS, so there should be no hesitation in approving her nominations, particularly after Obama, the Clintons, Kerry, Pelosi, and others immediately came out with full-throated endorsements.
If that was all that happened yesterday, it would have been a memorable and historic 4th.
But then, 9 minutes into his opening comments to the press, Biden announced that he was resigning from the presidency effective 8pm eastern last night. Having helped elect the first African American president (Obama), Biden said it was his great honor and high privilege to step aside from the Oval Office and make Harris the nation’s first female president, first female African American president, and first Indian American president.
Dark Brandon, declaring that he wanted a clean hand-off, did more for the republic than ANYBODY (including me) saw coming. He simply and calmly admitted that the job had gotten too big for him in recent months and that it was best for the nation for the transition to a new generation of American leaders to begin here and now.
I know. I was stunned for the rest of the day, and, like everyone else, I was glued to my phone as the livestream of Harris’s swearing-in occurred on the South Lawn of the White House.
I thought Harris’s speech was fine, but what really sealed the deal and the day for me was her announcing that she — of course — was releasing all her VP delegates and asking them to be ready for … wait for it … an open convention vote on her running mate in August.
No surprise: before midnight we had three self-declared candidates, with Whitmer being my favorite for now. Imagine, an all-female ticket of Gen Xers (come on, Harris is close enough by most standards with her 20 October 1964 bday!) to finally put those Boomers to bed!
I have seen the promised land!
The Dems’ decision to make the Veep nomination an open procedure at the convention is a stroke of genius. It will drive headlines from here to there and totally outshine Trump’s pick, whoever it is (probably Vance now to appeal generationally). It will also constitute must-see TV in an age in which conventions are SO BORING!
Anyway, almost too much excitement for one day.
I know, I know. There’s already talk that Harris won’t officially put forward a Vice President selectee to Congress for confirmation. Read your 25th Amendment closely. POTUS is required to do so but no timetable is established, so Harris can simply run out the clock on that one — Mitch McConnell style — and avoid that pointless fight. We’ve gone a cumulative total of 38 years without a Veep in office, so we can manage six months (even with that Johnson on deck).
Anyway, with such big news, I felt the need to process it here, and so I hope you don’t mind me getting so political in my Substack.
Yesterday was just too amazing for me not to offer some comment.
Call me a bedwetter, but at least I know when it's time to change my diaper.
As you articulate, those fretting re the world post Biden withdrawal/resignation ignore the excitement and energy an AltDem campaign would elicit. And finally for the first time in months, the story would not be Trump (or the story of the past week- Biden's decrepitude). The present status quo is unacceptable. If Biden does not withdraw and/or resign, he and his team are holding the party hostage to his own hubris. I sincerely and desperately wish he will do the right thing. I continue to believe he will.