We are in our second full week of Democratic panic over Joe Biden’s ability to run a campaign, much less the entire country. Democrats have been vocal about the need for change, with some voices coming out of Congress saying it’s time for Biden to step aside.
However, those voices are dying down a bit and the narrative is changing. No longer are the critters of Congress calling for him to step down (for the most part). Now, they’re demanding Biden “make the necessary changes” and “show us more.” But, almost to a man, they aren’t being specific as to what changes they want to see or what they want Biden to show.
The answer for that is pretty simple, though: They want to sound like they’re listening to their base and pushing for a better candidate while not actually holding Biden’s feet to the fire and forcing him out. But once Biden released his letter to Congressional Democrats yesterday asserting that he’s not going anywhere, any real movement to replace him effectively died.
READ MORE: Biden Tells Congressional Democrats He Will NOT Step Aside
There are several Democrats who have shifted to this “Show Us More!” rhetoric but really don’t mean it, as POLITICO gets very close to noting in its morning “Playbook” newsletter.
Sen. PATTY MURRAY (D-Wash.), the Senate’s most senior female leader and a symbol of women’s hard-fought battle for power on Capitol Hill (who also spent 14 years as Biden’s colleague) struck a different note: “We need to see a much more forceful and energetic candidate on the campaign trail in the very near future in order for him to convince voters he is up to the job,” she said in a statement, calling on Biden to “seriously consider the best way to preserve his incredible legacy and secure it for the future.”
To be sure, Murray and other show-us-mores have been vague about what exactly, they’d like to see Biden doing more of — often simply calling on the candidate to “reassure” the American people. The better way to view their posture is that it’s less about needing Biden to show more and more about them needing to see more about how the very real voter doubts about his fitness for office evolve.
In fact, the only senator who is demanding any sort of specifics about what he wants to see is Bernie Sanders, who is ever at the ready to hijack a moment and convert it to his own political agenda.
Here’s the avowed socialist over the weekend on Face the Nation:
“But this I do what to say, and where I am critical of the Biden campaign,” he said, relying on his expertise and not winning a single presidential nomination (much less election), “It’s one thing to talk about your record over the last three and a half years, which is a strong record. The American people are hurting. Sixty percent of our people are living paycheck to paycheck!”
You know where it goes from here. Sanders turns Biden’s political troubles into a push for his socialist values. Not explicitly, but he does code it with “the needs of the working class.” He’s just shameless enough to use the opportunity to push Biden to the left. Note, that his very strong leftward bent couldn’t even rally Democratic voters to him in large enough numbers to beat Hillary Clinton or Joe Biden, but he is sure that his advice will help Biden win this time.
Good luck with that, I guess.
But, other than Sanders, most Democrats are being fairly quiet about what they want. The truth is, they are resigned to the fact that this 81-year-old with clear signs of mental decline is their nominee. They helped structure a primary that was not competitive for Biden, forced opposition aside, and made his nomination for a second term a cakewalk. They own this trainwreck, and they don’t like that fact. So, they’ll attempt to sound like they’re pushing for Biden to be the strongest candidate possible without actually specifying what changes he needs.
Changes which, by the way, aren’t hard to identify. He needs an entirely new campaign staff, as his current staff has been making the situation worse. He also probably needs to lay off most of his White House staff – the ones who are forming a protective bubble – and bring in people who are actual experts in crisis management and public image. All of this, of course, being advice I freely give knowing the Democrats aren’t going to be taking any advice from a radio guy in Louisiana who is writing columns for a conservative news and opinion site.
