From the desk of … Democrats must take action to nominate a new candidate – The Ukiah Daily Journal

Towards the end of the Biden-Trump debate on CNN last week, I got up from the TV and posted this message on Facebook: “It’s a disaster. The Democratic Party needs to do something. Biden seems weak, indecisive and even older than he is. Trump is a madman and a world-class liar. But it’s a TV show and he controls the screen. God help us all.”

I have not changed my mind. If anything, after reading the transcript, my conviction has grown stronger – as much as I could bear it. It is true that Trump has unleashed an avalanche of lies. And admittedly, it is difficult to argue with someone who is so compulsively dishonest. Correcting lies takes a lot more time than telling them.

Trump lied when he said illegal immigrants were on welfare. That is completely illegal and simply not possible. He lied when he said Nancy Pelosi admitted to turning down his offer to send 10,000 troops to guard the Capitol on January 6. He made no such offer. In fact, he never spoke to her at all. Besides, he was president. Why didn’t he send troops if he thought they were needed? Instead, he did nothing.

It is absolutely false that “everyone” wanted Roe v. Wade overturned. Pretty much everyone knows better. It is also not true that the tariffs he proposed would be paid for by China. Tariffs are paid by importers, not exporters; U.S. consumers would foot the entire bill. The economy would collapse.

But why continue? A few of my Facebook friends offered half-hearted excuses for Biden, but none disagreed with my dire assessment. A few wondered what drug Trump was taking. One suspected Adderall. Despite his own manic nature, the Republican candidate had accused Biden of taking “stimulants” – projections are often a reliable indicator of a psychopath’s intentions.

But so what? The president was terrible. Let me put it this way: The Democratic Party is being put in the position of a baseball manager whose star pitcher loaded all the bases in the seventh inning of a scoreless playoff game. No matter how shaky his bullpen was, he has no choice but to trudge to the mound and reach his hand for the ball. There is no need for a conversation. Someone else has to take over.

Saying that doesn’t make me a “bedwetter,” nor am I panicking. I’m just trying to deal with the situation in the real world. Personally, I’ve been a fan of Joe Biden for a long time. He always reminded me of my late father. There is a certain physical resemblance, and his accent and demeanor were similar, although a private school punk like Trump would never have challenged him. So I hate to see Biden like that.

But like the vast majority of voters who think he’s too old to be president, I can’t argue with my senses. He may have thrown out the team in the sixth inning, but he didn’t throw a single strike in the seventh.

Okay, enough baseball.

The problem is: It’s likely to happen again. Whatever struck Biden down on debate night, be it a cold or sheer fatigue (his travel schedule would have exhausted a man half his age), the only way out of the political crisis his abysmal performance has triggered is for Biden to make as many unscripted, teleprompted public appearances as possible in the coming days.

He needs to do live TV interviews with challenging subjects, answer questions from the astonishingly rude White House press corps, show drive and willpower, and show everyone who’s in charge. And if he can’t do that – if the White House staff has to hide him – then he should do himself and everyone else a favor and withdraw his candidacy.

Rather than resigning and handing over to Vice President Kamala Harris, he must remain in office and ask the Democratic Party to nominate a successor at its upcoming convention in Chicago. Harris will – assuming she wants to – run against the nomination of such prominent Democrats as Governor Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan, Governor Gavin Newsom of California, Governor Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania, Governor Andy Beshear of Kentucky, Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey or any other ambitious outsider candidate.

I agree with my former colleague and friend Jonathan Alter that “an open convention, rather than a chaotic mess, would generate tremendous excitement that would catapult the candidate into the fall campaign. And without Biden to denigrate, Trump would try to denigrate a new candidate. But after pursuing a moving target of potential rivals over the summer, he would have little time to prove anything.”

For me, Joe Biden has been the best and most meaningful president of my adult life – I am only a year younger than him – and deserves immense gratitude for bringing the country safely home from COVID and Trump.

So it gives me no pleasure to say that it is time for him to go.

Arkansas Times columnist Gene Lyons is a National Magazine Award winner and co-author of “The Hunting of the President” (St. Martin’s Press, 2000). You can email Lyons at [email protected].