I was skeptical Democrats would drop Biden. No longer. After that debate, he’s done | Opinion

For months, I have engaged in on- and off-air conversations with people who wonder whether Joe Biden will actually be the nominee when Democrats anoint their standard-bearer at their Chicago convention.

His cognitive decline has long been obvious, vocally noticed by Republicans and grudgingly acknowledged by a growing number of Democrats. But after Thursday’s debate with Donald Trump, the narrative has moved from whether Biden will be shelved to when.

Count me among those who have been skeptical about the party changing nominees in midstream. It’s not as though I’ve been blind to Biden’s gaffes and the glazed moments; it’s just that denying him the nomination after his proper string of primary wins is a very long bridge to cross under normal circumstances. But these are far from normal circumstances.

For months, the characterization of Biden as unfit for the job has been marked as a partisan index card of conservative media. But after Thursday night’s debacle, there will be no more interviews with supposed insiders who say he is “great behind closed doors.” There will be no more strategists suggesting that what he really needs is to get out there more aggressively among voters and light fires of enthusiasm with bold new initiatives.

This man is done.

One of the most telling things on social media as the debate unfolded was the growing chorus of people who thoroughly hate Trump admitting that he was owning the night. But from Democrats to the quaint clique of Trump-hating Republicans, they were not making this observation to compliment him; they were forced into moments of gut-wrenching truth because they know that there’s no hope of keeping him out of the White House unless the Democrats come to their senses, and quickly.

Every American opposed to Trump’s return to the presidency now knows that their hopes lie with some unknown savior who must be anointed by mysterious means between now and the Democratic convention in August.

If that scenario is muddled by the procedural difficulty of giving Biden the hook, it is made even more daunting by the thorough lack of obvious bench strength ready to take the field. Kamala Harris? Even Democrats have noticed the resounding failure of her vice presidency. And if California Gov. Gavin Newsom is a tantalizing option, his prospects are damaged at the outset by his white maleness and the sorry condition of his state.

Republicans should be asking: Do we need to be careful what we wish for? Those who have identified Biden as damaged goods for a long time have now been summarily proven right. But isn’t it strategically correct that a younger, more coherent candidate might be harder for Trump to beat?

Probably. But if Democrats do what they surely know they must do, something will happen the morning after the new nominee is revealed. People will go to the grocery store. People will watch TV coverage of our porous borders. They will see the product of Biden’s terrible policies, which are a harder problem to solve than the nominee’s age and infirmity.

Will a more vibrant nominee suggest responsible border policy? Will the Democrats’ new champion be able to promise a more stable economy? Will Biden’s replacement back away from his aggressive policies on gender?

This goes to the crux of why Trump had leads in various key states before he even took the stage for the debate that should end Biden’s political career. Polls show that growing numbers of voters, including those constituencies that are supposed to be a challenge for Trump, such as women and people of color, believe in a functioning border and nostalgically recall the economy when he was president.

While it is wise to hold conspiracy theories at arm’s length, there’s one that began to murmur shortly after Biden clumsily prodded his rival onto the debate stage in that weird jump-cut video some weeks ago: As Republicans were grumbling about the prospect of a setup featuring a network and moderators who despise Trump, is it possible that this debate was craftily force-fed by Democrats who knew precisely how it would go?

While that’s impossible to know, the aftermath of this debate is impossible to ignore: the Biden re-election effort is unsustainable and irredeemable. For a long time, it has been hard to imagine him plausibly lasting another four years. Now it’s hard to imagine his campaign lasting another four months.

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