Representatives of the Democratic National Committee insist that nothing amiss is happening. “The suggestion that the timeline for virtual voting has been accelerated is false,” said Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Jaime Harrison.
It’s true that Democrats moved up the nomination calendar two months ago to accommodate the Aug. 7 deadline to get Biden on the Ohio ballot, but that concern is now moot: Ohio lawmakers have since passed legislation granting Biden ballot access. While it’s theoretically possible that Republicans could challenge Democrats’ access, they almost certainly won’t succeed. The Ohio Secretary of State’s Office, which is responsible for overseeing elections, has said that “the issue is resolved.”
Still, the political situation is very different than it was two months ago. That was before Biden’s June debate performance raised deep questions about his mental acuity, and it was before a series of shaky public appearances in which Biden has struggled to demonstrate the mental and physical fitness needed to make his case against former President Donald Trump, let alone his ability to govern effectively in one of the most demanding jobs in the world.
According to a just-released AP-NORC poll, roughly two-thirds of Democrats now believe Biden should drop out of the presidential race. In a Washington Post-ABC News-Ipsos poll, the number of Americans who say Biden is more mentally sharp than Trump to serve as president has dropped from 23 percent to 14 percent.
The DNC is taking a huge risk by acting as if nothing has changed and treating voters’ concerns as neither legitimate nor urgent. Biden himself also appears to be in a state of denial, oblivious to the gravity of the crisis surrounding his candidacy. Even before the debate, Biden refused to acknowledge polls showing him trailing Trump in most key states. This denial has only intensified. At a press conference last week, the president dismissed the very idea of polls, wondering whether polls could really be “accurate” these days — even though, contrary to popular belief, they were historically accurate in the 2022 election cycle.
To make matters more complicated, Biden insisted in an interview with NBC News’ Lester Holt that the polling data was encouraging and that there was “no wide gap” between him and Trump. Biden reportedly relies on a shrinking group of senior advisers and his family. But even that might be an exaggeration. When Holt asked the president who he listens to when it comes to decisions like whether to stay in the race, he replied: “Me.”
The Democratic Party has a full month before its delegates gather at the convention. It should create the space for legitimate concerns to be expressed and should not exclude debate. To do otherwise (under the guise of fear of a quixotic Republican challenge to ballot access in Ohio) would be to dismiss the valid concerns of Democrats who believe Biden should no longer be the party’s nominee.
