2024, meet 1968.
A beleaguered incumbent Democrat president backs out of his reelection bid. His party pushes forward with his vice-president as the party’s nominee. The Democrat convention is slated to happen in Chicago. The Republicans line up behind a candidate fresh off an earlier heartbreaking loss to the beleaguered Democrat incumbent. A member of the Kennedy family is a factor in the race. The Democrat base is split between rioting-in-the-street radicals and more conventional liberals. The nation’s economy — and mood — are both in the toilet.
That was the 1968 presidential election. But it sure fits the 2024 race to a ‘tee.’
Joe Biden‘s announcement that he was dropping out of the 2024 presidential race rocked an otherwise quiet Sunday afternoon. Many observers had been anticipating something like this. But in politics, you talk about a lot of stuff that either doesn’t happen or you really hope doesn’t happen.
All the big Dems have stepped forward to endorse vice president Kamala Harris. That is the easiest course for their party to follow. Absentee ballots go out in a month. Election Day is in three months.
Harris has the name ID and can use all the money that has already been raised for the Biden-Harris ticket. Of course, the name ID could still leave the Dems with a problem in the presidential race. But Harris — right now — doesn’t carry the baggage that old man Biden does. She’s polling a lot better than her current boss is.
Some may dismiss this as a ‘no-way-in-hell-she’ll-win” scenario. How many people predicted Biden and Harris sending Trump and Pence packing in 2020?
To soothe voters who may still have heartburn over the idea of President Kamala, the Dems might 
need a more moderate, more palatable choice for the ticket’s #2 slot. Our very own governor, Gomer Pyle, is getting talked up for such an opportunity. If Pyle doesn’t make that cut, there’s always a 2026 matchup for him with Trailer-Park Thom.
There’s also the spectre out there of a contested Democrat convention. West Virginia’s former governor and current senator Joe Manchin, a former Democrat now Independent, is talking about running back to the Ds and challenging Kamala at the national convention. Manchin is part of the more moderate wing of the party. He could also be a possibility for the #2 spot on a Kamala-headed ticket. One of the more scary aspects of the Biden-Harris ticket was that there was no comforting alternative waiting in the wings in the event something happened to Ol’ Joe. Manchin might be able to calm some of those fears about a Harris-headed ticket.
We’re facing a scenario the country hasn’t seen in 56 years. With the drama on the Dem side and the always-entertaining character of a Trump campaign, this really could be an election year for the books.
Amid all of the approaching entertainment, it is important to think hard about the dangers looming
large out there for our country. There’s an awful lot of chaos and carnage around the globe (and right up against our southern border). Our national economy is like a house-of-cards erected on a breezy day.
We’re in need of some drastic change and some novel, creative solutions. Take time to carefully evaluate whatever options we end up with, and — for the sake of the country and its future generations — set aside the sideshow antics and choose wisely.
The angle on this that is very different from 1968 is the LBJ left on his own, but Biden was pushed out by a cabal around Obama. This is the latest bit of process rigging this cycle by the Un-Democratic Party. Pushing Biden out this late means the party bosses choose the new candidate, not the voters. The Daily Mail of London, one of the major newspapers of the UK, ran an excellent column on Biden’s withdrawal:
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13657039/Biden-withdrawal-presidential-race-kamala-MAUREEN-CALLAHAN.html
I have never smelled a smell that smells like the smell I’ve have smelt for over two years. That would be Mooshell. Damn I hope I’m wrong!!!!!
Imagine what would have happened if the debate had been on the usual debate schedule AFTER the conventions. The Democrats would have been stuck. There are two reasons that did not happen. One was that the Democrat kingmakers suckered Biden to a pre-convention debate. A pre-convention debate has never before been held in US presidential election history.
On the Republican side, the reason the Democrat power brokers got away with it was the monumental political incompetence of RNC chairman Michael Whatley. Whatley sat on his hands on debate negotiations when he should have been engaged.
One of the few things that his predecessor, Ronna Romney McDaniel, got right was leading the RNC to take the biased and corrupt Presidential Debate Commission out of the picture and instead use direct negotiation between the parties to set up the debates. Then came Whatley who never moved forward on initiating those negotiations between the parties. That turned out to be nothing short of political malpractice by Whatley.
With no negotiations underway, it was easy for the Biden campaign to move in and offer a debate publicly but only on their terms. One of those terms was the unusual early date for the first debate. The Biden campaign was blindsided by his party’s kingmakers on the real reason for that highly ususual early debate.
The New York Post has an interesting article on how the Democrat kingmakers forced Biden out. The final straw was threatening him with the 25th Amendment if he did not go voluntarily, but setting up the early debate was also a key part of their strategy. Republicans got suckered into that, too, thanks to Whatley’s massive incompetence.
https://nypost.com/2024/07/22/us-news/top-dems-threatened-to-remove-biden-unless-he-resigned/
These things are pretty ominous. I am old enough to remember all that mess with LBJ in 1968. He was pretty bad, but he knew what he was doing. I had hoped OBiden would stick around because he would be easy to beat. After all, Trump beat him in 2020, before the election was stolen. OBiden has mush for brains, and even other democrats were finally forced to admit it. Now, we have a lot of uncertainty. I am not as happy with Trump as I was before pro-life, conservative Christians were betrayed by the RNC; but amid all the uncertainty and disillusionment, one thing is still clear. We are still much better off with Trump than we would be with anything the jackass party has to offer.
See what I mean by a principled conservative? Here is Larry Pittman willing to speak the truth about the 2020 general election.
It was stolen.
When the elections officials spout off with, “there has no material evidence of fraud”, the response should always be: “there is no proof your purported results are accurate”.
And I failed to mention Dale Folwell as a principled conservative. Obviously Dale is. I love that man. It’s disgusting how we paid his competitor a salary to run for Gov for 3+ years.
I was just thinking about state legislators when I answered the question.