In the aftermath of President Joe Biden's poor performance on Thursday night when he debated Donald Trump, one Washington Post contributing columnist suggested that, if Biden stepped aside as multiple commentators are urging him to do, it could cause problems for the convicted felon ex-president.
According to longtime political observer Matt Bai, a wide-open Democratic convention scheduled to begin August 19th in Chicago would become must-see TV for Americans who would then be unsure who the Democratic nominee would be — thereby engaging potential voters who planned to sit this election out over dissatisfaction with the choices they've been given.
As Bai wrote, a typical convention where the eventual presidential and vice presidential nominees are already known, is far less compelling than the "chaos" that comes with a brokered convention.
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Pointing to the possibility Biden could step aside, he wrote, "The question everyone’s asking is: What comes next? If the answer is chaos and contention, I think Democrats would be wise to bring it on."
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After writing, "Democrats harbor a deep, almost pathological fear of disorderly conventions," he suggested, "Parties, like all big institutions in American life, are losing their currency. Nominating conventions barely register on the public radar these days, for the few hours that anyone bothers to televise them while the rest of America is at the lake or the beach. We skim right over the dull choreography of the modern convention; it is the junk mail of prime-time programming."
Having made that point, he advised, "If Biden were to accept reality and step aside, for once, Democrats would have a genuine opportunity to match Trump’s theatrical dominance," before adding, "What could draw more people into politics than a must-watch nightly drama, with the fate of the nation at stake?"
As he sees it, the attention-starved Trump would be caught flat-footed by the Democrats stealing the limelight from him.
"I have to believe that Trump — a modern-day P.T. Barnum who feeds off the boring artifice of his adversaries — fears that spectacle more than anything," he predicted before admitting, "I understand why Democrats flinch at the thought of blowing everything up now, with the primaries over and the convention approaching. I get that chaos and dissension always come with a mountain of risk."
"Is it more risk than the one they’re taking with Biden at the top of the ticket? If you watched the debate, you already know the answer," he concluded.
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