Abbreviated Pundit Roundup: With Biden's decision, the game is completely changed
Abbreviated Pundit Roundup is a long-running series published every morning that collects essential political discussion and analysis around the internet. Frank Bruni/The New York Times: What Joe Biden Just Did Is Utterly Extraordinary In the hours and days to come, many political observers will say that President Biden was backed into a corner and had no choice but to end his re-election campaign. His limitations had been laid painfully bare. He’d lost the confidence of the Democratic Party. And he was staggering toward an increasingly ugly revolt within it or a potentially harrowing defeat by Donald Trump. Bowing out wasn’t an act of grace. It was a saving of face. All correct. But that’s not the whole truth. Not the full story. It misses the bigness of what Biden just did — its historical rarity, its emotional agony, its fundamental humility. It’s only been 12 hours since Biden announced he would not be running for re-election and two things are already clear. The Trumpites have both lost control of the narrative and the energy of the campaign is moving to the Democrats.— Phillips P. OBrien (@PhillipsPOBrien) July 22, 2024 Tim Alberta/The Atlantic: This Is Exactly What the Trump Team Feared A campaign that had been optimized to beat Joe Biden now must be reinvented. On the evening of Super Tuesday, March 5, shortly before Donald Trump effectively ended the Republican primary and earned a general-election rematch with President Joe Biden, I asked the co-managers of Trump’s presidential campaign what they feared most about Biden. “Honestly, it’s less him,” Chris LaCivita told me. “And more—” “Institutional Democrats,” Susie Wiles said, finishing her partner’s thought. It was a revealing exchange, and a theme we would revisit frequently. The Democratic Party, Wiles and LaCivita would tell me in conversations over the coming months, was a machine—well organized and well financed, with a record of support from the low-propensity voters who turn out every four years in presidential contests. Ordinarily, they explained, Democrats would have structural superiority in a race like this one. But something was holding the party back: Biden. That sound you hear is the Trump campaign ripping up a detailed, brilliant, and suddenly useless blueprint for beating Joe Biden— Tim Alberta (@TimAlberta) July 21, 2024 David Ignatius/The Washington Post: For Joe Biden, who never gave up In a political career of more than half a century, he never stopped looking for one more hand to shake. Biden seemed to love all his jobs in government, especially this last one. The whole world was waiting in line to shake his hand. He could be irascible and demanding with his staff, but in his public role as president he was nearly always the genial patriarch. After a lifetime of being underestimated, he liked being in charge. And it was hard to give that up. The country has watched Biden’s agonizing path toward Sunday’s announcement that he won’t run for a second term. By the end, he seemed nearly alone in resisting this decision. Three-quarters of the country told pollsters a year ago that he was too old to serve another term as president. But perhaps Biden saw that long receiving line stretching toward the horizon, and he didn’t want to step away. The rest of the week will bring lots of think pieces on Biden stepping down from the campaign, but they haven’t all been written yet. Herein are some early thoughts, but there’s no question Biden’s selfless decision showcased his maturity and grace. Donald Trump thought Kamala Harris was so effective as Attorney General that he cut her a check. pic.twitter.com/Pn8RIM1SsD— Max Burns (@themaxburns) July 21, 2024 Washington Post: Trump forced to regroup after gains, as advisers prepare to face Harris The Republican nominee, whose campaign had hoped Biden would stay in the contest, wrote on his social media website that Biden was “never” fit to serve or run for reelection and vowed to “remedy the damage he has done very quickly.” The Republican nominee and his advisers still sought to project confidence about the path forward and the prospect of taking on Vice President Harris, whom Biden endorsed as his successor. Trump said any new opponent would be “more of the same,” a position some allies repeatedly echoed. They quickly signaled plans to make a slashing case against Harris for her handling of the southern border, and to tie her to Biden’s most unpopular policies. But they also acknowledged that Harris would bring new challenges. Several people close to Trump said they expect Harris would be a more effective messenger on abortion than Biden was, and could stem some of the anger over the Israel-Gaza war that has bedeviled Biden’s candidacy. They also braced for the prospect that, if nominated, Harris would choose a popular running mate from a swing state, such as Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona or Gov. Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania. And,
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Abbreviated Pundit Roundup is a long-running series published every morning that collects essential political discussion and analysis around the internet.
Frank Bruni/The New York Times:
What Joe Biden Just Did Is Utterly Extraordinary
In the hours and days to come, many political observers will say that President Biden was backed into a corner and had no choice but to end his re-election campaign. His limitations had been laid painfully bare. He’d lost the confidence of the Democratic Party. And he was staggering toward an increasingly ugly revolt within it or a potentially harrowing defeat by Donald Trump. Bowing out wasn’t an act of grace. It was a saving of face.
All correct. But that’s not the whole truth. Not the full story. It misses the bigness of what Biden just did — its historical rarity, its emotional agony, its fundamental humility.
Tim Alberta/The Atlantic:
This Is Exactly What the Trump Team Feared
A campaign that had been optimized to beat Joe Biden now must be reinvented.
On the evening of Super Tuesday, March 5, shortly before Donald Trump effectively ended the Republican primary and earned a general-election rematch with President Joe Biden, I asked the co-managers of Trump’s presidential campaign what they feared most about Biden.
“Honestly, it’s less him,” Chris LaCivita told me. “And more—”
“Institutional Democrats,” Susie Wiles said, finishing her partner’s thought.
It was a revealing exchange, and a theme we would revisit frequently. The Democratic Party, Wiles and LaCivita would tell me in conversations over the coming months, was a machine—well organized and well financed, with a record of support from the low-propensity voters who turn out every four years in presidential contests. Ordinarily, they explained, Democrats would have structural superiority in a race like this one. But something was holding the party back: Biden.
David Ignatius/The Washington Post:
For Joe Biden, who never gave up
In a political career of more than half a century, he never stopped looking for one more hand to shake.
Biden seemed to love all his jobs in government, especially this last one. The whole world was waiting in line to shake his hand. He could be irascible and demanding with his staff, but in his public role as president he was nearly always the genial patriarch. After a lifetime of being underestimated, he liked being in charge. And it was hard to give that up.
The country has watched Biden’s agonizing path toward Sunday’s announcement that he won’t run for a second term. By the end, he seemed nearly alone in resisting this decision. Three-quarters of the country told pollsters a year ago that he was too old to serve another term as president. But perhaps Biden saw that long receiving line stretching toward the horizon, and he didn’t want to step away.
The rest of the week will bring lots of think pieces on Biden stepping down from the campaign, but they haven’t all been written yet. Herein are some early thoughts, but there’s no question Biden’s selfless decision showcased his maturity and grace.
Trump forced to regroup after gains, as advisers prepare to face Harris
The Republican nominee, whose campaign had hoped Biden would stay in the contest, wrote on his social media website that Biden was “never” fit to serve or run for reelection and vowed to “remedy the damage he has done very quickly.”
The Republican nominee and his advisers still sought to project confidence about the path forward and the prospect of taking on Vice President Harris, whom Biden endorsed as his successor. Trump said any new opponent would be “more of the same,” a position some allies repeatedly echoed. They quickly signaled plans to make a slashing case against Harris for her handling of the southern border, and to tie her to Biden’s most unpopular policies.
But they also acknowledged that Harris would bring new challenges. Several people close to Trump said they expect Harris would be a more effective messenger on abortion than Biden was, and could stem some of the anger over the Israel-Gaza war that has bedeviled Biden’s candidacy. They also braced for the prospect that, if nominated, Harris would choose a popular running mate from a swing state, such as Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona or Gov. Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania. And, as one Trump ally put it, “she can actually speak and campaign.”
Jonathan V. Last/The Bulwark:
Kamala Harris: The Future Is Now
A blueprint for her campaign.
Every campaign has a rationale, a raison d'être, that can be condensed into an elevator-pitch. The rationale is a combination of an idea, a vision, and a person. It has to be timed correctly. The messenger for it must make sense. This is all infinitely harder than it sounds.
Successful campaigns have deceptively simple rationales:
Reagan 1984: It’s morning in America.
Clinton 1992: Change versus more of the same.
Obama 2008: Hope.
Trump 2016: I will hurt the people you hate.
[...]
The only Democrat who has a compelling rationale—right now—is Kamala Harris.
What is it?
Kamala Harris: The future is now.
The Washington Post has a process piece:
How Democrats can pick a new candidate, step by step Delegates will choose a new nominee now that President Biden has stepped aside, possibly at an open convention in August.
Now that President Biden has decided to end his campaign for reelection, there are two paths for replacing him at the top of the Democratic ticket.
One is a virtual vote that would lock in a new nominee in early August, and the other is an “open” convention, a scenario the party hasn’t experienced since 1968.
A convention is open when no candidate arrives with a clear majority of delegates, so the event turns into a mini-primary in which contenders scramble to persuade delegates to vote for them.
The potential for chaos is high, and the time is short. Some states have August deadlines to get on the ballot for the general election, and early voting begins in some places in September. So party leaders probably will try to settle the nomination before the Democratic National Convention begins Aug. 19.
Will Bunch/Philadelphia Inquirer:
Biden can go down as an American hero — but only if Harris can beat Trump
Biden did what he promised in restoring sanity to America in the 2020s, but few will remember if a dictatorial Trump returns.
One of our earliest political legends is the tale of the ancient Roman leader Cincinnatus. It’s believed that in the year 458 B.C., Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus, a former senator — considered an old man for his time — was plowing his small farm when a delegation from Rome pleaded with him to return to the capital and put down a popular insurrection and vanquish the city-state’s restive neighbors.
Cincinnatus donned a toga, returned to Rome, crushed the various uprisings in just 15 days, and — mission accomplished — happily surrendered power and went back to his farm. His story is still told, 25 centuries later, as a parable of civic virtue and selflessness.
At 1:46 p.m. on the languid Sunday afternoon of July 21, 2024 — a date now etched in American history — President Joe Biden made his bid to become the American Cincinnatus.
As a scholar, he’s charted the decline in religion. Now the church he pastors is closing its doors
They plan to gather one last time on Sunday — the handful of mostly elderly members of First Baptist Church in Mt. Vernon, Illinois.
[…]
Many U.S. churches close their doors each year, typically with little attention. But this closure has a poignant twist.
First Baptist’s pastor, Ryan Burge, spends much of his time as a researcher documenting the dramatic decline in religious affiliation in recent decades. His recent book, “The Nones,” talks about the estimated 30% of American adults who identify with no religious tradition.
Matt Robison and Cliff Schecter on the news:
