Each news cycle brings a raft of new revelations and new defections from President Biden’s re-election effort.
Whether it’s Democratic congressional candidates and elected leaders offering vague statements of support or the smaller-but-growing contingent more willing to speak to the political moment and suggest — gently or otherwise — that Joe must go, the narrative seems obvious to observers.
It’s not so obvious, however, to President Biden or to his two biggest cheerleaders: First Lady Jill Biden, who has taken an increasingly vocal role as a campaign surrogate (reminding some of Lady Macbeth), and newly minted political adviser Hunter Biden, who has gone from after-school-special subject matter to suddenly trusted and sage confidant as his father becomes increasingly embattled.
The apparent momentum to push Biden into renouncing his re-election bid a week or so ago has dissipated, of course.
The president continues to make the case he’s the “goodest” candidate, and what’s clear is he and his team believe that if he can just read a teleprompter, he’s winning the battle.
After all, it worked in the COVID campaign of 2020, right?
Perhaps not. Unlike in 2020, the media have turned from friend to foe.
Whereas the Hunter Biden laptop scandal and other family imbroglios were blacked out of coverage down the stretch, this election cycle sees a suddenly adversarial press corps demanding answers about the president’s acuity and capacity to do the job.
That means trouble for this ticket — and this White House.
And the nation dealing with a bunch of unelected elite bureaucrats doing the thinking for this diminished president – what Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre described as a “team” that would wake him from his slumber if, say, a nuclear attack were launched after Biden’s 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. window of lucidity.
But this moment of crisis also presents opportunity for the next generation of Democrats, who can learn some lessons from how Richard Nixon handled 1964’s election, when doomed GOP nominee Barry Goldwater lurched the party right and took a major loss to Lyndon Johnson in the general.
It was obvious to most — even Goldwater, in retrospect — that there was no defeating Johnson while the nation was still mourning assassinated President John F. Kennedy.
And while many moderate Republicans steered clear of the ticket, Nixon was an enthusiastic advocate — in a way that people recognize now was the beginning of his 1968 campaign.
In San Francisco at the Republican National Convention, Nixon tethered himself to the party, declaring: “Now that this convention has met and made its decision, we are Republicans, period, working for Barry Goldwater.”
“And to those few, if there are some, who say that they are going to sit it out or take a walk, or even go on a boat ride, I have an answer in the words of Barry Goldwater in 1960 — ‘Let’s grow up, Republicans, let’s go to work — and we shall win in November!’”
That win didn’t happen in ’64. But a win it was for Nixon, who crisscrossed the country working for the conservative candidate and waiting for his time to come in ’68.
So who is most likely to pull out his playbook and capitalize on a guaranteed sea change in the Democratic Party?
The most obvious example: California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who many Republicans seem to be expecting to replace Biden this cycle.
He’s debated Ron DeSantis on Fox News, showing he’s not afraid to traverse onto enemy turf.
His political action committee has bought out-of-state ads in recent months.
He’s also traveled the country to places like Florida, the state Ron DeSantis governs and former and likely future president Trump now calls home.
Another likely 2028 hopeful in waiting is Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, who’s been calling 2024 replacement talk a “distraction” while simultaneously running political advertising in other states on social media.
She’s also hawking a new book, “True Gretch,” in which she throws shade on Newsom for dining at a three-star restaurant in spite of his own COVID restrictions.
She fails to mention she also violated the COVID restrictions she herself imposed — albeit at a dive bar.
Whitmer denies saying her state is not winnable for Biden after his debate flop, which is a smart play on her part.
It better behooves her political interests to fight for the Democratic ticket now and outline a path for the future later — in the aftermath of Biden’s loss.
Will Newsom or Whitmer figure out what Tricky Dick understood 60 years ago?
We’ll know soon enough.