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OPINION GUEST ESSAY
James Carville: Biden Won’t Win. Democrats Need a Plan. Here’s One.
July 8, 2024 By James Carville
Mr. Carville is a veteran of Democratic presidential campaigns, including Bill Clinton’s in 1992, and a consultant to American Bridge, a Democratic super PAC.

Mark my words: Joe Biden is going to be out of the 2024 presidential race. Whether he is ready to admit it or not. His pleas on Monday to congressional Democrats for support will not unite the party behind him. Mr. Biden says he’s staying in the race, but it’s only a matter of time before Democratic pressure and public and private polling lead him to exit the race. The jig is up, and the sooner Mr. Biden and Democratic leaders accept this, the better. We need to move forward.

But it can’t be by anointing Vice President Kamala Harris or anyone else as the presumptive Democratic nominee. We’ve got to do it out in the open — the exact opposite of what Donald Trump wants us to do.

For the first time in his life, Mr. Trump is praying. To win the White House and increase his chances of avoiding an orange jumpsuit, he needs Democrats to make the wrong moves in the coming days — namely, to appear to rig the nomination for a fading president or the sitting vice president or some other heir apparent. He needs to be able to type ALL CAPS posts about power brokers and big donors putting the fix in. He needs, in other words, for Democrats to blow it.

We’re not going to do that.

We’re going to nominate a new ticket in a highly democratic and novel way, not in the backrooms of Washington, D.C., or Chicago.

We’re at the stage where we need constructive ideas for how to move forward. Representative Jim Clyburn and the Times Opinion columnist Ezra Klein have spoken about a Democratic mini-primary, and I want to build on that.

I want to see the Democratic Party hold four historic town halls between now and the Democratic National Convention in August — one each in the South, the Northeast, the Midwest and the West. We can recruit the two most obvious and qualified people in the world to facilitate substantive discussions: Barack Obama and Bill Clinton. They may not represent every faction under our party’s big tent. But they care as much about our democracy as our nation’s first president, they understand what it takes to be president, and they know how to win.

Carville wrote:We can recruit the two most obvious and qualified people in the world to facilitate substantive discussions: Barack Obama and Bill Clinton.

bob wrote: ↑Mon Jul 08, 2024 7:26 pm https://twitter.com/Theresa49500/status ... 9961745664

Jen "I dissent " Rubin Jul 8, 2024 @JRubinBlogger
Biden would benefit by deciding to release his entire medical record. A letter from his doctor cannot allay concerns about whether he has an underlying medical issue. Let the media paw through records and report if they find any indication of a heretofore “hidden” neurological…

On Monday night, the White House released a memo from the president's physician, Dr. Kevin O'Connor, in which he said he had obtained permission from Mr. Biden and Cannard to share more details.

"Dr. Cannard was the neurological specialist that examined President Biden for each of his annual physicals. His findings have been made public each time I have released the results of the President's annual physical. President Biden has not seen a neurologist outside of his annual physical," O'Connor wrote, noting that Cannard has been the neurology consultant to the White House Medical Unit since 2012.

"The results of this year's exam were detailed in my February 28th letter: 'An extremely detailed neurologic exam was again reassuring in that there were no findings which would be consistent with any cerebellar or other central neurological disorder, such as stroke, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson's, or ascending lateral sclerosis,'" O'Connor wrote.

O'Connor also noted that Cannard has made regular visits to the White House Medical Unit "in support of the thousands of active-duty members assigned in support of White House operations. Many military personnel experience neurological issues related to their service, and Dr. Cannard regularly visits the WHMU as part of this General Neurology practice."

The president, adamant that he's staying in the race, has gone on offense in recent days.