Now that the race for the Democratic nomination for president of the United States, Democrats are faced with a good news/bad news situation. On one hand, the good news is that “democratic socialist” Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vermont is not going to lead the party into the abyss this November.
On the other hand, it looks like former Vice President Joe Biden will do that same service. The situation has Democrats casting around for a white knight candidate to save them from calamity.
How bad is it? Even under the best of circumstances, Biden would have problems. Traditional rallies are out of the question until the coronavirus pandemic has passed or at least effective treatments are devised.
President Trump has an automatic audience for his pandemic briefings, which seems to have affected his poll numbers. Trump is getting 60 percent approval ratings for his handling of the pandemic.
Biden is reduced to attempting to live stream “shadow briefings” in which he rants about Trump and then offers what he thinks are helpful suggestions for handling the pandemic, which turn out to be things that the president is already doing. Hot Air explains that things are not going well.
“His virtual town hall on March 13 was a disaster. Biden kept moving out of camera range and there were technical issues. Biden’s first COVID -19 pandemic briefing happened on March 23. It didn’t go well. There was a problem with the teleprompter – you can see Biden making a hand gesture to get past it and abruptly move to another subject. He is stammering and it is awkward to watch. This is after he supposedly was preparing to roll out these briefings for a couple of weeks, mind you.”
Biden is also trying the TV talk show circuit. A recent appearance on The View did not go well either. In response to one softball question, Biden suggested that the cure to the coronavirus would make the problem worst, “no matter what.”
The old meme was that Biden was the safe choice because he has been in political office forever and had been President Obama’s partner in labors. The assessment was the main reason that the Democratic boys and girls on the back rooms rallied behind him a few weeks ago when it looked like Bernie would carry all before him.
Not only is Biden not providing reasons for voting for him for president, but he is also providing more than enough reasons not to vote for him. His gaffes and senior moments are getting worse, not better.
Something must be done. Biden, having all but won the Democratic nomination, has to be eased off the stage. Someone else has to be chosen, not by the voters, but by the Democratic elites. The person has to be someone who has won bipartisan respect for his handling of the coronavirus pandemic.
Enter Governor of New York Andrew Cuomo.
The New York governor has gotten praise for his reaction to the coronavirus, even from Republicans. He had exuded an air of calm and candor that is surprising in a politician.
Cuomo, knowing that his performance could be the difference between life and death for many New Yorkers, has even tried bi-partisanship, even praising President Trump for his help.
So how to do a switcheroo and nominate Cuomo, even though he has not run and once ruled out running?
“The most obvious route (without Biden’s cooperation, which seems unlikely) would be to do it at the convention. But that would require a massive defection of Biden delegates to keep him below 50% without putting Sanders over that benchmark. Then, in the second round, the Superdelegates could flood the field and all vote for Cuomo if they could be sold on the idea.”
Of course, Gov. Cuomo has to be sold on the idea as well. He might decide that he has his hands full handling the coronavirus pandemic in New York and has no time for a presidential run.
He also might be savvy enough to realize that a lot of Democratic voters would resent a maneuver high handed enough to ease out both Biden and Bernie. If Trump continues to be seen as an effective leader by November, that scenario is a recipe for slaughter in the fall.
Hot Air notes another problem.
“Let’s not forget that there are more skeletons in Cuomo’s closet than in your average Halloween haunted house. During his time as governor, Cuomo has been involved in so many campaign finance, fundraising and appropriation scandals that books could be written on the subject.”
In short, Cuomo is not the answer to the Democrats’ woes.
