What has changed since the presidential debate? A lot and very little.
Francis Wilkinson
We are mostly where we were two years ago. An old president, past his prime, who supports democracy and the rule of law, is running against an old criminal, sexual abuser, and serial fraudster who leads an authoritarian movement with fascist accents. The only difference is the old president is two years further past his prime, and the fascist accents are increasingly pronounced.
Most people understand there is no ready solution to President Joe Biden’s recent debate debacle. If we haven’t heard Democrats clamoring for Biden to be replaced by his vice president, it is because not enough Democrats want Biden to be replaced by his vice president. And if the vice president is not the obvious successor to the president, then no one is.
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With no obvious consensus among a diverse group of party elites and voters, decision-making remains firmly in the hands of Biden, who ran for the Democratic nomination against minimal competition and won easily. The Democratic bench is unusually robust. But the recent history of challenges to incumbent presidents bred caution among ambitious men and women.
