10 Reasons We Need to Talk About Biden’s Age Again ‘Star Trek’ Star Kenneth Mitchell Dies at Just 49

Ezra Klein is not yet 40 years old. But he is already one of the most influential political journalists in the US. He was co-founder and editor-in-chief of the news portal ‘Vox’, worked for the ‘Washington Post’ and wrote ‘The Deep Ditch’, a well-received bestseller about the state of American society. He currently works for The New York Times, where he is responsible for the podcast ‘The Ezra Klein Show’.

In this podcast, Klein recently reignited the discussion about whether or not Joe Biden should run for president again. Although he personally appreciates Biden and has great respect for his achievements in recent years, Klein suggests that the president abstain. He gives ten reasons for this. Here you are:

1. Biden simply looks too senile

Yes, the economy is booming, the coalition against Putin is (still) holding strong, new industrial jobs are being created on a large scale, medicines are becoming cheaper – all that is true, but the Americans are not buying it from Biden. His polls are terrible, even worse than Donald Trump and Barack Obama.

It may be true that surveys say little at the moment. But if they don’t improve in the coming weeks, Democrats will be in trouble. Then it gets very serious. “We’ve passed the point where surveys no longer have any informational value,” says Klein.

2. Isn’t an election by the party congress undemocratic?

Presidential candidates are usually chosen through primaries. But that doesn’t have to be the case. Abraham Lincoln and Franklin Roosevelt, two of the most important American presidents, were only selected at the party congress. So, in principle, the Democrats have the option to leave the choice to the delegates at their party conference on August 22.

They did this in Chicago in 1968 – and hit a wall. After a chaotic discussion, they chose Hubert Humphrey at the last minute, who promptly lost the primaries to Richard Nixon.

But such a debacle does not need to happen again. In 1968, conditions at the height of the Vietnam War were very different. Klein also does not accept the accusation that a last-minute election by the party congress would be undemocratic. He uses the following comparison: primaries are direct, a delegate election is a representative democracy. And the direct democracy of the primaries is not that great, says Klein, because only a small minority participates.

3. But Biden is keeping the Democrats together?

In fact, Joe Biden has so far been surprisingly successful in shielding notoriously divided Democrats from suicidal infighting. While he is more likely to be associated with the party’s right wing, progressives also support him. So will internal party conflicts erupt again once Biden leaves the stage?

No, answers Ezra Klein. “What is holding the Democratic Party together right now is not Joe Biden, but Donald Trump.” Even if there were elections at the party congress, this would not change and democratic unity would not disintegrate.

4. The Kamala Harris problem

Vice presidents and vice presidents are typically eligible to be nominated to succeed an outgoing incumbent president. However, Biden’s Vice President Kamala Harris has a major problem: she is doing even worse in the polls than her boss.

Klein responds to this objection in two ways: First, Harris is much more popular than portrayed. In a direct comparison with Trump, she does significantly better than the favorites named as Biden replacements, such as Gretchen Whitmer or Gavin Newsom.

Above all, Harris is by no means Biden’s successor. The president himself has experienced this firsthand. He was Barack Obama’s deputy for eight years. However, in 2016, the Democrats nominated Hillary Clinton.

5. What is the risk of chaos?

It exists, as the example from 1968 shows. But there is also a huge opportunity to bring a breath of fresh air into the battle between the two old men. “People could react very enthusiastically when a new team was chosen,” says Klein.

6. And what if the new guys have a dead body in the basement?

Klein also thinks that this risk is manageable. For example, if the Democrats were to nominate someone like Amy Klobuchar, the senator from Minnesota – who is also my favorite – then this danger would not exist because she had already been tested as a presidential candidate four years ago. Klein also says he can’t imagine a candidate having more skeletons in his closet than are buried at Mar-a-Lago.

7. And what about white workers?

Biden has actually managed to win back at least some of the white workers in the old industrial countries who had migrated to Trump. After all, he’s from Scranton, a typical industrial town in Pennsylvania. But Klein believes this voter segment is overestimated. What matters is winning the majority, regardless of which segment, is his answer. And in general: “Biden has won mainly among voters with a college degree.”

8. What about national fame?

This objection does not worry Klein at all. Two months are more than enough to give a new team national exposure. In general, the American election campaign is taking far too long. “And I’m not sure if the candidates benefit from it or not,” says Klein.

9. What about the war in the Middle East?

For Klein, this is the biggest threat to Biden of all. In Michigan, an important swing state, the slim Democratic majority is in danger of being overthrown because this state is home to a disproportionate number of immigrants from Arab countries. They are angry about Biden’s behavior toward Israel. Klein also complains that Benjamin Netanyahu is playing a cat-and-mouse game with Biden. “It is no longer enough to criticize Netanyahu a little,” said Klein, who is Jewish by the way. “Biden must fundamentally change his policies.”

10. What else speaks for the Biden/Harris team?

The best argument is that Biden/Harris would make a strong team, Klein said. But no one currently supports this theory. That could change, of course: Biden could flourish in the election campaign. He could give a brilliant State of the Union address. The public could finally see how well he saved the economy from a severe recession, etc.

However, none of this has happened so far. On the contrary: Biden’s press conference after the release of the Hur report, where he was portrayed as a “sweet old man with a memory problem,” was a disaster. The president also skipped the traditional Super Bowl interview and with it the chance to address the largest television audience the United States has ever seen.

It’s an argument we’ve heard time and time again, but unfortunately it’s also true: the next US election will be historic. Should Trump win the White House for the second time, the consequences for democracy and the world order will be unforeseeable but certainly catastrophic. That is why Klein emphatically argues that – if the poll numbers do not change – the Democrats must take action by May/June at the latest. Then the die is thrown. Ultimately, however, it is only Joe Biden himself who must draw the consequences. Forcing him to resign is de facto impossible.