Biden says ‘Dark Brandon is coming back’ while campaigning in Pennsylvania 

President Biden riled voters during a series of campaign stops in Pennsylvania on Sunday, attempting to shake off concerns among some Democrats that he isn’t up for a second term.

“Dark Brandon is coming back,” he joked to one supporter in Harrisburg who asked him about the meme, one that developed into a unifying force to fight off concerns about Biden’s age early in his campaign.

While he faces increasing calls from members of Congress to leave the campaign after a faltering debate performance last month, Biden said he hasn’t seen the same response from voters.

“We’ve been drawing big crowds. Ever since the debate, not joking, even that night we had big crowds afterwards,” Biden said.

Biden ‘dug in’ as Dem calls to drop out rise

...while his critics have said he’s leaving a lot to chance, Biden has maintained the opposite position: Handing the baton to another Democrat is a risky proposition. 

I agree. The president is still unfit; he will not serve out the four years he is asking the voting public to give him.]

“He believes in his core that he understands the electorate and where Americans are and that he’s the one to do this, to win,” said one key Biden ally who has spoken to advisers in the president’s small inner circle. “He’s dug in.” 

He reasonably may be correct. I don't think so, but his certainty is no substitute for evidence and while not hopeless, the chances that he is correct about where the electorate is, are less than 50-50. In my way of thinking, the normative conclusion is: Biden is unfit. But we do have competing normative considerations here, and as I, and I dare say every other not MAGA cult member agrees, believe full 100, Trump is more unfit. That makes the practical, who can best save America, another normative choice. I am unconvinced that, as Adam Schiff said today, Vice President Harris would defeat Trump "overwhelmingly". There is NO evidence for that. Which is why I am zen about the president's choice. I don't think he will beat Trump, I don't know if Harris will, am wary of white knights and will vote for Biden if he's on the ballot, and for the Dem who replaces him if he's not, and, what else can I do?, but hope that Trump gets beaten by whomever the Dem candidate is.

People in Biden’s circle “understand the severity of the moment they’re in but they also believe it will pass, just as other moments have come and gone,” said one former administration official.  

And it may.

Biden allies [not the president, "allies"] concede the situation could become untenable, especially as Congress returns to Washington this week. On Sunday, at least four senior House Democrats said privately on a call that Biden should drop out of the race.

Nine House Dems have now called, privately in the case of the four today, or publicly, for his withdrawal.

On Sunday, David Axelrod, who served as a senior adviser to former President Obama and has frequently shared doubts about Biden’s viability, said the president “is not winning this race.” 

I cannot state with Axelrod's certainty that Biden "is not winning this race." HE may be right, but I am unconvinced that Harris is winning the race.

“If you just look at the date and talk to people around the country, political people around the country, it’s more likely that he’ll lose by a landslide than win narrowly this race,” Axelrod said on CNN. “And if the stakes are as large as he says, and I believe they are, then he really needs to consider what the right thing to do here is.” 

Axelrod has looked at the date (maybe "data"?), I have not, if he means the polls, and has talked to people around the country. I agree that in the Electoral College Biden is right now looking at an EC wipeout. If Axelord means July 7, I am doubtful that any candidate can be said to be "not winning this race on July 7. He knows more than I do.

Those close to Biden’s inner circle say the president is completely vested in staying the course and is taking the same approach as he did during the 2020 primary race, when everyone was counting him out as he lost early primary contests.

“He remembers what happened and how it all played out. He remembers better than anyone,” said one longtime Biden aide. “How many of them counted us out.”

 Democratic strategist Steve Schale, a longtime ally of the president...said, there’s also a practical consideration to keep in mind: “We’re 120 days out, and trying to stand up another campaign in that time is really hard.” 

 Over the weekend, the Biden campaign and its allies pointed to a Bloomberg poll showing the president leading Trump in the battleground states of Michigan and Wisconsin. The survey also shows Biden within the margin of error in states including Arizona, Georgia, Nevada and North Carolina.

After criticism from Democrats that Biden was largely absent from the campaign trail last week, Biden has sought to show supporters that he’s fighting back, stumping in Wisconsin on Friday and Pennsylvania on Sunday.

I didn't know about the Bloomberg poll, I agree and have urged for sometime that the president needs to CAMPAIGN not just fundraise, not take a cognitive test, get out among the voters.

We just had, or I just had, the political shock of my life that I can remember: the LEFT in France beating the Far Right AND President Macron's party, against all of the projections of all of the polls. Conceding the obvious, that the French electorate is different than the American, and that, to quote the Prophet Mohammad, the first person to reason by analogy was the devil, the French parliamentary elections have this parallel: The Left parties there put aside their differences to prevent the catastrophe of Marine Le Pen's no-faschists. There is no doubt, none, in my mind, that if Democrats and rational indies unite to meet the threat of Trump, that we will win.

In an ironic way, one Democratic strategist said, Biden’s situation is similar to the one Trump faced in 2016 after the Access Hollywood tape came out, revealing that Trump bragged about grabbing women’s genitals. At the time it caused turmoil within the Republican Party, as one-time allies sought to distance themselves from the GOP nominee. There was talk then about Trump dropping out of the race.

“It’s the same dilemma, with a different party,” the strategist said. “Really it comes down to ‘flawed candidates.’ And as Democrats we care about purity and being right and the moral high ground. And I get it, there’s definitely a lot of reasons for dropping out, but there isn’t a forcing mechanism to get him out.”

The same strategist also said Biden could still be the best candidate for Democrats in the fall.

“There’s a lot of shorthand here and all of this is a lot messier than people want to admit,” the strategist said. “But I don’t know if any of these other potential candidates are a slam dunk. I’ve been more confident about other things. But we do know who we’re getting with Biden and there’s something to be said for that.” 

I agree completely. All of that agreement and rational thinking aside, I still believe it would be best morally and practically for Biden to withdraw. And, repeating nauseously, I will vote for the Dem, whoever that is.