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Leonard Greene is a columnist for the New York Daily News.
Forget just a “Weekend at Bernie’s.”
I’d spend four years helping prop up a lifeless character if it means keeping Donald Trump out of the White House again.
But if President Joe Biden decides to drop his reelection bid — and that’s a colossal if — it won’t be enough. He would have to resign from office altogether.
That’s right, resign.
Here’s why: If he drops out of the race, Biden, 81, would be admitting what much of America is thinking, that he is not up to the tall task of running the country for another four years.
So if that is the case, why would anyone believe he could do the job for another six months? Here’s an even better reason: Biden’s potential replacement cannot merely campaign for the Democratic nomination. She has to be anointed.
Emphasis on the word “she.”
Kamala Harris is the best candidate to replace Biden on the ticket — but only if she runs as the incumbent president.
The last incumbent president to forgo a reelection bid was Lyndon Johnson in 1968. How did that work out for Democrats?
Republican Richard Nixon was sworn in in 1969. He became embroiled in the Watergate corruption scandal and resigned in disgrace to avoid impeachment.
Trump, meanwhile, has already been impeached. Twice.
The anointment strategy would allow the Democrats to replace Biden and still maintain incumbency.
One of the reasons for voting against Biden, his opponents say, is the possibility that he wouldn’t finish another four-year term, and the country would get stuck with Harris, who hasn’t gotten high marks as Biden’s vice president.
But if voters got used to actually seeing Harris, 59, in the job even for two or three months, they might warm up to the idea of having her in the Oval Office for the next four years.
And all the bells and whistles that would accompany her being the first woman in the White House would only help.
The history and momentum that would go along with being America’s first Black female president would reach a whole lot further than the constant scrutiny Biden faces every time he speaks or steps off a stage.
Since his disastrous debate performance last month, Biden has been under the medical microscope, with endless comparisons to the “Weekend at Bernie’s” movie that features a dead insurance company boss whose comical employees pretend he is still alive.
Despite attempts to reassure voters with a live press conference and network interviews, a growing chorus of elected Democrats has called for Biden to abandon his campaign. Among those jumping off the Biden bandwagon is A-list actor George Clooney, who used an opinion column in The New York Times to call for a new nominee.
“As Democrats, we collectively hold our breath or turn down the volume whenever we see the president, whom we respect, walk off Air Force One or walk back to a mic to answer an unscripted question,” Clooney wrote in the controversial piece. “We are not going to win in November with this president. On top of that, we won’t win the House, and we’re going to lose the Senate.”
Meanwhile, the obsession with Biden’s cognitive condition has given Trump, 78, a free pass. While the president was bumbling and stumbling during the debate, Trump was lying about abortion and immigration.
As long as we keep treating Biden like he’s Mr. Magoo, Trump can do no wrong.
Harris, as president, could change all that. Some polls already have her matching up better against Trump than any other Democrat would. And she has already been vetted on the national stage.
“I wouldn’t have picked her unless I thought she was qualified to be president,” Biden said about his veep at last week’s news conference. “She is qualified to be president — that’s why I picked her.”
That’s reassuring.
But the Democrats, and their supporters, have to understand that this isn’t a question about who among them can best lead the country. It’s about who can keep Trump out of the White House.
