Insider Washington Comes for Joe Biden

In the rush to know everything about Joe Biden’s road to or away from the White House, we may be forgetting what it is we actually know, and what it likely means: the dramatic recurrence of an insider play we have seen many times before.

On Thursday before last, the president of the United States had what was deemed the worst debate performance of a presidential contender in history.  On Friday and Saturday, supportive messages came from politicos, including President Obama, whereas a series of pleas to drop out of the race came from establishment journalists.  On Monday through Thursday, as reports came out that the president was determined to continue in the race, lesser known House Democrats went on record opposing his candidacy, and prominent Democrats sounded cautionary notes.

Meantime, The Washington Post reported that “former president Barack Obama has privately told allies ... a harsher assessment” of Biden’s chances.  Polling authorities, op-ed columnists, worried reporters, and respected legal professionals all made or continued to make their anti-Biden voices heard, sometimes multiple times.  Democrat donors were reported, a few publicly and many privately, discussing pushing the president to step aside.  After last week’s interview of the president, these voices increased in numbers, volume and insistence.

There is always a danger of over-reading a succession of events like this, seeing the twists as preordained by whatever narrative (failing president supported by delusional operators; vulturous overthrowers making an inside play) the reader imports.  Still, underlying interests — in power and in status — undeniably shape actions in ways that can make events like these pre-ordained.  In this case, the unmentioned connections of key Biden insiders, and the way Democrat donors’ determination to push him off the ticket intersects with the needs of establishment journalists, suggest that that’s what’s happening here.

Read more at American Thinker.