Chris Espinosa
The press focus on Biden’s poor debate performance, and the extrapolation that a gravely voice and tripping over words indicated declining competence, pissed me off. Because true incompetence—gish-gallop lies and non-sequitirs—was right there, five feet away.
I wasn’t blind to Joe’s age, but would take him in whatever state over a) the other candidate or b) the Democratic party’s penchant for petty self-destruction.
A floor fight in Chicago would have been a freaking disaster.
Chris Espinosa
The humility and decency it took for Biden to step off the ticket, after repeatedly saying he wouldn’t, was a surprise. Not unexpected but not guaranteed. To endorse Harris was also sensible but not foregone.
The surprising thing was how effective Harris was in the next ten hours.
She leveraged Biden’s endorsement into top-tier concurrences.
She wiped the field clear of competition.
She got big-donor pledges to calm down the finance team.
She got a huge grassroots boost on the 40K-person Zoom.
Chris Espinosa
And I expected that a floor fight in Chicago is what the GOP wanted (because the Ds wouldn’t recover) and what the press wanted (feel-good coronations don’t draw eyeballs or win Pulitzers).
I felt we had a chance with Biden, though it was risky, and that there was still plenty of room for a blow-up on the R side. I didn’t trust the Democratic leadership and the Democrat party regulars to not screw up a replacement. It’s not that I didn’t trust Kamala—I didn’t think she’d be given a chance.
Chris Espinosa
It made objective sense to pick the primary’s VP choice over any other candidate, for fiscal and logistical reasons, but it was never a given. Biden could have had suspicions, or spite, or just been too battered to do the sensible thing. And even then having one or more party luminaries pull the reins could have thrown everything into chaos. Chaos was staring us in the face. It’s the narrative the GOP and press wanted, and it was a high probability.
Which is why what’s happened is astonishing.
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