From this morning's Washington Post op-ed page, venerable progressive E. J. Dionne, Jr. urges Dems to stop equivocating and take advantage of the Malignant Loser's returning to form at his MAGA cult coronation in Milwaukee:
"Seriously, do despondent Democrats think they can’t beat that guy who droned on for an hour and 33 minutes on Thursday and drove even ardent loyalists to weariness and exhaustion?
Donald Trump’s lack of discipline and his vaudevillian affection for his old act led him to botch the opportunity of a political lifetime. After he survived an assassination attempt, natural sympathy flowed his way from even longtime detractors. He should have done what his advisers said he’d do: tell his moving personal story and call for national unity.
But the New Trump was a momentary invention that could not survive contact with his natural instincts. Shockingly, he wasn’t even entertaining. His rant-as-acceptance speech revived every doubt and every fear about a Trump presidency with its slew of false attack lines and his penchant for self-involved victimhood.
By the time it was over, Democrats were back in business. Yet rather than seize the moment, they find themselves agonizing, waiting — and stuck. They have to stop dithering. New leases on life are not granted often." (our emphasis)
Dionne says the withdrawal of President Biden from the Presidential race is increasingly inevitable, and that Dems need to quickly decide on a replacement. VP Harris seems to be the consensus choice among the millions that voted for Biden in the primaries, and would be an obvious candidate to extend his legacy. Dionne concludes:
"Saving his legacy of achievement requires beating Trump. The Republican nominee has shown that this outcome is well within reach. It’s not the way Biden hoped to do it, but it’s within his power to stop Trump a second time."
