Even More Echoes of 1968
The announcement that President Joe Biden was quitting the race for the presidency and endorsing Vice-President Kamala Harris for the 2024 Democratic nomination for president had echoes of President Lyndon Johnson’s announcement on March 31, 1968, that he was ending his quest for reelection that year. Johnson, behind the scenes, worked to ensure that Vice-President Hubert Humphrey would get the nomination, while Biden has outwardly favored Vice-President Harris.
Johnson coupled his announcement with a bombing pause and increased negotiations with the North Vietnamese to attempt to remove the unpopular war from the political equation. Biden, even before he decided to drop out of the race, proposed immigration reform in an effort to tone down that issue which has been an albatross around his campaign’s and party’s neck. Johnson was praised by many in the media for sacrificing his personal ambitions for the national interest. Biden, too, is praised by the mainstream media for placing the “country’s interests” (i.e., preventing Donald Trump from returning to the White House) ahead of his personal interests. But in reality, the decisions made by Biden and Johnson were based on nothing more than raw politics.
The Reality of the Raw Politics
Politics, the realists among us know, is fundamentally about the struggle for power. Both Biden today and Johnson in 1968 saw their personal political fortunes and their party’s political fortunes in danger. Both were pressured by senior Democratic leaders to quit the race —Biden even more so than Johnson. Presumably, both retreated in the face of internal polls that said they could not win — otherwise, they would not have dropped out of their respective races. (READ MORE: The Path to Beating Harris)
In 1968, Democratic political leaders soon rallied behind Humphrey who emerged as the party’s candidate. Now, Democratic political leaders are rallying to Harris, who will likely be the party’s candidate at the upcoming Democratic National Convention. Humphrey in 1968 was unable to overcome his connection to an administration that had turned the Vietnam War into a debacle, and he lost a close race to Richard Nixon, with Alabama Governor George Wallace, a third-party candidate, coming in a distant third. This year, we also have a third-party candidate, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., who will also likely finish a distant third.
Harris Will Be Plagued by the Biden Record
Harris should have to answer questions about why she stood by silently after witnessing Biden’s cognitive decline during the past three years. She will also have difficulty lifting the albatross of the border crisis from the administration’s neck. In 1968, Humphrey could not distance himself from the very administration he served in for the previous four years. Harris will have a similar problem. Biden’s low standing in the polls is based on issues — the border crisis, the economy, high consumer prices, inflation, and a world that grows more dangerous every day. Those same issues will plague Harris — it is after all the Biden-Harris administration that has led the country for the past four years.
One thing is certain, the mainstream media’s political goal is to stop Donald Trump from regaining the presidency and it will line up behind whomever can accomplish that. The so-called party of “democracy” and their media accomplices are only too glad to turn their backs on “democracy” (all those voters who supported Joe Biden for president will be ignored) to stop Trump. The media hates Trump even more than they hated Nixon. Expect media analysts to suddenly discover Harris’ gravitas, statesmanship, and star quality. The Hollywood crowd will go wild for Kamala. The donors will pony up tens of millions of dollars. Biden will become just a memory.
READ MORE:
Kamala Harris and the Too-Late Solution
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