They smile in your face
All the time, they want to take your place
The back stabbers ...

Will the DNC play "The Backstabbers" as Joe Biden's walk-on music at their national convention next week? That does appear to be the president's new theme song these days, after his friends conspired to force him out of the party nomination. He has not forgotten nor has he forgiven, according to a report this morning from Politico.

Biden certainly might appreciate a little help from the O'Jays as he walks across the stage as the non-nominee:

President Joe Biden is frustrated that Barack Obama wouldn’t tell him to his face that he should leave the race. He’s angry with Nancy Pelosi and views her as ruthless for ushering him out the door. And he’s still miffed at the role Chuck Schumer played, too.

Biden has told his closest aides and associates that he is coming to terms with his decision to bow out of the presidential race last month, but still harbors some frustration toward the members of his own party he believes pushed him out, according to three people familiar with Biden’s thinking who are not authorized to speak publicly about private conversations.

I keep gettin' all these visits from my friends
Yeah, what they doin' to me?
They come to my house again and again and again and again, yeah ...

Actually, Biden's problem with Barack Obama is the opposite. Obama never manned up and talked to him about withdrawing from the race, even as he and his allies maneuvered to pressure him into pulling out. When that effort became public, Biden's team went nuclear on Obama as well as Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer, accusing all three of interfering with his decision to enter the 2016 race and saddling Democrats with Hillary Clinton:

 “Can we all just remember for a minute that these same people who are trying to push Joe Biden out are the same people who literally gave us all Donald Trump? In 2015, Obama, Pelosi, Schumer pushed Biden aside in favor of Hillary; they were wrong then, and they are wrong now,” the source told NBC News. ...

“How did all this work out for everyone in 2016? Perhaps we should learn a few lessons from 2016; one of them is polls are BS, just ask Sec. Clinton. And two, maybe, just maybe, Joe Biden is more in touch with actual Americans than Obama-Pelosi-Schumer?” the source added.

That took place on July 18, the day after Biden came off the campaign trail, ostensibly to recuperate from another bout of COVID-19. Three days later, however, Biden pulled out anyway. 

Why? That's never been adequately explained, as I noted in an earlier post, or explained at all. Biden took three days to speak publicly about his decision from the Oval Office but never offered the reasons why he went from 'only the Lord Almighty can convince me to quit' to 'all hail Kamala Harris' in the space of three days. Anita Dunn also blamed the pressure on Nancy Pelosi but didn't have a convincing explanation for Biden's change of mind either. In fact, Dunn's argument was that it was unnecessary at all, and at least some data supports that argument. And Dunn was in a unique position to backstop Biden rather than backstab him.

Supposedly, Biden just eventually decided to take one for the Democrat team. If that were true, though, why would Biden still be steaming mad enough for aides to leak this out over three weeks later? This does not sound like a man who recalculated the race after extended consideration, or indeed like a man who "agreed" to withdraw at all. It sounds a lot more like someone angry at being forced out of his position through some leverage of which we are still unaware.

And let's not put this aside easily or entirely with humor, either. Democrats staged a national primary that excluded real competition for Biden while proclaiming him to be perfectly healthy in body and mind. Biden won 14 million votes, 87% of all cast in 50 state contests, and 99% of the convention delegates. At the last minute, this triumvirate negated all of those votes in a very murky mission to appoint a replacement after the exposure of Biden's cognitive decline in the presidential debate raised serious questions about a cover-up. This looks very much like a conspiracy to cook an election as well as to shield high-ranking Democrats -- including Kamala Harris -- of defrauding American voters by representing Biden as having the capacity to hold the office. 

Biden himself seems to feel that this was illegitimate. Why should we conclude otherwise?

Of course, Biden's still playing along to some extent, perhaps to run out the rest of his term in relative peace. It may take years to find out what really happened between July 18 and 21, but we know it involved some serious backstabbing by Obama, Pelosi, and Schumer. Now we need to know how and why.

In the meantime, maybe this should be the theme song for the entire Democrat convention. Enjoy the musical version, even if we can't really enjoy the political version.