It’s not quite true that Joe Biden absolutely must run for reelection. But if he didn’t, he would set off a lot of metaphorical bombs for his political party and allies. Thus we shouldn’t be surprised that Ron Klain is telling people to expect Biden to announce he’ll run for another term after the holidays. …
Averting a Democratic civil war: When a president announces he isn’t running for another term, the normal development would be for his party to unite around the current vice president. But Democrats can read a poll and see that Kamala Harris is even less popular than Biden. And if it isn’t Harris, then the opportunity would be there for a bunch of Democrats with presidential ambitions. Pete Buttigieg, J.D. Pritzker, Gavin Newsom. Some African-American and women Democrats would likely resent the white male contenders attempting to dislodge Harris, making the post-primary unification of the party more difficult.
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