Let's Have A Primary For the Democrat Vice President

ON THE NEWS

From the article Biden Is a Dangerous Choice for Democrats by Karl Rove (Wall Street Journal, Sept. 6, 2023):

The poll is particularly brutal for Mr. Biden. When asked if he is “mentally up for the job of president,” 60% said no, 36% yes, and by an overwhelming margin—73% to 22%—they think Mr. Biden “is too old to run for president.”

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Yet another Politics

DOODLE

Poll after polls say that an overwhelming of Americans think that Mr. Biden is too old for the presidential job. However, by tradition and calculation, no mainstream Democrat will mount an intra-party challenge to Mr. Biden, which would expose the shortcomings of the current Democrat agenda. There is an alternative. Mr. Biden is the quarterback, and quarterbacks get hurt all the time: Good teams will have a backup ready to pick up the game. The problem is not Mr. Biden, but Mr. Biden's vice-president. Many Americans who think Mr. Biden is too old, will accept Mr. Biden if he has a good vice president to pick up the job in case he becomes incapacitated. Is Ms. Harris, the current vice president, good? The polls say she has an even lower rating than her boss.

"Than her boss" is the gist of the problem. A vice-president in the U.S. is picked by the presidential candidate and then works for his or her president-"boss" if their ticket wins. Mr. Biden should change this arrangement for his second bid for the White House. Is Ms. Harris good? Let the voters decide. Instead of having a primary election for the presidency, Democrats should have a primary election for the vice presidency. It would be very lively, with Democrat candidates of presidential caliber vying for the vice-president job (and the 2028 presidential nomination since by law, Mr. Biden cannot run again). Mr. Biden would accept whoever came out winning as his vice president, but this person would be his understudy and sounding board, not his underling. If something were to happen to Mr. Biden, American voters would feel secure that they were still in good hands. Such a Biden-headed ticket would not be too bad.