Can the Democrats drop Joe Biden?

After his disastrous outing against Donald Trump on Thursday evening, Joe Biden’s surrogates are scrambling to salvage something from the wreckage. ‘I would never turn my back on President Biden’s record’, California Governor Gavin Newsom said. ‘I would never turn my back on President Biden, and I don’t know a Democrat in my party who would do so, especially after tonight.’

Don’t believe a word of it. Seldom has the famously fractious Democratic party been in more turmoil than over the question of whether Joe must go. Democrats, who were expecting a donnybrook on Thursday only to watch Biden cower mutely before Trump, are in panic mode.

After months of pooh-poohing concerns about Biden’s health or mental state, stalwart liberal publications such as the Atlantic are suddenly studded with headlines such as ‘Dropping Out Is Biden’s Most Patriotic Option’, ‘Someone Needs to Take Biden’s Keys’, and ‘Biden’s Loved Ones Owe Him the Truth’.