Only Kennedy Can Beat Trump

By Blake Fleetwood, The Kennedy Beacon

The Democrats are in panic mode. President Biden’s train wreck performance in the CNN debate – he stumbled, mumbled, and was incoherent – has convinced many of them that Biden cannot beat Trump, the uber-evil, in a close campaign.

In a definitive coup de grace, The New York Times Editorial Board called for Biden to drop out as a graceful warrior. Also in the Times, Thomas Friedman wrote that Biden is a good man, but “He must bow out of the race.”

A gaggle of other Times opinion writers followed suit.

At The New Yorker, David Remnick’s article is titled, “The Reckoning of Joe Biden” with the subtitle, “For the President to insist on remaining the Democratic candidate would be an act not only of self-delusion but of national endangerment.”

On June 30, Representative Jamie Raskin (D - Md), in an interview on NBC News, acknowledged that there are “very honest, and serious and rigorous conversations taking place” within the Democratic Party.

Even before the debate, Biden was losing badly to Trump in most of the swing states.

But can any of the other Democrats do better? Yesterday, Newsweek published the results of a snap poll that evaluated the chances of any of the other leading Democrats running against Trump. The results found that neither Kamala Harris, nor any of the other Democrats being floated as contenders to replace Biden — including Gretchen Whitmer, Gavin Newsom, JB Pritzker, Josh Shapiro and others — could win in a two-way matchup against Trump.

According to Time Magazine, it is no wonder that political pundits are convinced Biden’s breakdown will help the Kennedy campaign. There is increasing attention and interest in Kennedy. Even some hardcore Democratic voters are giving Kennedy a second look.

Mainstream media has been asking for more interviews. Chris Cumo on NewsNation suggested to Kennedy that he should go to the Democrats and say, “you guys have been boxing me out … You could offer yourself up as a suitable replacement. It would really solve their problem and yours at the same time.”

Kennedy replied, “The most recent Zogby poll shows that I am the only candidate who can beat Trump in a head-to-head election. Biden loses to Trump, but I beat him.” 

This brings the Democrats' dilemma to where it is today. Biden cannot win against Trump, and Kennedy is the only politician who could beat Trump. 

A Times focus group featured on the editorial pages today found that all 12 participants saw the two major parties “as largely the same: fight on behalf of the elites, out for themselves.”

The focus group participants described Kennedy as “Truly Independent,” “Principled, “Anti-establishment,” and “Outcast.”

When asked to describe Trump some used words like, “A-hole, Evil, Charismatic, Bombastic, Incompetent, Arrogant, Undisciplined, and Senile.”

Kennedy will attract the Republican “Never Trump” votes and win a majority among independents, the largest voting bloc. If no replacement is made, he will also capture all the Democratic voters. He will bring voters together. 

He will attract voters who are concerned about rampant immigration, those who worry about the endless wars and the money we are spending to conduct them, and those who are worried about our “money printing machine,” which leads directly to higher prices.

The logic is irrefutable, but will the Democratic party listen? Do they really want to win? They have until August 19, the date when the Democratic convention begins in Chicago.

The underlying problem, as one person in the Times focus group said, is that the Democratic Party has been captured by the corporate elite, and despite their Trump hatred, democratic politicians may not be able to turn against the monied class that supports them. 

Kennedy is dangerous to them. He vows to completely change everything. 

But winning trumps everything. Kennedy's simultaneous shadow livestream debate on X attracted 9.2 million viewers.

How did we get here? For over a year, Democrat’s campaign efforts have been framed as a fight to “save democracy.”

This means, in practical terms, that they never were so pro-Biden as they are Trump haters. 

They considered Trump an existential threat to America and that unqualified support for President Biden was the only way to stop this terrible autocrat.

This rationale justified all the anti-democratic tactics they employed against any Biden opponent, especially Kennedy. They blocked him in the early primaries, cheated him out of the debate, orchestrated one hit piece about him after another, denied him Secret Service protection, and are continuing to sue him over legal minutiae in an effort to hurt his already successful ballot access drive. 

Through all this, Kennedy has been resilient.

As Biden’s implosion continues to send ripples of fear throughout the Democratic Party, it’s time for voters on both sides of the aisle to listen to what Kennedy has actually been saying — not what the DNC’s high-paid attack dogs have fed the press — and spread the word.

Blake Fleetwood was a reporter for The New York Times and has written for The New York Times Magazine, New York Magazine, The New York Daily News, the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, the Village Voice, Atlantic, and the Washington Monthly. Blake can be reached at jfleetwood@aol.com. Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/blake-fleetwood