Biden is still isolating at his beach house in Delaware recovering from his latest case of Covid.  While that goes on discussions are still swirling about his ultimate decision about his candidacy at pretty much all levels from party leaders, talking heads, WH staff, and the rest of us.  His numbers are terrible and getting worse as this controversy drags on.  Here are few interesting items this morning:

The Washington Post has an interesting infographic about how a new nominee would be elected by convention delegates describing different scenarios should Biden step aside.

Federal staff is already dusting off their resumes preparing for a Biden loss.  This is not unusual in election years or during times of serious uncertainty but is pretty urgent right now.

Here is a graphic of the changes in battleground states from 2020 to 2024.  The outlook is nothing more than dismal for Biden:

Finally, the NYTimes has an article about the what if question of Kamala Harris as the nominee should Biden pull the plug on his campaign.

I believe this will be decision week for Biden.  TFG/Hillbilly are already ramping up attacks against Kamala anticipating she’ll be the nominee.  His laughable “unity” reset lasted something like 28 minutes during his speech at the RNC;  he’s already in full TFG bullshit mode while Hillbilly is calling for DOJ investigations of writers and researchers who dare criticize the Dictator Wannabe.  It’s a snapshot of what the world would become should the unthinkable happen.  I’ll post a link about this when CBS posts the video about it from Face the Nation this morning.

Friday, the DNC Rules and Bylaws committee proposed a rules change for the 2020 campaign.  The new rule is directed straight at Bernie Sanders:

The new rule specifically requires that someone running for president must declare in writing his or herself as a member of the Democratic party and that they will run and serve as a Democrat.  Easy, right?  Not so fast.  The two party system in the US is cemented in place by statute, creating an almost impenetrable wall to outsiders.  Party primaries are paid for by the taxpayers, and getting on the ballot in all the states as an independent presidential candidate is virtually impossible.  Because of this, the only realistic path to the presidency is as insurgency in one of the two entrenched  political parties.  You saw that in spades in 2016 where Trump used his television persona to hijack the GOP and Sanders’ grass roots campaign almost uprooted Hillary’s coronation.

This rule seeks to stifle competition for the nomination, all while DNC political operatives are loudly denying that fact, which is as obvious to normal people as a hillbilly at a Newport garden party.  Even while these operatives are all sniffy that outsiders understand their actual intent, Sanders supporters aren’t happy.  Mark Lonabaugh, a senior Sanders advisor, call the new resolution “stunning”.

Someday, establishment Dems will have to face the fact that they are way out of step with their constituents.  The Sanders phenomenon should have shaken these pillars of the party to the core, but it didn’t.  They are ignoring, at their own peril, the 13 million voters, many first time voters, who went for the tottering old candidate from Vermont instead of the tottering old candidate from New York, Chicago, Arkansas (pick your accent).  He brought a message of social justice, equity, and fairness that the Dems abandoned in the 1990s.  And it appears that, rather than learning from that experience, the DNC is trying to keep it from happening again by further rigging the rules in favor of the establishment.

Oh, and one last thing – While the DNC specifically designed a rule to keep out insurgents, there are no adopted rule changes to eliminate or significantly reduce the influence of superdelegates, and no rule that prevents a presidential candidate from controlling the national party until AFTER they are nominated.  It appears the Democratic party is the LEAST democratic organization in US politics, and that should piss you off.