Live broadcast|If Biden steps down, Harris should take his place immediately, or the situation will become very confusing, says Professor Mikko Saikku.
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Joe Biden’s upcoming public appearances will arouse tension among Democrats, believes Mikko Saikku, professor of American studies at the University of Helsinki.
If Biden fails, it would be easiest if he steps down himself, and Harris takes his place, Saikku says.
The situation can be compared to the confusing primary election of the Democratic Party in 1968.
of the United States president Joe Biden The test will come next night, Finnish time, when ABC publishes an hour-long television interview with the president. In addition, Biden will be seen on stage at an election rally in Wisconsin. HS shows the live broadcast from the news agency Reuters.
“Yes, there must be a lot of buzz behind the scenes of the Democratic Party at the moment, when you look at these latest opinion polls”, believes the professor of American studies at the University of Helsinki Mikko Saikku.
“And if this interview with ABC is a complete disaster, then we will certainly have to think about whether we can continue with the old line.”
Biden’s fumbling in last week’s televised debate has been permanently imprinted on the retinas of many American voters, says Saikku.
“And the continuation now is probably pretty much up to Biden himself and his close circle. In that sense, the situation is truly exciting.”
Biden it’s really hard to move him away if he doesn’t want to move away himself, Saikku says.
“Yes, he is the party’s trusted man and figurehead. He has spent his entire working career in the democratic party,” Saikku says.
If Biden fails in Friday’s public appearances, it would be easiest for the Democrats if Biden steps down himself, and Harris takes his place.
Then it would also be most painless to transfer the already collected ballot paper to Harris, Saikku says.
“But if Biden gives up his position so that the field remains open, I don’t know how the selection of the candidate would be carried out,” Saikku says.
Electors of the Democratic Party have already committed to supporting Biden. It would be difficult to return to the old model, where the candidates were finally decided only at the party meeting.
“Furthermore, themes that divide Democrats, such as support for Israel in the Gaza war, could surface in the new candidate situation,” believes Saikku.
Saikku says that the situation can be compared to the primary election of the Democratic Party in 1968, when the Democrats Lyndon B. Johnson pushed for a season in the midst of the Vietnam War.
“Like Biden, Johnson was a sitting president at the time, but quite unpopular,” Saikku compares.
Johnson dropped out of the race after narrowly winning the party’s first primary and finishing third in the polls.
After Johnson’s elimination Robert F. Kennedy registered for the race.
Kennedy, Eugene McCarthy and a third candidate, vice president Hubert Humphrey collected votes from different states that had different ways of collecting electoral votes. The deal was further muddled when Kennedy was assassinated just days before the primary ended.
After Kennedy’s assassination, the electors decided their votes again, as they had no obligation to finally vote for the candidates they had declared their support.
In the end, at the party convention, Humphrey got the presidential seat, even though he hadn’t actually even campaigned. Humphrey lost the actual presidential election to Richard Nixon.
“After that, the Democrats moved to this current model, where the electors are committed to their candidates. But the situation where the electors are no longer behind their own candidates at the party meeting would not be completely new,” says Saikku.
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