In 1960, the New York Yankees fired legendary manager Casey Stengel due to his age.
“I’m not going to make the mistake of turning 70 again,” Stengel joked.
If Democrats abandon Joe Biden, the president may be tempted to say the same thing about being 81 years old.
The biggest loser of the debate, other than the president himself, was First Lady Jill Biden.
It is she who was most influential in her husband’s reckless decision to run for a second term, and who could have persuaded him to step down last year to give Democrats time to conduct their normal nomination process.
Instead, she followed the arrogant delusion that an already unstable octogenarian could work the toughest job on earth until January 2029.
Now, the bodyguard of lies from the Democratic Party and the center-left media that have protected Joe Biden from questions about his fitness to be president has finally collapsed.
Still, there is no mechanism to force him out of the race unless he and Gilles decide to do so themselves.
If Biden withdraws, suddenly Donald Trump won’t be running against an octogenarian who the majority of Americans consider too old for a second term. Before to his debate fiasco.
The natural heir is the Vice President.
Kamala Harris has many weaknesses, but at just 59 years old, frailty is not one of them.
As a historic candidate and a progressive Democrat, she is likely to enjoy, at least initially, rapturous, positive coverage in the glossy magazines and much of the elite media.
On the other hand, she is just as unpopular as Biden and will be burdened with the administration’s record.
She’s a terrible boss and totally unattractive.
Biden is doing quite well in the Rust Belt states, but Harris will likely lose ground there.
The advantage of Biden’s age is that he seems too old to be an extremist, but Harris is a centrist progressive who combines the political power of Elizabeth Warren with the charisma of Al Gore.
Even if the age issue is resolved, Trump will have an advantage over her, so it is unclear how much Democrats would gain from a painful personnel shake-up.
If Biden withdraws, it would be an admission that he failed and that Democrats lied about his condition for years, which is not a good basis for fielding a new candidate who has not won votes in the primaries or caucuses.
Getting to a more likely candidate would require bypassing Harris, which brings with it complications.
Would a party so obsessed with identity politics really overlook the nation’s first African-American female vice president?
Even if that were possible, the alternative probably wouldn’t be a unanimous choice at the Democratic National Convention and would cause chaos at an event typically staged to convey the presumptive nominee’s message.
If Democrats can somehow work all this out, someone like Gretchen Whitmer would, on paper, be a much more formidable opponent for Trump.
She is a young and relatively popular governor of Michigan, a key battleground state.
She does not need to take direct responsibility for Biden’s failures, and has a history of presenting herself as a non-ideological Democrat on the campaign trail — “Fix the Roads” was her slogan when she first ran for governor.
Any reasonably traditional Democrat would have a better chance of standing up to Trump than to Biden.
It would be easy for such a candidate to make the campaign center on Trump, something Biden would have wanted to do but won’t be able to do after his disastrous debate defeat.
But Democrats likely won’t find a way to dislodge Biden.
After all, Democrats chose to hire 81-year-old Joe Biden by following deceptions about his mental and physical condition and hoping that the public would somehow not notice.
Maybe they won’t make the same mistake again, but by 2024 it may be too late.
Twitter: @RichLowry
