Former President’s chief strategist and CNN pundit David Axelod, 69, said the Democrats showed “irrational exuberance” about 59-year-old Vice President Kamala Harris when 81-year-old President Joe Biden finally threw in the towel. Biden was hounded by Democrat Party insiders for almost a month after his disastrous June 27 CNN debate where he looked senile and incoherent. Biden spent almost a month insisting he would stay in the race to the finish line, prompting 82-year-old Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) July 20 to admonish Democrats to stop bickering, that Biden would be the Democrat Party nominee. Bernie showed why he was aced out of the Democrat Party nomination in 2016, handing the honor to 76-year-old former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. Bernie clearly has no real clout inside Democrat Party circles.
Axelrod wants the Democrat Party to stop hyping Kamala and get real about the race for the White House, not, by any stretch, a shoe in, or, as Axelrod likes to say, it’s Trump’s race to lose. Trump lost to Biden in 2020 largely because of the global Covid-19 pandemic that was maiming and killing U.S. citizens in droves by the time the election rolled around. Trump was sabotaged by Democrat confederates like Dr. Anthony Fauci, who spent most of his time in 2020 not battling Covid-19 but working feverishly in the press to discredit Trump. Fauci was helped by 81-year-old Washington Post journalist Bob Woodward who threw all his Watergate-fame credibility into discrediting Trump. Axelrod knows things can change in a heartbeat over Democrats’ euphoria about Vice President Kamala Harris. Democrats were all giddy after Biden finally dropped out July 21.
Speaking with CNN’s Jessica Dean, Aug. 3, Axelrod wanted to inject a dose of reality to Democrats still high-fiving over Kamala Harris. “There’s a lot of irrational exuberance on the Democratic side of the aisle now because there was despair for some period of time about what November was gonna look like,” Axelrod told Dean. Axelrod borrowed the pharse “irrational exuberance” from former Federal Reserve Board Chairman Alan Greenspan Dec. 5, 1996, watching the stock market go up like a rocket. Axelrod knows that if the stock market continues to meltdown and recession looks inevitable, it’s going to give Trump rocket fuel heading into the Nov. 5 election. Whatever Covid did to Trump in 2020, Kamala could easily be upended by the stock market in 2024.
Democrats think that the Trump campaign hasn’t caught up with Biden’s decision to drop out and replace the Democrat nominee with Kamala. Trump was so used to targeting Biden at campaign rallies, he’s had to pivot quickly to Kamala, knowing that there’s no degree of separation between her and Biden. “Now people feel like there’s a chance. But it’s absolutely Trump’s race to lose right now. He’s ahead and he is ahead it most battleground states,” Axelord said, giving Democrats a sobering lesion that the 2024 election is not in the bag. If the U.S. economy continues to head south, it’s going to give the vast silent majority of unaligned voters reason to pause on Kamala. Whether fair or not, the Biden-Harris presidency must take responsibility for the U.S. economy and world affairs. When it comes to foreign policy, Biden-Harris are far more vulnerable.
Axelord sees nothing given at this stage of the race even though Kamala has gotten a bump in her approval ratings, averaging 36% for the past three-and-a-half-years to now 43% since Biden dropped out. Biden was finally persuaded to get out by 63-year-old former President Barack Obama and 84-year-old former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), both insisting to Biden that he would drag down the party in November. Biden finally acquiesced to all the pressure, knowing that he had bluffed his way through his presidency for the last four years. Trump made a campaign issue about Biden’s cognitive decline in 2020 but voters were too afraid of Covid-19 to take a chance on Trump. Turns out, that more people died of Covid under Biden’s watching than Trump’s. Whatever happened in 2020, it’s a whole new ballgame for Harris and Democrats in 2024.
Axelrod doesn’t think the race can settle down until after the Democratic National Convention in Chicago starting Aug. 19-22. “I think it’s a wide open race but Trump had the advantage right now and everybody should be sober about that on the Democrat side,” said Axelrod. Axelord was one of the first high profile strategists to call for Biden to consider passing the torch to a younger candidate in late 2023. Axelrod took a lot of heat from his partisan CNN colleagues and party insiders that were all in on Biden running in 2024. Axelrod saw problems with Biden because he recognized the state of Biden’s cognitive decline well before the June 27 CNN debate that exposed Biden’s problems for all to see. Biden sees Kamala as having less “baggage” as Joe but has been part of Biden’s White House for the last four years. It’s difficult for Kamala to distinguish her policies from Biden’s.
About the Author
John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He’s editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.
