Who could replace Biden? Democrats in panic mode

"Sleepy" Joe Biden just gave the Democratic Party a wake-up call. The concerns about the incumbent president's age and mental fitness are not going away. So what can his party do about it, if anything?

- JOHN BOWDEN

Thursday’s debate in Atlanta, Georgia, was the president’s shot to bat away concerns about whether he can effectively serve a second term, one that would end well into his eighties. Instead, battling a cold, Biden appeared raspy and hoarse onstage while appearing to forget words at times and at other times seemingly losing track of his points altogether.

Democratic sources who spoke to The Independent and a wide range of other media outlets after the debate were in panic mode. Some openly fretted about whether it was possible for their party to do the unthinkable: replace a sitting, incumbent president on the ticket after he breezed through primary season virtually unchallenged.

“Horrible,” one Democratic strategist told The Independent. “Need to have [Kamala] Harris take over. Cleanest option.” So is it possible? And who would replace Joe Biden at the top of the Democratic ballot? The short answer is yes, it is possible. But it would be messy.

Joe Biden is not technically the Democratic Party’s nominee for president. Not yet. The Democratic National Committee (DNC) is set to hold its nominating convention from 19 to 22 August. Thousands of delegates, elected officials, union leaders, activists, party bigwigs, lobbyists and others will descend on

Chicago for a four-day convention wherein Biden (or somebody else) will officially be nominated on the floor.

The president (or his replacement) will then accept the nomination and deliver a keynote speech on the final night of the convention. Here’s the catch: the outcome of that nominating process is already Biden’s, unless he refuses it.