Gerth: If Democrats move on from Biden after poor debate, Andy Beshear won't be the guy

The noise started not too long after the debate began.

Joe Biden looked befuddled. His voice was weak. Some of his answers seemed incoherent.

It was all true.

“The Beshear presidential candidacy doesn't sound so crazy now, does it?” asked Kentucky Secretary of State Michael Adams, a Republican, just over 30 minutes in.

Get used to the talk.

There’s going to be more of it as Democrats try to deal with the Biden problem.

And it is a problem. But it’s not the worst problem the Democrats could have.

The worst problem would be if this happened at the Sept. 10 debate when it would be too late to remove Biden as the top of the ticket.

Democrats still have the opportunity to replace Biden at their convention next month. It’s a long shot, but they can do it.

“Governors Whitmer, Shapiro, Beshear, and Polis, your country needs you,” tweeted former Cincinnati Mayor John Cranley, referring to Michigan’s Gretchen Whitmer, Pennsylvania’s Josh Shapiro and Colorado’s Jared Polis.

It’s hard to imagine Biden overcoming his poor performance because it seemed to confirm what Republicans have been saying about him. It doesn’t matter if it is or it isn’t true at this point.

The 81-year-old president looked and sounded, well, 81. If not older.

At one point when Biden opened his mouth and a word salad came out, Trump replied, “I really don’t know what he said at the end of that sentence. I don’t think he knows what he said either.”

It may have been the only truthful thing Trump said the whole night.

“Whitmer/ Beshear,” tweeted Simon Schama, a British historian and a presenter on the BBC.

It’s unlikely the Democrats would go to a brokered convention — there hasn’t been one since 1952 when the Democrats picked Adlai Stevenson over Estes Kefauver.

That happened in Chicago, where the 2024 Democratic National Convention will be held.

But while unlikely, the talk of selecting a candidate to replace Biden won’t likely go away, following his poor performance.

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If Biden had been picking up momentum following Trump’s conviction on 34 felony charges — and polls suggest he has been — those trends will reverse as his disastrous performance sinks in with voters.

Paul Krishnamurty, a journalist and betting analyst, tweeted Friday morning that Beshear’s stock could rise.

“A couple of longshots whose odds could shorten,” he wrote.

“Andy Beshear 1000 for Prez

Elizabeth Warren 800 for Prez, 200 for nominee.”

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The thing is, if Biden were to step aside or if Democrats decided they can’t allow him to go forward, Beshear wouldn’t likely be the guy they would turn to.

Kentucky is unwinnable for the Democrats.

Voters here have “Trump Derangement Syndrome” — the kind of derangement that makes some people think Trump was a good president in his first term and is qualified to do the job again.

Any brokered convention would likely result in the nomination of candidates from Michigan, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Arizona or Nevada — the six battleground states likely to decide the 2024 presidential race.

If the Democrats have any hope of winning in November, though, they’ve got to show that they are not beholden to one candidate like Republicans have been for the last three cycles.

Biden has been the most effective progressive president in a half century, pushing through his infrastructure plan, protecting access to reproductive rights by fighting to keep mifepristone legal and using his Department of Justice to crack down on civil rights violations by police.

But if he can’t win, he can’t win.

And his performance Thursday has a lot of Democrats thinking that’s the case.

But Beshear won’t be the guy to replace him.

Joseph Gerth can be reached at 502-582-4702 or by email at [email protected].

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Who can replace Biden? Why Andy Beshear for president is not likely.