Not Another Heir Apparent

House Democratic whip James Clyburn of South Carolina (above) says he thinks President Biden is providing able and steady leadership despite his readily advancing age, and he plans to support him for re-election.  Clyburn (who is 82) does add, however, that if President Biden chooses not to run again in 2024, he would recommend that the party get behind Vice President Kamala Harris.

Well, let's not even bother with primaries, then!

Here we go again . . . another Democratic heir apparent to succeed a Democratic President, chosen by the party establishment in advance and anointed by the press as "inevitable." Any other Democrat interested running for President may as well not bother.  Never mind that Biden is unpopular right now - even more so than Trump was at this time in 2018 - and that Kamala Harris is even more unpopular . . . and she recently proved that she can't even tough out an interview with that King of France God guy. 

Because this scheme of anointing an heir apparent worked so well in 2000 . . . and 2016 . . .

How far back do you want to go?  Walter "Fritz" Mondale, who had toyed with running for President in 1976 but decided not to because it was too expensive, was set to be the 1984 presidential nominee after having served as Jimmy Carter's Vice President and would have served in that office through 1984 if Carter had been re-elected. Just before the 1984 caucuses and primaries began, Newsweek famously asked "Can Anyone Stop Fritz?"  Yes: His name was Ronald Reagan.

Does anyone even realize that the last Democratic heir apparent to win the Presidency was Martin Van Buren in 1836?

And just for the record, the last time a Democratic President was elected to succeed an outgoing Democratic President was 1856. And James Buchanan wasn't President Franklin Pierce's heir apparent - he was his opponent for the Democratic presidential nomination!  

President Harris?  Hey, Mr. Clyburn, you sure you don't want to rethink this?