A Spare Tire, a Ninth Inning, and a Tag

The drama surrounding President Biden’s bid for re-election has inspired analogies in me.

For the Democrats, the current campaign is like a very important road trip. The car is capable, but the tires are worn. Can the driver make it to the destination without a flat? The spare tire could be put on now, but the car must leave in five minutes. Is there time to do it? Or should the driver just take the chance, and head out on the road?

Sports analogies work even better. The eighth inning ends in a Major League Baseball game. The score is tied. The home team pitcher has been in for all eight innings and is doing well, but the manager worries that he has thrown too many pitches. The pitcher feels he is on a roll and can win the game in the ninth. Should the manager pull him out and replace him with a closer?

How about pro wrestling? It’s a tag-team match, and one member of what we’ll call the good-guy team is being mercilessly beaten up by his opponent, maybe even both members of the opposing team. The good guy, playing by the rules, stretches his arm out to his corner to tag his partner to come in to replace him, but the bad guys keep pulling him back. Finally, he makes the tag, and his partner leaps into the ring to exact delicious revenge on the bad guys. But do the good guys win?

Analogies are useful, except they break down – they are never quite like the real-life situation they resemble. Biden’s news conference got only mixed reviews. But there is another major data point in this race right around the corner: the Republican convention. No guarantee that it will be perfect either, but it may help clarify the choices.

Whether it’s Biden, Harris, or a ham sandwich, as they say, the challenge for the Democrats is still the same. If the Republican Party is a MAGA cult, voting is literally a religious duty for all members of that party. Democrats must decide what to do -- quickly, unify on that approach, then somehow make voting a sacred duty for its own members and supporters.

My advice is to stop worrying about the next four years, as nothing in the future is guaranteed. The first job is to do whatever it takes to win THIS year. Without that, of course, it’s game over, isn’t it?