President Biden’s months-long slump in the polls is causing some Democrats to openly express dismay that he is their candidate. If Biden continues to show weakness (say in his June 27 debate with Trump), Democrats will pressure him to withdraw before their August convention.
The leading tip of that spear may be James Carville, who was President Bill Clinton’s political strategist in the 1990s.
“It isn’t the choice I was crazy about,” Carville said over the weekend. On WABC Radio, he told host John Catsimatidis: “I thought that President Biden should not run for re-election. But he did — it’s him and Trump — and that’s where I am.”
However, Carville said he still “1,000 percent” supports a second Biden term.
Uh oh. Students of political history know that when someone uses the phrase “1,000 percent” in support of you, it’s time to look over your shoulder for a backstabber.
In 1972, Democratic presidential nominee George McGovern famously claimed to be “1,000 percent behind” his embattled vice-presidential running-mate, Thomas Eagleton, who was being attacked for concealing his mental-health history. But days later, McGovern reversed his position and dropped Eagleton from the ticket.
William Safire’s New Political Dictionary declared that the phrase “1,000 percent” had become a byword for foolish and insincere exaggeration, and today is often used in irony or sarcasm.
In other words, James Carville’s use of the term is significant. Behind the scenes, more and more leading Democrats are thinking about, to paraphrase the words of Mark Antony at Caesar’s funeral, “coming to bury Biden, not to praise him.”