Biden challenger Cornel West says president is 'running out of gas, predicts 'LBJ moment'

President Joe Biden was branded “running out of gas” by a third-party challenger who denounced the uncertainty of the 2024 general election, predicting a potential “LBJ moment” for the incumbent.

The Middle East hostages and abysmal economic outlook can easily draw parallels with President Jimmy Carter's doomed 1980 re-election campaign, but a call by activist professor and independent presidential candidate Cornel West predicted a greater resemblance to in 1968.

“I'm not even sure if I'm going to run against Biden,” the People's Party turned Green Party hopeful and then White House independent. he said Politician during an interview. “Biden: I think he's going to have an LBJ moment [and] go back.”

Speculation that Biden would not make it to the 2024 general election has dominated his entire presidency with concerns ranging from cognitive ability, living beyond the American average to the political scandal over alleged drug trafficking. influences during his term as vice president.

Now, as the House of Representatives formalized an impeachment inquiry and poll numbers have continued to rise for the chief resident, the parallels to 1968 grew. Then President Lyndon B. Johnson had suspended his campaign after the New Hampshire primary.

For example, during that election cycle, another Democrat had embarked on an independent campaign with former Alabama Governor George Wallace, winning more than 13% of the vote over incumbent Vice President Hubert Humphrey when he lost less of 1% over then…former Vice President Richard Nixon.

Currently, the independent career of environmental lawyer Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has seen polls slightly higher than Wallace's after dropping out of the Democratic primary. Similarly, his father, New York Senator Robert F. Kennedy, had been a front-runner after Johnson withdrew, only to be assassinated in June of that year.

“I'm just saying I'm open to those possibilities, given the fluidity of the situation,” West continued about the possibility of California Gov. Gavin Newsom or Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer replacing the incumbent as the Democratic presidential nominee in 2024. . “He's running out of gas.”

Both governors have denied their own White House ambitions with Whitmer which is repeated often claims to be seeking higher office while she and Newsom have been accused of running shadow campaigns for this purpose.

West spoke negatively of both Biden and former President Donald Trump, calling the former a “milquetoast neoliberal with military adventurism, possibly leading the world into World War III,” and the latter a “bona fide, neo-fascist, Pied Piper at the head of the country for the second civil war”.

“I'm more worried about Trump domestically. I'm more worried about Biden in terms of foreign policy,” he remarked. The activist candidate also denounced suggestions that his career could have a negative impact on the outcome, “I don't accept the spoiler category. A vote for Biden, a vote for Trump is a vote for Biden and a vote for Trump.

“There could be parts of people” if they hadn't voted for West, they would have voted for Biden. But this is not for me, a spoiler. If you're in a race and you make a case and you get voted out, how do you become the spoiler? he asked himself as he spoke to his candidacy trying to connect with the apathetic electorate.

“A lot of this campaign is really about trying to tap into that 38 percent who don't vote at all and young people increasingly struggling with cynicism of various kinds,” said West, who was tied for fourth with candidate of the Green Party. Jill Stein in a hypothetical general election in which Trump beat Biden by more than 5% and Kennedy in third place with 13.4% seconds in the RealClear Politics average.

Staff writer

A native of Brooklyn, NY, Kevin Haggerty is a graduate of Hunter College, where he studied Cultural Anthropology and Geography. An avid reader and seeker of truth, he currently resides in Texas with his wife and dog, and when he's not researching current events and their impacts, you'll find him spending time with friends and family or working on his next novel ·the.

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