Let’s leap back to the 2020 Democratic Primaries. Despite being a former vice-president, Joe Biden performed horribly in the first three contests.

Biden finished an embarrassing fourth in the Iowa caucuses, far behind Bernie Sanders, Pete Buttigieg, and Elizabeth Warren and just barely nosed past Amy Klobuchar.

New Hampshire was even worse for Biden, where he placed a distant fifth with 8%.Then Nevada put a dab of make up on his spiraling candidacy with a second place finish…granted he trailed Sanders by 17% but a D- is still better than an F+.

Biden would be saved by the fourth state on the calendar, James Clyburn’s firewall South Carolina, winning roughly half the vote.

What happened within moments of the ex-vice-president’s lone victory?

James Carville (circa 2020) called for “shutting this puppy down” and demanding the other candidates not named Sanders to bail out the race to coalesce behind Biden.

And jump they did and the talking heads and Democratic establishment literally muscled the nomination away from Sanders in a manner for more egregious than what Hillary Clinton did in 2016.

Democracy was too important of a matter to be decided by Democratic voters.

This happened not because of any great love for the Delaware politician but because Biden was useful and a less objectionable candidate against then-President Donald Trump.

Yet four years and one debate later, Carville (circa 2024) is preaching a new gospel.

The Oracle of White Castle (the Louisiana town, not the fast food chain) has waged a public war to dislodge the sitting president from the party nomination.

The useful idiot had lost his useful status.

“Biden must go!” raged the Ragin Cajun. Why?

Not because the president is seemingly inept, corrupt, or showing obvious signs of physical and mental decline but because Biden is on the cusp of committing that most unforgivable sin as a Democrat, losing the election.

Americans saw far too much during an unprecedented early presidential debate prior to the party conventions.

To shore up his candidacy post-debate,  President Biden consented to a brief interview with former Clinton White House advisor George Stephanopoulos.

Though Stephanopoulous let quite a few absurd claims by Biden go unchallenged, including stating that Trump encouraged people to inject themselves with bleach to fight Covid, the sit-down came off more like an intervention than an interview.

To Dr. Jill’s great disappointment Biden, who was inexplicably clutching an ink pen in his left hand throughout the interview, did not answer every question and refused to undergo an independent medical evaluation on the true state of his health, particularly his mental acuity.

Biden remained defiant regarding his continued candidacy, yet there are forces beyond Carville’s salty language at play.

Revelations about increased White House doctor visits, including a Parkinson’s specialist, are seeping out of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

And while the head to head poll numbers against Trump are not catastrophic, they are cause for alarm especially if Biden suffers yet another moment.

The establishment media, essentially serving as an in-kind PR machine for the Democrats, find themselves in a bind.

The press wants Trump to lose but as their confidence in Biden’s ability to beat him bottoms out, they’re starting to become more critical of the president to grease the rails of his exit from the race.

Beyond the news show catcalls, Democratic dissenters are already rolling out fanciful nomination schemes to replace Biden.

Over the next few weeks if not days Team Biden (at this point Joe, Jill, and Hunter) is going to learn Harry Truman’s adage that if you want a friend in DC then go adopt a dog.

There will be increased media speculation about Biden’s health and more questions about his refusal to undergo an independent medical evaluation.

And don’t be surprised if the press starts circulating less than charitable stories about Hunter Biden to compound political problems and add stress to the president.

This will lead to his polling numbers sliding, especially after the Republican nominee benefits from a post-convention bounce.

And then.the real panic sets in when it becomes obvious that the 2024 election won’t be about Trump but the 81 year old president’s fitness to serve effectively or endure the pressures of the office another four years.

At that point it’ll be a matter of Trump doing something to lose the election and not win the election. Trump’s best argument as a candidate is his own opponent.

A Democratic strategist recently observed that Biden’s problems don’t get any better with time.

The question is will Biden voluntarily drop out or will he have to be dragged out?