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Item one: In Trump world, they’re thinking landslide. Democrats need to act and talk Biden into stepping aside, and soon.

Joe Biden had many lucid moments at his Thursday evening press conference, but the idea that we’re going to judge Biden day by day on the latest speech or press conference is terrifying, for two reasons. First, it sets a ludicrously low bar that is bound to favor standing pat with Biden as the nominee. This is because every one of these appearances is going to be judged on whether he was better than he was at the June 27 debate, and every time, the answer to that question is almost certain to be yes, because he can hardly be worse. But is "He was better than the debate" really the right standard here?

Second, this clock is ticking. It’s five weeks until the Democratic convention, which opens Monday, August 19. That’s time enough to act. Biden did open the door just a crack Thursday night to not being the nominee, but mainly he sounded very dug in, and if that’s the case, he can run out that clock by doing just enough interviews and speeches to be able to say he didn’t go into hiding, but without genuinely exposing himself to a risky public situation. One can predict the news cycles: three days of sensing that the dam may be about to burst and the Democrats are ready to take collective action, then Biden makes an appearance, does OK but only OK, but the momentum for replacing him is killed.  

So if that’s how we’re going to spend these next five weeks, Biden will be the nominee. Is there a chance he can win? There is. Lots of Americans really don’t like Donald Trump. In 10 long weeks between the end of the convention and Election Day, maybe the Democrats can succeed in making the race about Trump, and Biden can eke out a win. A poll came out Friday morning showing Biden ahead by two points.

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But the odds are growing that Biden will lead his party to a defeat that will extend to both chambers of Congress. That means that Trump, armed with the radical proposals of Project 2025, a self-declared "Secretary of Retribution" who has a list of some 350 people who may be arrested in a new Trump term, and a fresh Supreme Court ruling that makes all this presumably legal, will return to the Oval Office with Republican majorities in the Senate and House, the latter of which Democrats had been confident of recapturing before the debate but where they now fear they could lose 20 seats.

More House Democrats, and one senator, have come out this week calling on Biden to step aside. Three, led by Connecticut’s Jim Himes, made their announcements after Biden’s press conference, meaning that it did not staunch the bleeding. And we’ve all been reading and hearing this week that privately, the percentage of Hill Democrats who want to see Biden step aside is in the neighborhood of 80 percent.

In Trump world, meanwhile, they’re salivating at the thought of running against this weakened Biden and this divided Democratic Party. The Atlantic’s Tim Alberta wrote a much-discussed article this week headlined, "Trump Is Planning for a Landslide Win." The landslide is predicated on one fact: that the opponent is Biden. Alberta: "Biden quitting the race would necessitate a dramatic reset—not just for the Democratic Party, but for Trump’s campaign. [Trump aides Susie] Wiles and [Chris] LaCivita told me that any Democratic replacement would inherit the president’s deficiencies; that whether it’s Vice President Kamala Harris or California Governor Gavin Newsom or anyone else, Trump’s blueprint for victory would remain essentially unchanged. But they know that’s not true. They know their campaign has been engineered in every way—from the voters they target to the viral memes they create—to defeat Biden. And privately, they are all but praying that he remains their opponent."

Even assuming that there is some spin there, there is no doubt that Trump himself has spent four years thinking about running against Biden and that the Trump campaign is planning on spending millions to attack Biden on his age and capacities. 

Democrats can no longer ignore this. So next week, Chuck Schumer, Hakeem Jeffries, Nancy Pelosi, and other senior Democrats who are friends of Biden’s (ex-senator Chris Dodd has been mentioned) need to go to him and have the talk with him. They need to get him to withdraw.

And, I suppose, to release his delegates to Kamala Harris. I’d rather see an open process. It would be more democratic (for the party that’s supposedly fighting to save democracy). It wouldn’t have to be chaotic. It could be galvanizing. A handful of candidates would step forward. They’d campaign for a month. They’d give convention speeches. The delegates would vote, and the party would have a candidate, who would then have 10 weeks to campaign against Trump. If most voters pay no attention until Labor Day anyway, that’s time enough. The money and logistical questions are serious, but people who really want to figure those things out can do so.

But a Harris scenario seems more likely. Fine. Just choose a scenario, and go to Biden and explain to him the stakes of his staying in the race, for him personally and for his legacy. If he bows out soon, he goes down in history as the guy who saved the country from a second Trump term, had a surprisingly successful term as president, and graciously gave up power like none other than George Washington for the sake of his party and his country.

If he resists that, he risks dragging the Democratic Party into its biggest crisis in a century. A decisive loss that many people anticipated and feared to the hated Trump, with all the authoritarian ramifications thereof, could lead the party into a period of vicious recriminations and weakness. Is that really what Biden wants? We’re about to find out.

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Item two: Trump and Orbán

Donald Trump, meanwhile, on the closing day of the NATO Summit, invited Viktor Orbán down to Mar-a-Lago. For Orbán, this is part of his "peace mission," which has included visits to Ukraine, Russia, and China over the last several days. Said Orbán of his meeting with Trump: "We discussed ways to make peace. The good news of the day: He’s going to solve it!" Trump replied on Truth Social: "Thank you Viktor. There must be PEACE, and quickly. Too many people have died in a war that should have never started!"

It’s astonishing the way Trump just keeps telling us what he’s going to do, and with such flair. On the very day that Joe Biden and other NATO country leaders (Orbán notably excepted) were affirming their commitment to the alliance and specifically to Ukraine, with Volodymyr Zelenskiy present, Trump and Orbán were all but announcing that they’re ready to hand Vladimir Putin whatever portion of Ukraine he wants.

What a harrowing four months this is going to be.

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Quiz time!

Previous quiz: Up, up, and away. Two weeks ago, we tried something that’s more like a $100,000 Pyramid category: a quiz about high things.

1. What is the highest-elevation capital city in the world?

A. Kathmandu, Nepal

B. Thimphu, Bhutan

C. La Paz, Bolivia

D. Quito, Ecuador

Answer: C, La Paz. It’s 11,942 feet up. Eek! Quito is second at 9,350; Thimphu is sixth at 7,657; and Kathmandu is surprisingly far down at 4,593.

2. According to The Guinness Book of World Records, Robert Pershing Wadlow of Illinois, who lived from 1918 to 1940, is the world’s tallest man ever. What was his height?

A. 7 feet, 11 inches

B. 8 feet, 1 inch

C. 8 feet, 6 inches

D. 8 feet, 11 inches

Answer: D, 8 feet, 11 inches. Hyperplasia of the pituitary gland. His shoes were size 37 and made for him for free by a company that required him to travel around the country promoting the brand. 

3. What is the tallest building in the world now, at 2,717 feet?

A. Merdeka 118, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

B. One World Trade Center, New York, United States

C. Burj Khalifa, Dubai, United Arab Emirates

D. Shanghai Tower, Shanghai, China

Answer: C, Burj Khalifa. Pretty easy. Photo here. 

4. Match the song with the word "high" in the title to the artist.

Answer: "High Time" = Joe Cocker, "Sky" = Jigsaw, "Hopes" = Sinatra, "River" = Ike & Tina

5. What singer has hit the highest known note in the world, a G10? It’s six octaves above the G that sits above middle C—which is to say, it’s three octaves above where a piano keyboard ends.

A. Ariana Grande

B. Georgia Brown

C. Minnie Riperton

D. Joan Sutherland

Answer: B, Georgia Brown, which should have been guessable because why else would this person you haven’t heard of be one of the choices? Here’s a video of her.

6. According to THCDesign.com, what strain of marijuana is currently perhaps the most potent in the world, with THC levels regularly clocking in above 34 percent?

A. Godfather OG

B. Gorilla Glue #4

C. Chemdawg

D. Gas Monkey

Answer: A, Godfather OG. Here’s what it looks like.

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This week’s quiz: Who’s laughing now? Because we all need a laugh this week, a quiz about classic stand-up comedy.

1. Who wrote the joke, "I went to a psychiatrist. He told me I was crazy, and I said I wanted a second opinion. He said, ‘OK, you’re ugly too!’"?

A. George Burns

B. Milton Berle

C. Henny Youngman

D. Shecky Greene

2. Upon its release, his 1962 album My Son, the Folk Singer was the fastest-selling album—not comedy album; album—of all time. 

A. Morey Amsterdam

B. Allan Sherman

C. Carl Reiner

D. Sid Caesar

3. What was the name of Phyllis Diller’s fictional husband?

A. Wolfgang 

B. Fang

C. Boris

D. Prince Albert

4. What was the name of Flip Wilson’s female alter ego?

A. Geraldine

B. Claudette

C. Bernadette

D. Diana Floss

5. Who had a routine that started: 

I’m aware some stare at my hair.

In fact, to be fair,

Some really despair of my hair.

But I don’t care,

Cause they’re not aware,

Nor are they debonaire.

In fact, they’re just square.

A. Robert Klein

B. David Brenner

C. Lily Tomlin

D. George Carlin

6. Who said, "I am not a comic. I have never told a joke"?

A. Steven Wright

B. Janeane Garofalo

C. Andy Kaufman

D. Chevy Chase

Sorry this ends in the 1970s, but not much I could do with only six questions. Answers next week. Feedback to fightingwords@tnr.com.

—Michael Tomasky, editor 

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