Return to Biden-Trump rematch narrows choices, leaves many wary
An "uncommitted" supporter outside a voting center during the primary in Dearborn, Michigan, left, President Joe Biden, and Nikki Haley making her concession speech in South Carolina. Credit: AP / Paul Sancya, AP / Andrew Harnik, AP / Chris Carlson
Now, even the ever-optimistic Nikki Haley is gone from the presidential race, as expected. She was the last survivor from a gaggle of former Donald Trump loyalists who offered themselves as alternatives to the boss of Mar-a-Lago, before their candidacies gave up the ghost.
Super Tuesday proved super-predictable. A lack of meaningful contests in both major parties fed the likelihood that President Joe Biden will again face his indicted predecessor in November. Like it or not, the American public is a full step closer to a once-in-a-lifetime binary choice between back-to-back four-year occupants of the White House.
As spectacles go, the solar eclipse next month seems far more eagerly awaited.
With Republicans and Democrats engaged in an endless domestic cold war, party unity becomes a strategic must for both sides. The people at large may prefer clear and plentiful choices, but this is an extended two-way power struggle like no other.
More options won’t be an option.
Biden and Trump still must campaign and deliver appeals. Biden, the winner in 2020 despite MAGA’s attempt to steal the election after the fact, gets to promote himself in the annual State of the Union address Thursday.
Expect the 81-year-old incumbent to try to deflect and tamp down fears about uncontrolled migration. Watch for him to try to turn around a sore point in his administration’s performance and seize on the belief that his host for the evening, House Speaker Mike Johnson, has declined to move or agree to appropriate legislation on the topic for electoral reasons.
Biden will again encourage support for Ukraine to repel Russia, a topic on which Trump’s loyalties have long been suspect among mainstream Democrats and some Republicans. Biden even invited the widow of late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny to attend the speech but she declined, according to the White House.
Will Biden try to reach those Democrats in several states who supported “uncommitted” convention delegates, rather than those pledged to Biden? If so the president will look to show that there’s more to U.S. policy on Gaza than supporting Israeli bombardments when he touches on humanitarian aid, hostages and Hamas.
And can Biden win over Haley’s moderate primary supporters?
If voters yearn for yesteryear when there were multiple primary choices at this point in the cycle — each candidate publicly pressuring their competitors to clarify their policy stances — there are still choices to be made in Senate and House primaries.
Michigan, for example, has at least one GOP Senate hopeful who’s an outright maverick. Justin Amash is a reform Republican, an anti-abortion constitutional conservative alienated from the party when he voted in 2019 as a member of Congress to impeach Trump.
Amash is one of four Republicans vying for the Senate seat that veteran Democrat Debbie Stabenow is due to vacate in January. Another Republican candidate, ex-Rep. Peter Meijer, voted to impeach Trump in 2021. Rep. Elissa Slotkin is favored to win the Democratic nomination in that state. The primary date is Aug. 6.
D ifferent states’ primaries are spread out over coming months. Ahead of Michigan on the schedule is New York, whereas many as three GOP candidates might be on the June 25 primary ballot looking to face Democratic Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand in the fall.
If any philosophical distinctions exist among Gillibrand’s challengers, the potential candidates will have a chance to display them.
Very early in this cycle, we are approaching the moment when voters begin to ask themselves, rhetorically or in earnest: What choice do I have?
Columnist Dan Janison's opinions are his own.
Dan Janison is a member of the Newsday editorial board.
