Why Joe Biden *needs* Donald Trump

Octogenarian meets septuagenarian.

Mark Leibovich wrote a terrific piece Monday in The Atlantic (subscription required!) making the case that some ambitious Democrat should take a flyer on challenging President Joe Biden in the 2024 primary race.

In making the case, Mark wrote something that I think deserves a little more attention and unspooling. Here it is (bolding is mine):

“Here’s the deal, as Biden would say. No one wants to be accused of messing around with established practices when the alternative—very possibly Donald Trump—is so terrifying. But just as Trump has intimidated so many Republicans into submission, he also has paralyzed Democrats into extreme risk aversion. This has fostered an unhealthy capitulation to musty assumptions. And if you believe groupthink can’t be horribly wrong, I’ve got some weapons of mass destruction to show you in Iraq, not to mention a Black man who will never be elected president and, for that matter, a reality-TV star who won’t either.

I’ve been thinking about the exact same idea in a slightly different way: Joe Biden needs Donald Trump in 2024.