Headlines blared Friday morning about President Joe Biden's plummeting odds for reelection after his struggles with cognition during Thursday night's first debate, but notably his odds are not zero.
Oddsmakers still are betting on Biden being the candidate, invoking actor Jim Carrey's famed "Dumb and Dumber": "So you're saying there's a chance."
That comes despite talk about the House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., weighing a move to call on the Biden administration Cabinet to invoke the 25th Amendment to remove the president for mental incapacity.
The leading prices for who will win the presidential election are heavily in Trump's favor, but Biden is still No. 2 and widely leading the top Democrat alternatives by a wide margin, according to betting market website PredictIt:
- Trump 59 cents
- Biden 37 cents
- California Democrat Gov. Gavin Newsom 12 cents
- Vice President Kamala Harris 6 cents
- Former Democrat-turned-independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy 4 cents
Not only does the incumbent Biden rate as more than a 3-to-1 favorite over his party's alternatives, but both Newsom and Harris vocally backed him before and after the debate for reelection as his top campaign backers and surrogates.
Biden remains the Democrats' top hope to retain the power of the presidency, particularly since both Newsom and Harris are from California, a Democrat-heavy state Biden likely already has won anyway. Middle America's appeal for a California Democrat as a U.S. president is low — especially in the heavy Trump MAGA states through the South and Midwest.
"The Democrats will nominate a radical, anarchist, hard-left progressive who will destroy America, hurt the world, hurt Israel, hurt peace," self-described liberal Democrat and 2020 Biden voter Alan Dershowitz told Newsmax's "Newsline" on Friday.
Democrats could hold an open nomination before its Aug. 19 Democratic National Convention to declare its official presidential candidate.
Because the delegates are bound, it is likely Biden himself would have to agree to step aside at some point to unbind those delegates, but there no indications he plans to do so.
"If you care deeply about America, be careful what you wish for," Dershowitz told host Bianca de la Garza. "Biden may not be the best Democratic candidate or the strongest, but he may be better than the alternatives.
"They're going to try to nominate who? They're going to try to nominate somebody who will destroy America. That's what worries me more than anything else."