On the heels of President Joe Biden’s disastrous performance at his June 27 debate with leading and presumed Republican Presidential candidate Donald Trump, the scuttlebutt of replacing him on the Democratic ticket spread like wildfire throughout the party’s on- and off-the-record communication lines. It became fodder for talk radio bloviators, and prime cuts of beef for newspaper editorials and the Sunday television news programs to feast on.  Nationally, just 29 percent of Democrat and Democratic-leaning voters support Biden, while 64 percent said they would prefer the party put forward another candidate.

It was a simple message, magnified by intensity and one that has, to no one’s surprise, even been attributed to Biden’s old boss, Barack Obama, the 44th President.

Thank you, Joe. It’s time to go.

Call it pride. Call it a refusal to surrender power or call it merely a case of plain old chutzpah, Biden continued to stubbornly cling to the belief that he was mentally and physically sharp enough to handle the rigors of remaining the leader of the free world well into his eighties: navigating the country through a skyrocketing immigration crisis, sorting out the United States’ definitive role in the Israeli-Palestine bloodbath, confronting the mounting atrocities of Russian President Vladimir Putin and aligning the nation with the last-ditch ideologies of other countries in tackling global warming, the most lingering crisis of our lifetime, and all of this against perhaps the most polarizing political candidate in the 248-year history of the Republic.

Thankfully, we will never have to know what the outcome would have been.

At 2:13 p.m. this past Sunday, Biden announced on X – formerly Twitter – that he would not seek reelection this year and instead endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris to take on Trump, who on the heels of narrowly escaping an assassination attempt on July 13 is surging in popularity and holds the lead in polls in key battleground states like Michigan, Florida, Ohio and yes, Pennsylvania, where Trump leads in some polls by a margin of three percent.

While the conservative base of the Republican Party swoons over their convicted felon of a candidate – and while the Forever MAGAs pound their keyboards of debate and division – the Democratic Party is desperately scurrying for potential candidates to replace Biden on the ticket, and while Harris is clearly the frontrunner, new faces pop into the political zeitgeist nearly every day. California Governor Gavin Newsom, Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, Maryland Governor Wes Moore and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg are just a few names in a rotating carousel of candidates that are here one minute and gone the next, only to reemerge on the wheel’s next spin.  

Now, with Biden’s departure from the race assured, the Democratic Party is in Week One of a frantic, three-month dash to save the Republic from Project 2025, Steve Bannon, Stephen Miller, Ginni Thomas, Hillbilly Vance and Trump himself. While their leading candidates carry certain qualifications to become president, the hard truth is that none possesses enough fire of articulation or the pugnaciousness of a bull to enter the quagmire with Trump and beat him at his own game. 

If the Democratic Party wrongly chooses to cling to their anthem, “When they go low, we go high” with an air of self-righteousness that may paint them as the kinder party this fall, the strategy will destroy them in November and for many elections to come. It’s a habit that continually follows them – the failure to accept that in a presidential election year, there are no votes given for kindness. Instead, what the party needs to find is a voice who confidently owns the gift of oration, but who can also use it as a tactical weapon in the bloody ring of political battle – someone who has the temerity to point defiantly at Trump and tell Americans that Emperor Trump has no clothes.

That candidate is Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro. 

Shapiro has already tossed his support toward Harris, as have many other lawmakers, but as a popular governor in the country’s most crucial swing state, his name on the ticket could better secure the 19 electoral college votes in Pennsylvania in an election that promises to be decided by a razor thin margin. Would Harris be able to do the same?

Shapiro has also proven himself to be a winner; twice during his runs for state Attorney General and in 2022, when he was elected Governor. In perhaps the most important litmus test of Shapiro’s political career – dealing with a Republican-led Senate and a divided House – he has earned passing grades. Shapiro is also a superb orator, and while its definition has always been murky, he speaks and acts in a way that many observers say is “presidential,” which was exactly the word reviewers used to describe the speech Obama gave at the 2004 Democratic convention in Boston, that many believe served as the foundation for what became a two-term presidency for a then-unknown junior senator from Illinois. 

Shapiro has already revealed his gift; on the day escaped murderer Danilo Cavalcante was captured on Sept. 13, 2023, Shapiro calmly arrived at the Po-Mar-Lin Fire Station, took to the podium and delivered a compelling address that thanked the investigators for their diligence and the people of Chester County for their patience. 

Shapiro’s finest moment as Governor, however, came recently on the day of the assassination attempt on Trump that occurred in the western part of the state he governs. He acted privately before speaking publicly, gathering intelligence and first making a personal call to the family of Corey Comperatore, the Trump supporter who was shot and killed in the assassination attempt.

“Corey was a girl dad,” Shapiro said in his remarks. “Corey was a firefighter. Corey went to church every Sunday. Corey loved his community, and most especially, Corey loved his family. Corey died a hero.” 

Do not think for a minute that a near-assassination attempt on his life will soften Trump; he’s a merciless cage fighter who enjoys drawing his opponents into the octagon. Shapiro is a most worthy opponent and the perfect counterbalance to Trump – an elected official who can be a clarifying voice of assurance and a pugilist who is not afraid to go mano-a-mano. In what has become the summer of our nation’s dissonance, a clarifying voice of assurance who is unafraid to use that voice to take down an opponent may save the Democratic Party and indeed, the future of the nation.