It’s already too late. Biden needed to mobilize the fence-sitters, all those voters out there who might not be completely sold on him but were repulsed enough by Trump to go vote for him anyway. His performance Thursday night will drive those voters to stay home for lack of a palatable choice, thus handing the election to Trump and his rabid followers.

If, on the other hand, Biden were to bow out and throw the convention open, it will tear the Democratic Party apart. That convention will be a shitshow between the party’s centrist and progressive wings. Whatever candidate emerges will alienate half the party. Many of those alienated Democrats will decide to sit out the election, again handing it to Trump.

I am at a loss to find a hopeful scenario.