Regular readers of the Hotline know that we’ve been warning for nine months that Joe Biden would not be the Democratic nominee, and it is looking like we were right. The debate appears to have been a setup to get Biden off the ticket. It’s hard to believe that the left didn’t know how impaired Biden is. The Wall Street Journal described Biden’s performance as a “crash”.

The betting odds are rising rapidly that Biden will be replaced.

The front-runner is California Governor Gavin Newsom. Newsom is slick, buttoned up, Clintonesque, and liberal as the day is long.

The problem is that California is a basket case.

As you can see below, the Golden State ranks 50th or near last on every economic policy metric.