Column: Instead of just criticizing Biden, maybe George Clooney should take his place

OK, my choice to replace President Biden as the Democratic nominee is George Clooney.

Yes, I am semi-serious. No, I don’t expect anyone else to take me seriously — let alone the Oscar-winning actor.

His lifestyle, privacy and pay would suffer immensely — even if a $400,000 salary plus free housing, food and travel would sound very alluring to most people. Even with the hefty workload increase.

Why Clooney?

Most importantly, he’d whip the dangerous Donald Trump easily, probably by a landslide. Clooney’s a better actor. That’s all Trump is, besides a compulsive liar. Clooney is much more.

He has an easy smile that exudes sincerity and is extraordinarily telegenic. Trump pouts and frowns and is a horror show.

Clooney exhibits conviction and is a humanitarian. Trump displays self-centered opportunism and sows hate.

Clooney is relatively young for a presidential candidate these days. He’s an upbeat 63. Trump is a whiny, grouchy 78.

Why else?

Clooney had the guts, unlike most leading Democratic politicians, to be straight with the public, call it like he saw it and urge Biden to quit running for reelection. This was just weeks after he co-hosted a record $30-million, star-studded Hollywood fundraiser for the president.

“I love Joe Biden. … In the last four years, he’s won many of the battles he faced. But the one battle he cannot win is the fight against time. None of us can,” Clooney wrote in a New York Times op-ed.

He referred to the 81-year-old president’s disastrous debate performance against Trump.

The Biden he saw at the fundraiser wasn’t the Biden of four years ago, Clooney wrote, “he was the same man we all witnessed at the debate. …

“Our party leaders need to stop telling us that 51 million people didn’t see what we just saw…. The [ABC] George Stephanopoulous interview only reinforced what we saw the week before. … Is it fair to point these things out? It has to be. … We are not going to win in November with this president. …

“Top Democrats … need to ask this president to voluntarily step aside. … Would it be messy? Yes. Democracy is messy. But would it enliven our party and wake up voters who, long before the June debate, had already checked out. It sure would.”

Agreed.

Biden has been a good president despite a few screwups, most notably on illegal immigration. But that doesn’t mean he’d be effective in a second term.

And Biden’s candidacy is not sustainable. Support among Democratic members of Congress is cracking.

Much more importantly, voters have been telling pollsters for months that they desire a younger Democratic standard bearer. But the party didn’t listen. Now, Biden is losing more ground to Trump and there’s even speculation about some blue states turning purple.

Patrons watch President Biden debate former President Trump at a watch party on June 27 in Scottsdale, Ariz.

(Ross D. Franklin / Associated Press)

Biden loyalists, like California Gov. Gavin Newsom, may loudly sing the president’s praises, but too many voters have lost confidence in his mental acuity. They doubt his ability to beat Trump and perform adequately in the Oval Office if he does.

Biden’s hourlong news conference Thursday night went OK.

Freed from the inane two-minute time limit on answering questions in the TV debate, Biden was able to respond with thoughtful replies. He particularly was impressive when answering a foreign policy question about dealing with China and Russia.

But he awkwardly flubbed the first question. Biden was asked whether he was concerned about Vice President Kamala Harris’ ability to beat Trump if she were the nominee.

“Look, I wouldn’t have picked Vice President Trump to be vice president did I think she was not qualified to be president. So, let’s start there,” he replied.

That could be dismissed as a minor slip of the tongue, but the president did a similar name botch an hour earlier. At a Washington ceremony, Biden accidentally introduced Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as the Russian tyrant who invaded Zelensky’s country.

“Ladies and gentlemen, President Putin,” Biden said, before quickly catching himself.

Then there was the July 4 radio interview when Biden said: “I’m proud to be … the first vice president, the first Black woman to serve with a Black president.”

He was scrambling his often-used line about being proud of serving with the first Black president and also choosing the first Black woman as vice president. It was a too-common verbal fumble that accentuates voters’ concern about the president’s decline.

Clooney’s a world-class communicator.

He’s a Kentucky native who conceivably could draw support from Southern border states. Remember that wonderful “O Brother, Where Art Thou” flick when he played a lead bluegrass singer? Sure, he was an escaped convict, but that was just pretend. Trump’s a true-life convicted felon.

Clooney piloted the swordfishing boat Andrea Gail into “The Perfect Storm” and it perished, but I’m confident he wouldn’t sink the ship of state.

Look how he cleverly and deftly upended the corrupt corporate attorney who tried to kill him in “Michael Clayton.”

And showed his environmental creds and family values in “The Descendants.”

Politicians should never underestimate the voters’ desire to be entertained.

Yes, Clooney is just a movie star who has never served in public office. But neither had actors Ronald Reagan and Arnold Schwarzenegger before they were elected California governor.

And Trump, a reality TV star, had never held office either before shockingly being elected president. In his case, it showed.

All right, Clooney is not going to be nominated for president. Democrats haven’t the imagination.

But they should entertain us at their August convention by engaging in a competitive, wide-open contest for the best candidate to stop Trump. And it’s not Biden.