Hello and welcome to Background Briefing, available 24-7 at backgroundbriefing.org. I'm Ian Masters, and today we'll look into a number of stories and issues in the news.

We'll begin with Biden's disastrous debate performance on Thursday and the chorus of calls from nervous Democrats to resign that followed.

While it is clear that Biden is lucky to be running against a deeply flawed candidate

and now a convicted criminal who is likely a traitor,

it follows that if Biden were running against a younger candidate like Nikki Haley,

he would be in greater trouble.

Now, with a cacophony of calls on the Democratic side to run a younger candidate,

does that mean the Republicans will be worse off against a younger Democratic candidate?

Yet it is not clear who that candidate might be, with some opining as if Vice President

Harris doesn't exist. Joining us is Robert Cutner, the co-founder and co-editor of the American

prospect and the Ideren Meyer-kirsten Chair at Brandeis University.

He was formerly an assistant to the legendary I.F. Stone, a chief investigator for the

Senate Banking Committee, and for 20 years wrote a column at Business Week. His books include

Can Democracy Survived Global Capitalism and Going Big, FDR's Legacy, Biden's New Deal, and the struggle to save democracy.

And we'll discuss his latest article at the American prospect.

Biden was so inept that the case for replacing him is now overwhelming.

Then we'll examine the impact of the debate and a weakened Biden already behind in the polls

on the Democratic down ticket and speak

with Richard Parker, who teaches economics and public policy at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government

and is a senior fellow at the Schoerenstein Center. He is the former managing editor of Ramparts,

was a co-founder of Mother Jones magazine, and serves on the editorial board of the nation.

His books include The Myth of the Middle Class and John Kenneth Galbraith, his life, his politics, his economics.

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