I am Gobsmacked That the Republicans Were So Gobsmacked

 

Let us concede that the Democrats, in swapping out candidates so late in the game, took quite a radical action and it was somewhat understandable that Republicans were thrown for a loop. 

What surprises me, though, is that Republicans still have not recovered from it.  Apparently they had no Plan B, which is surprising.

I can understand that they might believe Biden would not withdraw voluntarily.  Biden himself was doing his best to create that impression.  But if Republicans truly believed that Biden was as frail as they claimed, did it not occur to him that he might be involuntarily removed by events beyond his control?  

In the most extreme scenario, he might die.  Failing that, he might have a clearly incapacitating medical event.  Or the Cabinet might invoke the 25th Amendment.  Even if one assumes these things are unlikely, they were not so far-fetched that a sensible campaign would have disregarded the possibility.  A Plan B seems like so much common sense.

I can only assume that Republicans assumed that Joe Biden's removal as candidate would have been followed by a power struggle to be his successor that would have torn the Democratic Party apart.  If Republican planners wanted to be generous, they might even have assumed this was the reason why Biden would never voluntarily step down.