Biden’s debate performance leaves Democrats wishing for another candidate. Can they do that?

“Sleepy” Joe Bidenjust gave the Democratic Party a wake-up call. The concerns about the incumbent president’s age and mental fitnessare not going away.

So what can his party do about it, if anything?

Thursday’s debate in Altanta, Georgia, was the president’s shot to bat away concerns about whether he can effectively serve a second term, one that would end well into his 80s.

Instead, battling a cold,Biden appeared raspy and hoarse onstage while appearing to forget words at times and at other points seemingly losing track of his point altogether.

Democratic sources who spoke to The Independent and a wide range of other media outletsafter the debate werein panic mode.

Some openly fretted about whether it was possible for their party to do the unthinkable: replace a sitting, incumbent president on the ticket after he breezed through primary season virtually uncontested.

“Horrible,” one Democratic strategist told The Independent. “Need to have [Kamala] Harris take over. Cleanest option.”

So is it possible? And who would replace Joe Biden at the top of the Democratic ballot?

The short answer is yes, it is possible. But it would be messy.

Joe Biden is not technically the Democratic Party’s nominee for president. Not yet.

The Democratic National Committee (DNC) is set to hold its nominating convention from August 19 to 22 — thousands of delegates, elected officials, union leaders, activists, party bigwigs, lobbyists and others will descend on Chicago for a four-day convention wherein Biden (or somebody else) will officially be nominated on the floor.

The president (or his replacement) will then accept the nomination and deliver a keynote speech on the final night of the convention.

Here’s the catch: the outcome of that