In 1989, a man named Noid took a Domino Pizza outlet hostage, annoyed over the ‘Avoid the Noid’ campaign. He demanded $100,000, a white limo, and a copy of a Robert Anton Wilson novel. The hostages, pizza makers, got away by making him two pizzas and escaping while he ate them.

That may have been the strangest hostage situation until now.

Presidential elections have their ‘High Noon’ moments in primaries and the general election. It just hasn’t involved a showdown between a presidential nominee and his own political party. We’ve had some very strange elections and this one just got a whole lot stranger.

The media, donors, and some Dems have been developing all sorts of plans to replace Biden, but none of those plans really account for what might happen if he refuses to leave. The party has options, but a lot of those options look like a murder-suicide pact in which Biden holds the party and the election hostage.

There are options for removing him, but the party has to gamble which is more destructive, uniting behind Biden or forcibly trying to replace him, with all the resulting drama. The verdict isn’t in yet.

The donors are using their financial leverage, but all that does is weaken their party’s election chances. So they’re taking the party and the election hostage. And Biden is taking the party and the election hostage.

It’s a game of chicken and the real test may be who’s going to blink first, powerful established interests or an old guy who only occasionally knows what time it is.

You win the game by pretending to care the least. Who cares more, Biden or his party? Who’s gonna blink first?