According to Semafor, two Clinton era Super Brain Geniuses have proposed this procedure if Biden drops out (boldface mine):

The proposal is the work of Rosa Brooks, a Georgetown University law professor who served in the Obama and Clinton administrations and as a volunteer policy adviser to the Biden campaign in 2020, and Ted Dintersmith, a venture capitalist and education philanthropist who has donated to various Democratic campaigns. They want Biden to flip the script on the current Washington narrative of a Democratic Party in chaos and for the party to see the current period as an opportunity for a reset. “In the midst of malaise and crisis, we can forge an uplifting path,” Dintersmith told Semafor.

Their idea goes something like this, according to a memo shared with Semafor that has been circulated to Democratic donors and bundlers as well as officials within the Biden campaign and administration:

• Biden would step down as the Democratic nominee in mid-July, and announce the new system, with backing from Vice President Kamala Harris.
• Potential candidates would have a few days to throw their respective hats in the ring. The Democratic Party then would begin a primary sprint in which the six candidates who receive the most votes from delegates pledge to run positive-only campaigns in the month leading up to the convention.
• The “blitz primary” would involve weekly forums with each candidate moderated by cultural icons (Michelle Obama, Oprah, and Taylor Swift are among the names floated in the memo) in order to engage voters.
• The nominee would ultimately be chosen by the delegates using ranked choice voting before the start of the Chicago convention on Aug. 19.
• It would be announced with plenty of fanfare on the third day of the gathering. The memo imagines the nominee unveiled on stage with Biden, Barack Obama and Bill Clinton.

According to its authors, the country would be captivated. Donations would pour in. And Biden would be celebrated as a “modern-day George Washington,” the proponents argue.

Leaving aside the question of why Harris would willingly step back, this is absurd. This wastes an entire month that could be spent going attacking Trump and Republicans with bromides about governing.

More importantly, none of us hoi polloi have any say in this process.

If you voted for Biden (or any other Democratic candidate), you implicitly voted for the candidate, not the actual delegate. I realize this is a (potentially, maybe not) extreme situation, but there is no reason to think the delegates are representative of the rank-and-file Democratic voters–I certainly didn’t investigate the actual delegates. Usually, when a candidate’s delegates are released at a convention, they would be guided by the candidate they voted for. But this would be a free-for-all for the delegates since the delegates are overwhelmingly Biden’s, and none of us anything about them: for all I know, my delegate is dumber than a sack of hammers and completely unrepresentative of the people they purport to represent. Nor will delegates be suddenly blessed with Solomonic wisdom.

The only viable path, if Biden steps down, is to nominate Harris. There are pros and cons to that, but bad West Wing fan fiction isn’t the solution here.