Is it 1967 all over again? That may be the question members of the Democratic National Committee are wondering as they saw obscure three-term Democrat Minnesota Congressman Dean Phillips announce his bid for the presidency over the weekend.

And not unlike Eugene McCarthy’s impact on Lyndon Johnson, the 54-year-old Phillips may prove to be the straw that finally convinces Joe Biden that the time has come for him to exit stage left.

The fact of the matter is that the vast majority of Americans believe Biden is too old to run again, and with Kamala Harris even more unpopular than Biden, he couldn’t have bid farewell months or years ago. The most recent Gallup polling shows Biden dropping to a new approval rating low of just 37%, with all indications being that he is a lame duck who doesn’t seem to know it.

The trouble for Democrats is, like McCarthy, Phillips is not really in a position to win the nomination. Outside of Minnesota, no one’s ever heard of him.

However, what Phillips does do is press the issue for the DNC. As he stated in his announcement, “I will not sit still and not be quiet in the face of numbers that are so clearly saying that we’re going to be facing an emergency next November.”

While Representative Jamaal Bowman pulled the literal fire alarm, Phillips has pulled the figurative one for Democrats and their diminishing presidential prospects if they stick with Biden.

Phillips has just made it safe for Democrats to publicly start talking about someone other than Biden, or Harris for that matter.

And unlike RFK Jr., whom the majority of Democrats view as a fringe anti-establishment candidate, Phillips represents a party moderate in the model of Biden. He expresses the Democrats’ legitimate concerns over a repeat of a Biden/Trump contest, but this time with the headwinds clearly blowing against Biden.

With California Governor Gavin Newsom playing a game of pickup basketball with kids in China while attempting to burnish his foreign policy acumen, the situation appears like it’s being primed for Biden to step down and Newsom to take up the party standard. Phillips may just be paving the way for a credible challenger.

Of course, the remaining problem is what to do with Harris, but that may be solved with another primary race. Harris will be free to jump into the fray, and get promptly dispatched by Newsom, or think better of it and make a possible run at the California Senate seat.

The remaining question is just how much lower will Biden’s popularity sink before the real panic at the DNC sets in?