On July 4, I wrote “It’s time to go, Joe” – (https://wtvbam.com/2024/07/04/669556/). In the two+ weeks that followed, many of President Joe Biden’s confidants and colleagues urged Biden to withdraw from the presidential campaign.
It became clear that he was not the best option for the Democratic party to offer to serve for four more years as the most powerful person on earth.
On Sunday Biden took that advice. Thank you, Joe.
(courtesy Time Magazine)
In an act that must have been incredibly difficult, Joe Biden, admittedly under intense pressure, made the decision to withdraw from the 2024 presidential campaign, allowing a younger, more vital candidate to take over.
It would be unfair to imply that Joe Biden has not demonstrated a capability to manage the presidency and the pressures of his job. Age has obviously impacted his physical abilities and robbed him of a spring in his step. But over the past three and a half years, he has demonstrated an unparalleled knowledge of foreign diplomacy, he has passed impactful bi-partisan legislation in a deeply divided Congress, and he has protected democracy.
Some Republicans have already called upon Biden to resign, but there is no indication that he cannot continue as an effective leader to the end of his term; it may have been a stretch to ask him to lead for four more years.
While calling for him to resign seems like an over-reaction, it also seems like a bad strategy, since that would throw Kamala Harris into the presidency, allowing her to run her campaign as an incumbent.
The effects of Biden’s age have robbed him of some debating skills and impacted the visual perception of his vitality. He subsequently decided, for the good of his party and his country, that an alternative candidate would be a better choice to compete for the next four-year term.
That candidate must be Kamala Harris.
While many Democrats and groups embraced a Harris candidacy almost immediately, some, including Barack Obama, Chuck Schumer, and Hakeem Jeffries have seemingly called for a more open selection process at next month’s Democratic convention in Chicago.
That will change quickly, and Harris will become the consensus choice. Nothing about the factors in selecting Biden’s successor have changed since my July-4 column:
Harris is a known entity. She boasts legitimacy in her party by having served as VP on a party ticket that has already won an election against Donald Trump. With experience as a district attorney, California attorney general, U.S. senator, and vice president, her resume is substantial. She is articulate and she is 59 years old but looks younger.
A new CNN poll shows her to be close (and slightly ahead of Biden) in a matchup with the Republican ticket. Her candidacy would eliminate the argument of the double-haters (that sizable portion of voters who want neither Biden nor Trump as President, often citing age as a reason). And donors have chipped in almost $100 million in the first 24 hours after Biden’s announcement.
The longer the Democrats wait, the more the media will focus this selection process, rather than where they would like the focus to be – Donald Trump, Project 2025, electric boats and sharks and Hannibal Lecter.
One more note: The Trump team seems extremely upset about this new political development, “It’s not over! Tomorrow Crooked Joe Biden’s going to wake up and forget that he dropped out of the race today!” Trump posted on Truth Social late Sunday night.
Trump went on to complain about how he had been unfairly forced to spend money campaigning against Biden and he suggested that “the Republican Party be reimbursed for fraud.”
Trump’s team had orchestrated a campaign for defeating Biden. They have already spent millions of dollars on the assumption that Trump would face off against an 81-year-old who looked and acted his age. By flaunting Biden’s weaknesses, they assumed voters would overlook those of the Republican nominee, and the polls showed that their approach was working.
Now, it all changes. Trump now surpasses the 2020 version of Joe Biden as the oldest major-party presidential candidate in U.S. history.
Remember Nikki Haley’s campaign speech after a January primary, where she said that “Most Americans do not want a rematch between Biden and Trump,” and then predicted, “The first party to retire its 80-year-old candidate is going to be the party that wins this election.”
Curt MacRae is a resident of Coldwater, MI, and publishes opinion columns regularly.
Tweets @curtmacrae — comments to rantsbymac@gmail.com
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