6/30/24

TWO TERRIBLE CHOICES,
BUT ONE GOAL: BEATING  DONALD TRUMP

STICK WITH JOE BIDEN? REPLACE HIM?
     The choice would be simple if we knew which offered the better chance of defeating Donald Trump.
     We don’t.
     In fact, there’s a possibility that neither will work, and Trump will walk back into the Oval Office to destroy everything: American democracy, world peace and survival of the planet.
     Still, after Biden’s disastrous performance at last Thursday’s debate, a choice has to be made.
     And this is one of those rare instances in which each one of us is as qualified as anyone else to make the best guess: we amateurs know as much as the experts.
     I have my prescription, but it’s flawed right out of the box, because of two personal shortcomings:
     One, I’m still in shock over Biden’s failure in the debate, so I’m probably not thinking straight.
     Two, I’m furious at Biden, his wife and others close to him that they didn’t warn us about the president's mental deterioration; I hope my emotions aren’t skewing my judgement.
     Here my suggestions for what should happen next:

• Biden quits the race. This is the better of the terrible two choices. A July 4 speech would be a symbolic moment for a patriotic gesture.
• Biden is pressured to quit. July becomes Get Rid of Joe Month. Democrats of all shapes and sizes, from Barack Obama, Mr. and Mrs. Clinton, John Kerry and Al Gore, to Congressional and party leaders, to emailers, letter writers, phone callers urge Biden to get out of the race. If the effort is big enough, and the polls agree, he’ll be forced to leave.
• The Democratic convention in Chicago Aug. 19-22 picks nominees for president and vice president. There are plenty of capable candidates. Any one of them faces hideous hurdles with just two months until the Nov. 5 election.
  
• Or, Biden stays.  The rest of us should back him – but be honest about it, saying we know that a flawed Joe Biden is better than a grotesque Donald Trump.
  
• Democrats control Congress. We must throw everything we  have at retaining the Senate and retaking the House of Representatives; it’s the only way of checkmating a Trump presidency or strengthening a Democratic White House.

     Indeed, this last point may be the most important thing that Democrats can do during the entire campaign, electing a sane, progressive Congress.

 WE’VE BEEN HERE BEFORE. As the 2024 campaign was shaping up, many people debated whether Biden should run again.
      As a wishy-washy thinker, I went both ways.
     Initially, I thought Joe should not seek a second term, mainly because he was too old.
     I knew that, because I’m just a few months older than Joe, and I am facing the disappointing truths about aging. Some friends have  died in their 70s and earlier, and now that my contemporaries are in their 80s, they're in a race to the cemetery.
     What happens to old people is the one thing I still know about.
     At 82, I’m getting worse every day in every way. I’m weaker, frailer and stupider.
     My memory is a disappointment. Entire words disappear when I need them; sure, sometimes the words bounce back – but way too late to be of use.
     Going for a walk with me is like standing still or, on a bad day, going backwards.
     If I were to be ordered back to work – let’s say a Trump administration ordered a work requirement for everyone receiving Medicare – I could not do that, not to save me life.
     If Jeff Bezos offered me the editorship of his troubled Washington Post – the chance of a lifetime for any journalist – I could not do it, not for one year, one week or even a day.
     Given my own declines, I’ve been amazed at how well Biden has done. He rides (or used to) his bicycle; flies around the world; shows up in war zones; welcomes winning sports teams to the White House. Starts his day with the daily “brief” from the spooks, and ends it late at night raising money. In short, Biden has been doing all the little and momentous things we require of presidents.
     That’s why I changed my mind and supported his campaign for a second term.
     Many people say that Joe Biden has been the best president of their lifetimes, and I’m among them. I never expected he’d be so good. Not perfect, but good.
     It seemed to me that somehow, Joe was getting away with being old. Some people do. I’ve met people in their 90s whose memories are infinite and judgements sharp.
     Joe seemed an Olympian Elder.
     Given that, it was a no-brainer that, with Trump emerging from the Republican sewer, Biden was best equipped to defend democracy and continue his long list of achievements.
     There were several factors favoring Biden’s candidacy. No other Democrat was as well known as Biden; there were many capable men and women, but none were household names.
     And there always was too little time to lock in a replacement and get her or him widely known. And every month, the time factor – too little of it – was more and more persuasive.
     Until June 27, 9 p.m., Eastern.

 EVERY PERSON watching the CNN-produced debate saw the same thing and was horrified by the first 5 minutes and the next 85:
     Joe Biden presented the nation with a caricature of an old man, a man horribly impaired by age. He walked old. He mumbled old. His talked old, his voice so  low and husky you could barely hear it; he mangled his sentences; lost his way. Over and over.
     Worse, he failed on his main mission: telling voters why Donald Trump should not be president.
      He flunked Job One.
    Biden had challenged Trump to the debate so he could tell the world  why Trump was the most evil leader in U.S. history. When Trump lied, Biden should had countered with the truth, clearly, forcefully, persuasively. Biden should have played the prosecutor, giving both opening and closing statements to persuade the jury of Trump’s guilt of numerous crimes and misdemeanors.
     And in the process, 81-year-old Joe Biden should have demonstrated in classic show-don’t-tell fashion why an old man was up to the job, whether on the campaign stump or in the Oval Office.
     Republicans must have been dumbfounded. They could not have imagined, with all of their and Vladimir Putin’s vast archives of dirty tricks,  that Joe Biden would deliver them a 90-minute ad, for free, proving  that Joe Biden was not fit to be a candidate and maybe not a commander-in-chief.
    A few hours later, writing in this blog I used a phrase along the lines that an “old man had a bad day.” It sounded okay at the time, but it was too glib, and certainly wrong.
    It’s now obvious that Joe Biden has been having both good days and bad ones, just like me and the rest of our 80-Somethings. But it’s the bad days that count, and given the realities of life, the bad days will become more frequent.
Jill Biden, his wife, knows this. So does his chief of staff, appointments secretary, members of cabinet, and everyone else who sees Biden in action or the opposite of action. And this goes for the press – including the reporters in the White House media “pool” who follow the president around day and night.
And nobody spoke up, until Joe Biden pulled his June Surprise in Atlanta.

HERE’S MY LIST of replacements. I’m sure you have your own (remember Michelle Obama says she won’t and Taylor Swift is on tour):

 Gretchen Whitmer, Michigan governor. She’s got the experience and the cachet. She escaped a kidnapping plot, has overseen a progressive big state agenda. And it’s time for a woman president.

 Josh Shapiro, Pennsylvania governor. He got a destroyed Route 95 bridge replaced fast, in under two weeks.

 J.B. Pritzker, Illinois governor. Big guy from a big state. Well-spoken, progressive.

     Not on my list: Kamala Harris. Already unpopular, the vice president has seen Biden up close, and she hasn’t said a word.
     Any “newcomer” to the race that the convention might  nominate faces near impossible hurdles: gaining name recognition, credibility and popularity in a very, very short period of time.
      If Biden stays in the race, his limitations must be acknowledged. I daydream about going door-to-door in a battleground state (which I won’t do, because I’m too old); somebody tells me they’re worried about Biden’s well-being. What am I supposed to do: run to the next doorbell? No, I have to say Over-the-Hill Joe is better than Don-the-devil. Great message.

THESE ARE THE CARDS WE’VE BEEN DEALT.
     Just the two of them.
    Whichever one – Joe, Not Joe – it’s important that Democrats don’t fight with each other, but with Donald Trump.
    Our focus must be on the two things that count: defeating Trump and electing a Democratic Congress.
     Both are possible.