Gordon L. Weil
This is a tale of two dates: November 5, 2024, and January 20, 2029. Both matter a lot.
The first is Election Day when voters will choose the next president. The second is the last day of the term the next president would serve.
The big political story these days is about the inability of President Biden to make reasonable sense during parts of the presidential debate. The New York Times says his staff tries to minimize his performance as a mere 90-minute “blip” in a long campaign.
But his friends and backers cannot readily dismiss what millions of Americans and many around the world saw as a catastrophic situation. It is impossible to assume that between now and 1/20/29 Biden won’t have another blip. The risk is that it occurs during negotiations with Russia’s Putin or China’s Xi or when making a decision on deploying a nuclear weapon.
In their zeal to keep Trump from the presidency, the Democrats focus almost entirely on Election Day not on four more years. If Biden wins, then we can worry about his term in office. But, if Biden clings to the presidency the way he clings to his campaign, he would put the nation at risk.
The country and the world need leadership, and his barely hanging on is not enough.
The presidential debate revealed that we face a crisis of leadership. Donald Trump is either self-delusional or an outright liar. Either way lies danger to the country and, likely, the American system of government. His seeking to be dictator-for-a-day is simply un-American.
Joe Biden tries to stop Trump. But the country cannot settle for a political doorstop to Trump’s reentry into the White House. It needs a person capable of dynamic and forthright leadership. Biden has outgrown his political persona and become an old man, struggling to lead.
Le Monde, a leading French newspaper, noted that the Democrats who cling to Biden have let their loyalty turn into blindness. The same can be said about the MAGA Republicans supporting Trump. When do the people who know the truth admit “the candidate has no clothes?”
Having missed the chance to voluntarily depart after a successful one-term presidency, Biden must now find a gracious way to withdraw. Forget the polls. He should admit what the people already know. Such an honest admission would be a contribution to the welfare of the nation.
There’s no doubt he can be replaced. Had he passed away, the Democrats would not have lost the ability to find a new nominee. There are mechanisms that work right up to Inauguration Day.
His withdrawal would have a positive effect both in the U.S. and abroad.
In the U.S., it’s clear that the two old candidates have little appreciation of the values and worries of people in middle age or younger. A Democrat who shares their experience and speaks their language could immediately provide a real challenge to Trump.
Picture a campaign between an experienced Democratic leader, hopefully a woman, who knows the issues and is sensibly articulate. Such a candidate would present Trump with challenges that he does not face even from a healthy Biden. The tenor of the campaign could change overnight.
In international affairs, the U.S. simply cannot walk away from its role as leader of a community of countries faced with authoritarian and hostile forces. Whatever their gripes, much of the world depends on us.
People abroad are worried. London’s Financial Times reported that Trump’s return is “viewed as a significant geopolitical threat in Europe” and that “European officials watched Biden’s disastrous debate performance in horror.”
Le Monde’s editorial said, “After the debate, the essential question arose as to whether or nor Biden should remain the candidate, and the answer is no.” Given authoritarian threats, the paper wrote that “everyone within democracies [must] place the common interest above personal considerations.”
Biden can’t and Trump won’t deal with an increasingly dangerous world or with trying to develop bipartisan policies that meet domestic needs from immigration to inflation. Trump owns the Republican Party, so there’s no hope for change there. The Democrats could come up with a viable alternative.
Democrats should not view a narrow victory by a failing man as the best way to get the country through four more years. Biden must put “the common interest above personal considerations.” He can write history by a classy withdrawal. He can spoil his legacy by staying too long.
Biden is not the only person who can defeat Trump. And, in his way, he embodies dangers to the country no less worrisome than does Trump.
It’s likely I would have voted for Biden in November, as the only viable choice. Now, I urge him to withdraw and give us a real choice about our future through 1/20/29 and beyond.
