Joe Biden Gives A Desperate Nation Hope
Kamala Harris ready to whoop Trump with a coconut tree.
President Joe Biden announced Sunday that he’s dropping out of the presidential race and endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris as the new Democratic nominee. It seems he’s decided to listen to Nancy Pelosi instead of Hunter Biden, which is always the smarter move.
“My fellow Democrats, I have decided not to accept the nomination and to focus all my energies on my duties as President for the remainder of my term,” Biden posted on social media. “My very first decision as the party nominee in 2020 was to pick Kamala Harris as my Vice President. And it’s been the best decision I’ve made. Today I want to offer my full support and endorsement for Kamala to be the nominee of our party this year. Democrats — it’s time to come together and beat Trump. Let’s do this.”
Former and Should’ve Been Presidents Bill and Hillary Clinton also came out in immediate support of Harris:
“We join millions of Americans in thanking President Biden for all he has accomplished, standing up for America time and again, with his North Star always being what’s best for the country. We are honored to join the President in endorsing Vice President Harris and will do whatever we can to support her."
“We’ve lived through many ups and downs, but nothing has made us more worried for our country than the threat posed by a second Trump term. He has promised to be a dictator on day one, and the recent ruling by his servile Supreme Court will only embolden him to further shred the Constitution. Now is the time to support Kamala Harris and fight with everything we’ve got to elect her. America’s future depends on it.”
Barack Obama praised his former vice president without endorsing Harris. Instead, he said, “I have extraordinary confidence that the leaders of our party will be able to create a process from which an outstanding nominee emerges.” He’s more optimistic than I am, but Biden and the Clintons swiftly backing Harris could help avoid a ridiculous West Wing-inspired open convention. Republican delegates are bound to their candidate, but Democratic delegates can do whatever they want. Let’s hope it’s not idiotic.
The Democratic National Convention starts on August 19 in Chicago. I’d rather we didn’t waste the next month pretending Harris isn’t the nominee, but perhaps all the serious contenders will spend the next week enthusiastically endorsing the vice president.
I liked how former U.S. attorney Joyce Alene Vance framed the new race: “For Donald Trump to be taken down by a Black woman, a prosecutor, is the poetic justice the country has been waiting for.”
That was also the theme during Harris’s last presidential campaign, and it’s amazing how well this 2019 ad holds up.
Why Joe decided to go
Ending his re-election campaign was undoubtably a difficult decision for Biden, who has reportedly felt betrayed by his allies, especially Obama, Pelosi, and Chuck Schumer. However, politics is ultimately about winning. As Tom Cruise is reminded in Jerry Maguire, “It’s not show friends. It’s show business.”
Recent polling showed Biden on a downward trajectory to lose to Trump in an Electoral College rout. Biden was down in almost every swing state. It wasn’t “bedwetters” who thought Biden couldn’t win. It was Democratic leaders and politicians with experience running campaigns.
Democrats personally loyal to Biden have embraced a defeatism that is both demoralizing and irrational. Someone posted on social media, “So what now? Biden dropped out; his detractors are going to do the EXACT SAME THING to whoever replaces him. There will always be something to weaponize, and this just confirms to bad actors that weaponized bullshit is an effective way to influence the presidential race.”
Yes, Republicans and the media will hammer Democratic candidates, but Biden was specifically unpopular. I refuse to believe that right-wing propaganda is so powerful and the Democratic brand is so toxic that 38 percent approval is the best any Democratic nominee could achieve. Barack Obama wasn’t president in some alternate reality timeline.
Poll after poll showed that voters thought Biden was too old to effectively serve a second term. That prove an insurmountable liability, especially since Biden reinforced it during his Hindenburg debate performance. No matter how much partisan Democrats stomped their feet, the age issue didn’t go away and, worse, the 78-year-old Trump continually beat Biden when it came to mental and physical fitness to serve. This liability instantly vanishes with Harris. Democratic commentator Bakari Sellars adroitly shifted the messaging on Sunday when he said, “Kamala Harris is running against the oldest nominee for president of the United States in American history … I mean, the man is nearly 80-years-old and so the question is, can he serve another four years? I'm not sure he can.”
Harris can credibly put the focus on Trump’s advanced age, which has brought him absolute zero wisdom. It also highlights that Trump’s vice presidential intern pick, JD Vance, is an unqualified lightweight. Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, Sen. Jon Ossoff from Georgia, or Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg would dismantle him during a debate.
Ignore the Republican nonsense
Republicans had a specific “Joe Biden” plan for this race. They pinned everything on defining this election as a public referendum on whether Biden could reasonably serve until he was 86. That’s now gone. They can attack Harris over inflation and the border, but that’s not the slam dunk they hoped.
The GOP was so desperate to keep Biden on the ticket that they spooked skittish Democrats with absurd threats. House Speaker Mike Johnson claimed on Sunday, shortly before Biden’s announcement, that a possible Biden replacement would face legal issues getting on the ballot in key states. This is and has always been complete nonsense. Biden was only the presumptive nominee. He wouldn’t become the official nominee until the convention.
Johnson later argued that Democrats “invalidated the votes of more than 14 million Americans who selected Joe Biden,” who willingly withdrew from the race. Johnson was the major architect behind the attempt to invalidate the votes of more than 81 million Americans after the 2020 presidential election. Marjorie Taylor Greene, with her usual brass gall, dared to say that Democrats waged a “coup” against Biden. If so, the known coup plotter is just jealous that this one was successful.
Sen. Josh Hawley from Missouri demanded that Biden immediately resign the presidency, posting on social media: “If you can’t run a mere political campaign, you can’t be President.” That’s hardly a serious statement, as there is nothing “mere” about a presidential campaign, which requires criss-crossing the nation and attending multiple fundraisers/campaign rallies often in a single day. Johnson and Vance both claim that if Biden is too frail to win re-election, he should resign. Of course, Biden has not admitted to serious health problems. He’s not FDR. He just can’t convince voters that he’s fit to serve another term.
Republicans obviously don’t really want Biden to resign so Harris can run as the incumbent president. They also don’t seem that confident that “Hey, that Black lady is Black!” will carry them to victory as effectively as “Hey, that old guy’s really old!”
No, life isn’t fair. That’s why it’s called ‘life.’
Joe Biden is old. Donald Trump is an adjudicated rapist and convicted felon who is just four years younger. The mainstream media treats this criminal psychopath like a normal politician. It’s unfair but it doesn’t mean we must resign ourselves to defeat. Trump is beatable.
“Well I hope the geniuses that pushed the most consequential President of our lifetime out, have a plan,” Rep. Jasmine Crockett posted on social media. “WHO in the hell couldn’t sell the MF Accomplishments & win over a 34 time convicted Felon who isn’t even allowed to operate businesses in the state of NY (and therefore should automatically be disallowed from say running the country) & his ENTIRE team IS project 2025?! Joe wasn’t the problem … dems were.”
There are several problems here. One, bashing Democratic voters and her own colleagues/leaders isn’t the unity-based rhetoric that will help Harris win. Also, while voters should overwhelmingly prefer an honorable old man like Biden to a crawling piece of slime like Trump ignores the unfortunate reality that this wasn’t happening. Too many Democrats and liberals cling to what they think should be and refuse to recognize what is. I think this is what I admire most about Nancy Pelosi. Prior to the 2018 Blue Wave, Democrats running in right-leaning districts were distancing themselves from her. She didn’t take it personally and instead said, ‘Just win, baby.” She’s strictly business like Michael Corleone.
Another Biden super fan John Fetterman raged, “People pushed out an honorable man, loving father and a great president before an absolute sleazeball like Menendez. Congratulations.”
Convicted felon Bob Menendez remains a senator because he lacks the moral integrity to resign. Democrats can’t force him out by themselves, and he’s bound to lose re-election. Biden voluntarily stepped aside because he accepted that he couldn’t win. No president would ever surrender power just because people were mean to them on social media.
Yes, this is superficially a good day for Donald Trump, who will crow because he feels as if he’s already defeated Biden and forced him to “quit the race in complete disgrace.” He’s not morally equipped to understand sacrifice, so he can’t comprehend that Biden would realize that defeating Trump is more important than his own pride. Trump would watch Harry Stamper in Armageddon or Spock in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan and think, “What a sucker!”
What’s important to remember about the heroic personal sacrifice is that you usually don’t know if it will work. You just know it’s the best hope to protect everything that matters to you. All that matters to Trump is himself, which makes personal sacrifice impossible.
Ultimately, history will remember that Joe Biden made sure the ship was out of danger.
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I am sad about Biden, he was a rare gust of decency on a world stage increasingly cluttered with the mediocre and the corrupt. He was very much the better America.
I think history will judge him as a great president, and the mainstream news press as we judge late18th century French aristocrats. Let them race horses.
And I think stepping down in favour of Harris demonstrated that fundamental decency. Right now, I want to concentrate on bringing the fight to Trump.
>> Recent polling showed Biden on a downward trajectory to lose to Trump in an Electoral College rout. Biden was down in almost every swing state. It wasn’t “bedwetters” who thought Biden couldn’t win. It was Democratic leaders and politicians with experience running campaigns. <<
I'm not at all saying you're wrong, but I'd like to add that the people bashing Biden didn't wait for that evidence, and it's at least **plausible** that had they held their tongues, such a trajectory would never have manifested.
As such, I see this as bullying by an anti-democratic monied class. I would not have seen it the same way had people waited for the polling evidence to emerge before the bashing began.
And it's not that I've felt like the Democratic Party was chock full of folks who believe in people-over-profits, but as much as I am all in on Harris, I won't forget the behaviour of those folks quick to shiv Biden.