Let’s Be Real About Joe

Let’s be honest. Joe Biden did not graciously sacrifice his own career for his country. He was dragged, kicking and screaming, from the stage. By hanging on as long as he did, he did damage to his party and the nation. If Kamala Harris wins in November all will be forgiven, If she loses, he’ll be blamed and with ample justification.

The gushing of Democratic pols and pundits over Joe has been pretty hard to take. The same people who were calling on him to quit and who were telling one another that Biden was being stubborn and selfish by refusing to leave, all of a sudden were laying it on thick about what a noble sacrifice he had made for his country. The New York Times editorial board set the pace with this gem: “Mr. Biden has now done what Mr. Trump never will: He has placed the national interest above his own pride and ambition.”

Oh, please. Only days earlier the Times was running unflattering stories about how Biden was holed up at his beach house, stewing with resentment over those who were pressuring him to quit. It was COVID and not phlebitis and it was Delaware and not Key Biscayne, but those of a certain generation (mine, in fact) couldn’t help but draw the comparison and I doubt that this didn’t occur to the Times editors.

But moments after he dropped out, some Democrats and liberal writers even compared him to George Washington. As Biden himself would say, seriously, man? Washington was sick and tired of the damn job and couldn’t wait to get back to his farm. Had he decided to go for another term he would have gotten it by acclamation, although there was grumbling that he too was getting a little long in the wooden tooth.

By contrast, Biden loved being President, he held on to the baton so tightly that his fingernails are still imprinted in it, and he probably would have lost to Trump had he not been forced out.

And it should have never gotten to this point. Biden should never have run for a second term to begin with. There are legitimate questions to be asked about the complicity of his White House and campaign staffs in keeping his true condition from the press and the public. It’s no accident that Biden held fewer press conferences than any President since Reagan — who was likely experiencing the first stages of Alzheimers in his final years on the job.

To be fair, Biden had a decent run. His accomplishments in the areas of infrastructure and climate change are significant and he even pushed through some modest improvements in gun control. He would have passed a major bipartisan bill on immigration if Trump hadn’t torpedoed it — while saying out loud that he didn’t want to actually accomplish anything on the subject that would rob him of his biggest issue.

(Speaking of Trump, he made predictably classless, sophomoric statements upon Biden’s withdrawal. An appropriate comment for anyone in either party would have been to thank Biden for his decades of service and to simply acknowledge that he did the right thing by moving aside. What I find disingenuous is all the stuff about his personal sacrifice.)

But, in the big picture, Biden allowed himself to be pulled too far left. It’s no accident that Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio Cortez were among his strongest supporters to the last. By placating them he missed a historic opportunity to solidify a center-left coalition and offer a permanent home to Never Trump Republicans.

It may turn out that Harris will be an excellent candidate and a great President and everything will have turned out for the best. But if so we will have stumbled into it — despite, and not because of — the reckless and self-centered choices of Joe Biden.