Joe Biden is heading for election defeat in November.
Is there any hope of recovery from this awful debate performance?
Probably not. Biden doesn’t possess the charisma, political skill, or
mental faculties to pull what will be an epic political comeback. Obama,
Clinton—sure. Those men had the chops to be president. Biden showed
last night that he decidedly doesn’t have what it takes. There’s a
reason why we had stories of Obama trying to coax Biden out of the 2020
race. He knew his vice president didn’t have what it took to be
commander-in-chief. Now, the whole nation knows.
The Democrats and the media are in meltdown mode, but they are also
doing damage control. I’m sure you saw that party members are discussing
replacing Biden on the ticket. At The New York Times, two of the
paper’s most prominent editorial writers, Nicholas Kristof and Thomas
Friedman, have called on Biden to call it a day.
Friedman:
I
watched the Biden-Trump debate alone in a Lisbon hotel room, and it
made me weep. I cannot remember a more heartbreaking moment in American
presidential campaign politics in my lifetime — precisely because of
what it revealed: Joe Biden, a good man and a good president, has no
business running for re-election. And Donald Trump, a malicious man and a
petty president, has learned nothing and forgotten nothing. He is the
same fire hose of lies he always was, obsessed with his grievances —
nowhere close to what it will take for America to lead in the 21st
century.
The Biden family and political team must gather quickly
and have the hardest of conversations with the president, a conversation
of love and clarity and resolve. To give America the greatest shot
possible of deterring the Trump threat in November, the president has to
come forward and declare that he will not be running for re-election
and is releasing all of his delegates for the Democratic National
Convention.
Kristof:
President
Biden is a good man who capped a long career in public service with a
successful presidential term. But I hope he reviews his debate
performance Thursday evening and withdraws from the race, throwing the
choice of a Democratic nominee to the convention in August.
One
of the perils facing this country, I believe and Biden believes, is the
risk of a victory by Donald Trump. And after the debate, it’s hard to
avoid the feeling that Biden remaining in the race increases the
likelihood that Trump will move into the White House in January.
Biden
has never been a great debater, but his voice and manner didn’t put to
rest the doubts about his age and effectiveness. Rather, he amplified
them. I happened to chat today with a woman who is undecided about whom
to vote for — she says she distrusts both Trump and Biden but will
choose based on who will do better for the economy — and I bet that now
she will be supporting Trump.
In some sense, this may be unfair.
This was one debate. A candidate’s physical frailty, hoarse voice and
rambling responses may not be good predictors of how that person will
govern. But in this election, they probably are good predictors that the
candidate will lose in November and not have a chance to govern again.
Now, the editorial board has called on Biden to exit the race. When
two key figures call for the same thing, maybe we should have expected
the other shoe to drop.
I don’t think there can be a change at
this point. Biden has enough committed delegates, and he’s not one to
give up, especially if his opponent is Trump. Democrats have strapped
themselves to an out-of-control rocket, and the fuse has already been
lit. Still, it’s not as if the signs weren’t there. Again, we saw them,
but we’re also glad you, liberal America, were blind to them or
dismissed them outright because conservatives made the observation.
Thank you. It allowed Trump to win the race last night.
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