Last week, as President Biden gave a speech, his crowd chanted, “Four more years!” Yeah, some of us thought. For Donald Trump.
If Republicans have a spring in their step, it’s because Biden put it there. He put it there with his implosion on the debate stage and with his refusal to “stand down” — to remove himself from the Democratic ticket.
As I have said repeatedly — most recently in this column of last week — I sympathize with Biden. I have ego and ambition too. And pride and other problematic things. Biden, a lifelong politician, has gotten himself elected president. He’s on top of the heap. He sits in the Oval Office. And to give it up, when the Constitution permits him another term?
Plus, there’s the question of dignity. No one likes to be forced out, pushed aside. It’s humiliating.
Last month, I wrote about Bush 41, on the occasion of his centennial. Let me quote a portion that now comes to mind:
To a journalist, Walt Harrington, he said something poignant. Harrington had been invited to the White House Christmas party that year — 1992. In a private moment, the president said to him, “You know the worst thing about it, Walt? The embarrassment. It’s just so embarrassing.” Bush was talking about his election defeat.
And yet, the election is bigger than Biden. So much bigger. The stakes here are momentous. Can Biden provide Trump real opposition? No.
There is a more important question: Can he do the job of president — not just until 2029 but right now? Evidently not.
Many of us can give a thousand reasons to vote against Trump. I have been detailing them for years. But it is very hard — impossible — to ask someone to vote for Biden, given what we have all seen and know.
Biden has been repeating a good line: “When I get knocked down, I get back up.” The thing is, he did not get knocked down. No one hit him, on that debate stage. No one laid a glove on him. He fell. He showed himself incapable of handling the task.
Politicians, like people in other fields, often stay too long. For years, people called the Senate “Strom’s nursing home.” Thurmond was just riding out his time. Dianne Feinstein did the same thing. She was once formidable; but she became so diminished . . .
If you’re one in a hundred senators — well, the earth keeps rotating on its axis. But if you’re the president?
In his interview with Biden last Friday, George Stephanopoulos asked, “If you stay in and Trump is elected and everything you’re warning about comes to pass, how will you feel in January?” Biden’s answer is hard to quote verbatim, because it is garbled. But he said, in essence, If I gave it my all — if I did the best job I knew how — I would feel fine. And he said, specifically, “That’s what this is about.”
No, it isn’t. I think of an old song lyric (Carly Simon, 1972): “You’re so vain, you probably think this song is about you.”
Congressman Adam Schiff (D., Calif.) had a good answer when asked about what Biden told Stephanopoulos. “This is not just about whether he gave it the best college try, but rather whether he made the right decision to run or pass the torch. That is the most important decision for him to make right now.”
If Americans return Trump to power in this election, that will be their responsibility, of course — their call. But Biden will have a share of responsibility as well. You’ve got to provide a viable alternative.
Some Democrats want to talk about this — publicly — and others don’t. One in the latter category is Debbie Dingell, the congresswoman from Michigan. “We’ve got to stop talking about this,” she said. “We need to get back to talking about Donald Trump.”
I thought of Ring Lardner: “ ‘Shut up,’ he explained.”
Another Democratic congressman, Steve Cohen of Tennessee, made a wry remark. Asked whether Democrats were “on the same page,” he answered, “We’re not even in the same book.”
A report in Semafor contains another wry remark:
“The morale of the caucus is at historic lows” one member said. Told that others had compared the mood to a funeral, they replied: “That is an insult to funerals.”
(The word “they” is paired with “one member.” I can grouse about that — again — another time.)
As some of us see it, senior Democrats ought to get Biden away from the coterie around him and talk turkey with him. People around a president, or other such figure, depend on him for their careers, their status, etc. They are not disinterested. It is natural for them to say, “Hang in there, Mr. President, you can do this thing.”
Joe Biden needs to hear from people with more independence, a greater detachment.
I keep quoting Senator Jim Buckley, arguing for President Nixon’s resignation. This was in March 1974 (several months before it happened). He said, “I propose an extraordinary act of statesmanship and courage — an act at once noble and heartbreaking; at once serving the greater interests of the nation, the institution of the presidency,” and so on.
The cases of Nixon and Biden are very different. But don’t they have some things in common?
Many of us envision a scenario — rather blood-stirring. An open convention, with all of Biden’s delegates released. Different candidates make their pitches. Coalitions form. Balloting takes place. Finally, on one of these ballots, a ticket is nominated. A fresh day, a fresh start — a general election. (Still almost twice as long as Britain’s.)
The year 1976 was interesting. In an effort to displace President Ford, Ronald Reagan chose, in advance, a running mate — Senator Richard Schweiker, a moderate from Pennsylvania. The tactic did not work. Ford got the nomination. But it was interesting, that tactic. A gambit.
You may recall a more recent presidential cycle — that of 2016 — when, in an effort to stop Trump, Ted Cruz and Carly Fiorina teamed as a ticket.
Still walking down Memory Lane, I think of a famous tabloid headline, from 1990. The New York Post was pleading with the city’s mayor, David Dinkins, to confront the issue of crime. “Dave, Do Something!” Here’s another cry for you: “Dems, do something!”