by Kevin Ellis
The president of the United States has caused a panic within the Democratic Party. His debate performance, which you have probably heard about and hopefully watched, has created a frantic cultural/political conversation about whether he should step aside and allow someone younger to face Donald Trump.
Anyone with a parent over the age of 80 knows Biden’s debate performance was not one bad night. It was a sign of many. The president can barely make it through an interview unscathed.
Most of the people I speak with tell me Biden should step aside. Democratic Party stalwarts like James Carville from the Bill Clinton era also say he should and will step aside. They argue that it’s now a moral question. The good of the country is at stake, and Biden’s age is endangering us all.
But Biden – a man seared by personal tragedy – has refused to step down.
He told donors and members of Congress he is not going anywhere. The last few days have shown him more lucid and articulate. He called into a liberal cable TV show and sounded fine—irritated at all the commotion and focused on Trump and the danger he poses to the country.
All this begs the question: why is he hanging on?
I believe that Biden is trapped. He is trapped by ego, history, and those around him. Like many politicians, he is intensely stubborn and believes only he can fix what ails the country. He wants to fight on, so his staff—loyal and respectful—back him. They blame the media and the rest of us for even having this debate. And they blame us for shifting the attention away from the threat of Donald Trump to democracy.
As I’ve said before, only Biden can change the race. He has the delegates and infrastructure. No one can take the nomination from him. Clearly, no one in Biden’s family or campaign is telling him to step aside. They are all engaged in the kind of self-delusion that plagues many politicians, including, most famously, Hillary Clinton in 2016.
Clinton had just finished a successful run as secretary of state under President Obama. She had grandchildren. She should have left the political scene. But she insisted on running, losing to Trump, and saddling us with his threat to democracy all these years later. She refused to leave the stage, and now Biden—who should never have run for reelection—is doing the same. The Democratic bench is packed with talent, but this older generation refuses to give way.
But sometimes, the American people tell you what to do. That’s the way we’re supposed to do it in this country. Biden must give way for the good of the country. And it shouldn’t be this hard. He’s not trapped. He can exit the stage to a professorship, a presidential library, and the genuine thanks of a grateful nation for his decades of public service and a very successful presidency.
To help illuminate the path to a respectful withdrawal, I planned to write a mock speech for President Biden. It would endorse his vice president, Kamala Harris, to fill out his term, and articulate a vision for the next generation of political leadership this country badly needs.
But the great James Fallows beat me to it.
James Fallows is one of the country’s great writers and journalists. I have followed him closely for decades. He was President Jimmy Carter’s chief speechwriter but resigned when he felt Carter had lost the idealism of his campaign promises. Since then, he has written expert books and articles about everything from reforming the Pentagon and the airline industry to how the news media actually functions. He is not flashy, but he writes with depth and thought—every time.
In the farewell speech, Fallows gives the president the way out, reminding us that George Washington did the same. At the end of his second term, Washington left the presidency rather than give in to his colleagues’ requests to run again. He thought a third term would undermine the new country’s desire not to anoint a King. After all, we had fought a war on this issue.
Give Fallows’ speech a read, and let me know what you think.