Biden was called a ‘well-meaning, elderly man.’ We should probably listen | Opinion

There must be a word for it — that feeling you get when the elephant in the room is finally laid bare, even when what’s revealed is scary and dark.

For me, it struck yesterday, with the release of special counsel Robert Hur’s 388-page report outlining the federal investigation into President Joe Biden’s handling of top-secret documents.

Sure, denial has its uses. There’s a time for making the best of it.

When it comes to the idea of trotting out Joe Biden as the Democratic nominee for president later this year — one more time — after this?

We’re past the point of rationalization, the special counsel report makes clear.

As a nation — and particularly on the left — it’s time to face up to the facts.

The U.S. President is “a well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory,” Hur wrote as the culmination to his investigative work.

Biden won’t be charged, the report concluded, though the investigation found he willfully took classified material and carelessly shared them — including with his ghostwriter.

Even if no crime was committed, the damage is done.

The elephant has been acknowledged.

Biden is too old for this. Call that age discrimination if you want. In truth, it’s a readily apparent, humane observation.

The President is also decidedly unpopular, even if the public assessment isn’t fair — or directly tied to his age.

Most importantly?

Barring a Supreme Court curveball or an unforeseen shift of our collective national fate, a November rematch with Donald Trump looms for a Democrat of the party’s choosing, be it Biden or someone else.

The ripcord dangles in our grasp.

If we’re lucky, the words of the special counsel will help put an end to Democrats’ self-destructive trajectory — and the flailing Biden reelection machine.

Political implications

Writing in The Washington Post Thursday, reporters Shane Harris and Josh Dawsey described the special counsel’s take of the 81-year-old 46th President’s current capacity as the “most damning” part.

No kidding.

For Republicans, the characterization is considered “politically seismic,” they wrote.

For Democrats, it further illustrated a nagging fear that has “privately concerned some Democrats,” the story suggested.

That, in a complicated little nutshell, is the big problem, isn’t it? Or at least one of them?

Throughout Biden’s 2020 candidacy and the breadth of his first term, stalwarts on the left have convinced themselves it’s not that bad. Compared to the alternative — the scary orange man sitting fat in the Oval Office dismantling democracy in real time — they’ve even had a point.

Hell, a day-old, room-temperature bowl of chowder would be preferable to four more years of Trump. So what if the country holds its breath every time the Commander In Chief steps to a podium or descends a flight of stairs? Trump is old, too. He’s also forgetful and abused classified documents; he was actually charged. Plus, he lies, cheats, steals and relishes in the unspeakable. He’s not well-meaning, not by a long shot. The differences between the two men are as stark as ever.

Still, playing this game in 2020 was one thing. Running it back in 2024 is another entirely, even if the same general calculation holds true.

The realities of Trump’s presidency were in all of our faces four years ago, much harder to ignore. But like everything else, what happened back then has been contorted through a partisan lens.

Did it really go down that way? Was it as terrible as the news made it sound? Was it all liberal hyperbole? In a world where truth has little currency, we’re left to make up our own minds.

If hindsight is 20-20, politics and the passage of time has a strange way of perverting it.

Most of all: We already know what Republicans will do, outside of the few and soon to be politically homeless. They’ll line up behind Trump en masse, forming the same spineless but formidable blob of self interest and pet issues we’ve come to expect.

It feels naive to expect a nation’s infected memories of just how ugly it got and what almost happened to win the day four years later.

What Democrats need in 2024 is a candidate who inspires new optimism and fresh energy. Whoever that is.

In Biden, it’s hold on for dear life — and hope we make it through relatively unscathed.

Love him or hate him, it sure feels like a careless and unnecessary hand to lay down on the November electoral table.

Biden’s legacy

The official historical record won’t be put to paper for decades, but in my book Joe Biden will go down as a hero — and a flawed but human national treasure.

He was Barack Obama’s dogged wingman, known for wearing aviator shades, giving inappropriate hugs and letting dumb things fall out of his mouth at inopportune times.

When the nation needed Biden, the lifelong leader, widowed husband and devoted father who rode the train from Wilmington to D.C. also rose to the occasion like no one else could.

His job was to unite just enough of us to fend off the worst — and save us — when it mattered most.

Biden did that, the president’s supporters will note —and they’ll be right. He’s also accomplished far more in the White House than he’ll likely ever receive credit for, including navigating a pandemic, an irredeemable Congress and a despot scratching at the door.

Regardless, we’re left with this, nine short months before a presidential vote is cast.

There’s no way around it, and no better way to say it than the phrasing Hur chose

In one corner, voters will almost certainly have a brazen crook and a conman whispering sweet hate in their ear, eager for one more crack at tearing it all down. The stakes will have never been higher. He’ll have his voters, revving their coal-rolling engines, ready to drive us off the cliff.

In the other, we’ll have “well-meaning, elderly” Joe. Bless his heart.

If that’s the race we get, the choice for voters will be just as clear as it was four years ago.

The question remains unavoidable, however:

Do we really want to take that gamble again?