Joe Biden’s decision was courage, not weakness. It should inspire us all.

President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden return to the White House with first lady Jill Biden on July 7, 2024 in Washington, DC. Members of Congress return to Washington this week as pressure for Biden to withdraw as the Democratic nominee for the presidency continues to mount. | Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

President Joe Biden’s decision on Sunday not to seek reelection was the embodiment of courage and should serve as a source of inspiration.

It’s the sort of courage that most of us will never be called upon to exhibit, though his critics will say he simply quit because was too feeble and had lost his will to fight.

Joe Biden is not a quitter. Quitters don’t get to be president. Pursuing the presidency, much less doing the job, takes a herculean level of determination.

It was probably because of Biden’s deep belief in what this country is supposed to stand for and his desire not to disappoint those who fought so hard to get him elected, that it took him as long as it did to make what must have been an excruciatingly difficult decision.

Let’s put this in context. He is the most powerful political leader in the world, but it took him 78 years to reach the pinnacle of his career.

It’s never easy for champions to admit the race is over.

True to form, Biden was quick to endorse Vice President Kamala Harris as his replacement for the Democratic nomination. As I’ve said before in this space, I believe she’s ready for the job, and most Americans (including most Arizonans) will rally behind her.

Biden’s willingness to voluntarily relinquish power in January, no matter who wins the election — unlike his predecessor in the Oval Office — to serve a cause greater than himself is the personification of humility, leadership, and patriotism.

In 1962, when asked why the U.S. should go to the moon, President John F. Kennedy said: “We choose to go to the moon in this decade…and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard.”

Seven years later, I watched, awestruck and inspired, on our family’s black-and-white television as two Americans became the first human beings to walk on the surface of the moon.

Today, we should be equally inspired by Biden’s choice, in the face of the greatest threat to our democracy since the Civil War, to do what was hard by ending his candidacy and serving instead as the bridge for the next generation.

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