It’s you, Joe, you’re the problem

Former Vice President Joe Biden links arms with Sen. Kamala Harris and Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in Detroit, March 9, 2020 | Andrew Roth

A little more than four years ago, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer jogged into the Renaissance High School gym, high-fiving folks as she made her way onto the stage.

She would be joined by U.S. Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) and future Vice President Kamala Harris as they rallied the Detroit party faithful for soon-to-be President Joe Biden’s campaign the day before Michigan’s 2020 presidential primary.

In what seemed like an iconic moment, Biden linked arms with his three younger supporters and announced, “I view myself as a bridge, not as anything else. There’s an entire generation of leaders you saw stand behind me. They are the future of this country.”

For years, that night was etched into my brain because it would be the last time my son and I would go anywhere indoors with throngs of people for a very long time. The next night, just hours after Biden scored his decisive primary victory, Whitmer would announce that COVID had “moved to Michigan” and the world seemed to stop for awhile.

But now I look back at that rally and marvel how much stronger Biden sounded — while articulating a much clearer vision, savaging Trump as a “bully who must be defeated” — compared to his his hoarse, halting speech at the same high school a little over a week ago. And keep in mind, Biden generally won good reviews for that last Detroit appearance — certainly compared to his rambling, mumbling debate performance.

It’s even more striking when I recall covering Biden’s speech at that same high school back in 2012 during President Barack Obama’s reelection campaign. Now that Joe Biden had the Detroit crowd of seniors, students and union members eating out of his hand. But of course, he was a spry 69-year-old back then.

It’s become painfully clear that he’s not the same man now than he was 12 years ago — or even four years ago. Nobody would expect him to be, as he holds the most stressful job in the world (if you’re doing it right) — it’s little wonder that Obama left office almost completely gray.

And indeed, Biden is the best president of my lifetime, bolstered by his decades of experience.

He has stood up to Putin’s tyranny and held the western coalition together to defend Ukraine. He yanked us out from Trump’s chaotic and conspiratorial COVID response and administered an admirably efficient vaccine rollout. He marshaled sweeping economic stimulus, infrastructure and climate packages through Congress, leaving us with the strongest economy in the developed world.

But that doesn’t mean he’s the best person to run for president in 2024. Campaigning takes a different skill set, requiring a level of energy and laser-like focus that is clearly hard for Biden (and Trump) to sustain.

After assessing the situation for the last few weeks, I’ve somewhat reluctantly come to the conclusion that Biden is the biggest problem for Democrats this year and they’d be better off replacing him. (I fully expect to get even more hate mail than usual for this, but that’s the job).

Now I wasn’t one of the Chicken Littles after the debate last month. Although I was taken aback by the president’s apparition-like appearance and worryingly weak, meandering answers, I didn’t think it was a fatal blow.

For over a week, I thought the pundit reaction was borderline hysterical and the volume of backbiting, anonymously sourced stories was ridiculous. The idea of replacing a presidential nominee and risking a chaotic convention that would leave the party even more bitterly divided seemed laughable.

And most of the loudest voices bashing Biden were smug analysts who tend to view politics as just a game, even after watching Trump supporters desecrate our Capitol in a violent insurrection three years ago.

But you have to be able to adjust your priors in the face of new evidence (and yes, sometimes the Onion’s “Worst Person You Know” meme is dead on).

There are several reasons why I now believe Biden is a unique liability for the Democrats. Stories started featuring more people — including longtime Biden allies — openly talking about their concerns about his deteriorating health in recent months, with striking details that matched up with what my sources were telling me off-the-record. In other words, the debate didn’t really seem like just an “off night” anymore.

Then elected officials and donors started calling on Biden to step aside — which is highly unusual, to say the least.

Meanwhile, progressives like U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who have been fierce critics of Biden’s Israel policy and repeatedly tried to push him leftward on domestic issues, have emerged as some of his strongest defenders. That would seem to me to be pure strategy, so as not to torpedo any mainstream effort to replace him. (Note that U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Detroit), who helped lead the “uncommitted” vote against Biden in the primary over his record with Palestinians, has largely stayed silent as of late).

But even more interesting to me was that leaders like former U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) were keeping the door open for Biden to bow out. Rather than firmly shutting down questions about Biden’s nomination and fitness, they’ve been practically begging Biden to take the hint. It’s happened with such regularity that it’s impossible to ignore.

That’s culminated in reports about private conversations Pelosi, Obama and U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) have had with Biden about staying in the race — which they haven’t denied. As I wrote last week, that was one of the key things I was looking for to see if the effort to ditch Biden was real.

What Biden backers come back to again and again is that it’s just elites clamoring for him to exit the stage, but the people are with him.

Yet polling has consistently showed that Biden’s age is a drag and he’s trailing Trump, even after soundly beating him four years ago, portending an electoral wipeout for Democrats. That’s in spite of the fact that most voters don’t like Trump and prefer Democrats on most issues. There are promising numbers for other potential Democratic candidates against Trump, i.e. those who are “what can be, unburdened by what has been,” as Harris is fond of saying.

And at this late juncture, you can’t ignore that almost two-thirds of Democrats want the president to withdraw.

That dovetails with what I’m hearing from Democrats who are busy canvassing for Michigan’s upcoming Aug. 6 partisan primary. They’re consistently hearing from Democratic voters at the doors who want to see someone new at the top of the ticket — and that’s a marked change from before the debate.

In an ideal world, Biden would have acknowledged his shortcomings and decided against running for reelection, allowing Democrats to pick a new nominee through a traditional process. I suppose it’s folly to expect anyone to relinquish being leader of the free world without one last fight. But personally, I’ve never longed to live through the depressing saga of “King Lear.”

Biden seems to fervently believe he’s been a great president and winning a second term will solidify his place in the history books as the man who beat back authoritarianism — twice.

At this point, it’s not just that he’s lost a bit of the spin off his fastball. Too much of the time, he can’t even get the pitch across the plate. And with democracy itself at stake this election, it’s not enough to just hold our collective breaths and hope he’s got enough gas in the tank until November to finally turn the polls around.

No, Mr. President. This isn't about you. If this election is truly about the future of our basic rights, our freedom, our nation — as you've said so many times before — you'd best be damn sure that you're the best person to stand between us and the abyss.

– Susan J. Demas

He’s also become increasingly irritable — again, not helping assuage people’s doubts about his advanced age — reportedly ignoring counsel from people he trusts like Obama and Pelosi and publicly declaring that he’ll only get out of the race if the “Lord Almighty” instructs him to.

When he was asked in a recent interview how he’d feel if he stayed in and “Trump is elected and everything you’re warning about comes to pass,” Biden gave an absolutely maddening answer: “I’ll feel as long as I gave it my all and I did the good as job as I know I can do, that’s what this is about.”

No, Mr. President. This isn’t about you. If this election is truly about the future of our basic rights, our freedom, our nation — as you’ve said so many times before — you’d best be damn sure that you’re the best person to stand between us and the abyss.

Yes, replacing Biden on the ticket is an extraordinary move and an undeniable gamble. Truth be told, Democrats might be primed to lose either way. But it was Biden himself who drew attention to the immense talent coming up behind him at that March 2020 speech in Detroit.

Letting go and being that bridge to the future would be a legacy worthy of the presidency he built.

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