Time to go, Joe
After his abysmal showing at the Presidential debate Thursday night, Joe Biden should step aside and let someone else square off against Donald Trump.
Well, that Presidential debate was a debacle of historic proportions.
Last night's 90-minute showdown was a disaster for Joe Biden. He came across as befuddled and weak, repeatedly losing his train of thought and struggling to express himself.
Donald Trump delivered TrumpLite: still the same old demagogue spewing nonsense and lies, but in a collected, almost surreally calm manner.
We can bicker about plenty of other issues, but can’t we all come together and agree that it’s more than a little ridiculous that we’ve got these two (!!) to choose from?
There’s no debating that it’s a debacle we’ve reached a point where Trump’s incessant lying is shrugged off by so many enablers as beside the point. 1
And it’s a debacle that the Democratic Party rigged the primary process to box out anyone from mounting a serious challenge on Biden’s cakewalk to a second nomination.
Can we just blow this whole thing up now and get a do-over? Actually, yes—and I’ll get to that in a little bit.
First, though, let me share what I gathered before the debate as I contacted about 100 friends and family member, one by one, with this text:
“Going into tonight's Presidential debate, what single word most closely captures your feeling?”
The biggies that surfaced time and again:
Trepidation
Incredulous2
Disappointed
Dread
Apprehensive
Indifferent
Meaningless
Those words, sadly but truly, characterize a clinically depressed person.
Granted, people in my sphere of life are hardly a perfect representation of the country as a whole. But is the national sentiment really much different, do you suppose? Based on our national political state of mind, metaphorically speaking, we ought to be on suicide watch.
A sampling of pre-debate remarks:
“My emotional reaction ranges between disgust and terror.”
“Embarrassment at these two geriatric nincompoop candidates.”
“If I’m able to watch it tonight it will be more entertainment than learning about the perspective of the next president of the United States…that’s remarkably sad.”
“I would say resigned/resignation because I’m finding it hard to believe that the debate will change anyone’s mind or preconceived notions.”
That last comment makes a certain amount of sense. However, it won’t take much movement from the left to the right, or vice versa, to shift the outcome.
Based on Electoral College math, all it takes is a tiny sliver of undecided voters in something like six closely contested states to defect in greater numbers from one candidate to the other to effectively tilt the entire election.
One of the several unsolicited texts that came my way in the debate’s immediate aftermath did a good job of capturing the moment:
“Sad. Pathetic. Worrisome…Where’s my passport? Golf handicaps—really?”3
Another friend had shared “nervous” as his pre-debate word, while adding, “Don’t screw this up, Joe.” An hour after the debate’s merciful end, he offered: “New word: resigned.”
In the end, however, maybe Biden’s horrible night could turn out to be a triumph for the Democratic Party. If he drops out, that is.
It’s not too late. And it’s what he ought to have done a year ago and opened the door for somebody else to be on the ballot come November.
Biden was probably the only one who could beat Trump in 2020; the calculus is markedly different this time. Being the President takes a toll on anyone—and that toll has clearly been steeper on Biden, already 78 when he took office.
People on both ends of the political spectrum have been clear, in poll after poll, that they are much more dismayed than usual with their own party’s presumptive nominee. Which party has the wherewithal to slot a new candidate, in time to pivot away from this battle that nobody really wants and march their side to victory in 130 days?
Certainly not the Cult of Trump.4
After last night, the side with the vastly greater incentive to make such a shake-up is the Democratic Party. Of course, it won’t happen without Biden’s assent, as noted in this Politico story headlined `WTF’: Panicked Dems start looking for alternatives to Biden.”
Biden seems sincere when he professes a love for country and a passion to protect it from an authoritarian power-grab that a second Trump term threatens to yield.
So, Mr. President, you should step up. Which means stepping down as nominee and serving out your term with dignity.
As a candidate, it’s time to go, Joe.
Spare me any what-about-isms. Sure, Biden also falls short of 100% truthfulness. But he’s not 90% short, for crying out loud.
It was uncanny how certain words came in waves. “Incredulous,” for example, had a little streak going at one point. And for a while there, “trepidation” was all the buzz. Of the roughly 100 folks I contacted, about 80% replied.
This was in response to these fellows talking big and bad about their own golf games. This is pathetic in a village board race. But for U.S. President? To those under 30 years of old: check out some vintage Michael Dukakis and George H.W. Bush ‘88 debates for inspiration that it’s not always been this rock-bottom bad.
Lest you dismiss my reference as that of some inveterate left winger, since 1988 I've voted multiple times for Republican candidates—nearly as often as Democratic candidates, plus once for a third-party candidate.
You are obviously not familiar with the term HUBRIS. Shakespeare was. We've seen this story before. It's an old one. RGB - a hero to woman and all liberal elite - was similarly affected ... like when she refused to step down from the Court during Obama's Presidency thereby guaranteeing any 5 - 4 SCOTUS (given that Chief Justice Roberts is now the swing vote) decision to favor conservative interpretation of the law of the land. And get this ... she knowingly had a fatal disease (pancreatic cancer) when she insisted on staying on the Court. Joe is exactly in the same mind set. For that matter so is Dr. Fauci. I did not watch the debate because after 40 years in medicine (anesthesiology and critical care and cardiology) I can easily spot cognitive impairment and decline. But the point is, hubris plus a touch (or a lot) of power equals what feeble ole Joe is doing now, as well as what RGB did, and clearly drove the good doctor as well (can you say Defuse?). When you think about it ole Joe needs to be in an assisted living facility. And when you think about it some more you realize (as I am sure Dr. Jill does) that the White House is the greatest assisted living facility on the planet. So Joe Biden ain't goin' anywhere.
I honestly watched the first few minutes and found it too painful. Like a movie you KNOW is going to be bad, as the terrible opening dialogue reveals what's ahead. Next article a poll expressing your respondents' top-five choices for a new candidate? Again, thanks for sharing your thoughtful, entertaining and sometimes sad words, Matt.