We saw what we saw last night.
We cannot un-see it.
No one can persuade us that we were seeing a man ready and able to lead a great country in perilous times.
Mouth open, face slack, looking down, eyes closed.
I wasn't there to see it, but I am confident that in the week of debate preparation his staff noticed that Biden would drop his head and stand with open mouth. Surely from time to time in practice sessions Biden dropped into looking like the man I saw and photographed last night. They must not have told him with enough straight-talk firmness and urgency that this was a disastrous look for even a moment, much less repeatedly. They must have been gentle and deferential. They didn't make Biden confront reality.
They were enablers.
My strongest criticism of the GOP is not of Trump. The authors of the Constitution expected a popular demagogue would arise. The failure in our democracy was that ambitious Republicans did not discipline their own team for the good of their partisan faction and the country. Instead they enabled Trump, agreeing with him in public on things they know to be untrue and dangerous, that Trump won in 2020, that the courts are corrupt. Ted Cruz, Josh Hawley, Lindsey Graham, and J.D. Vance aren't stupid. They know better, but are going along. It is bad for the country but, temporarily at least, good for their careers.
Biden's enablers did not get through to Biden that his posture and vacant look would destroy the one thing he needed to accomplish in the debate, which was to assure the public that he was up to the job. His posture and bearing were things they could coach. This failure is part of the bigger pattern. Democratic Party leaders cosseted him, protecting him from competition within the party. That protected their jobs and ambitions, but at the cost of creating a fragile, dishonest illusion that Biden was the best candidate to present to the public in 2024.
Yesterday I wrote:
The Democratic leader is Biden and today is a public test. If he is strong enough to stand up to Trump, he is strong enough to lead the USA.That is the only issue in tonight's debate.
Biden failed the test, spectacularly. Senior Democrats who could do an intervention of the kind that senators made with Nixon in 1974, telling him it was time to resign or be convicted in an impeachment, will likely fail to do that duty. I expect them to circle the wagons, hoping to make the best of a difficult situation. It is the safer thing to do for their careers. Defend the team, even when it is indefensible.
But it is not a "difficult situation." It is a dangerous and doomed one. We saw what we saw. We heard what we heard. Biden has declined. There is no shame in that. The shame is that his closest advisors aren't telling him.
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18 comments:
Yes, enablers on both sides. Biden’s refusal to step back earlier reminds me of nearly every story and experience I’ve had with trying to help the elderly relinquish some of their independence. Denial. Now we face the undeniable reality that the Dems have no strong candidate to counter Trump.
If Americans want strength, Trump forcefully projectile vomited the same angry lies he spews at his Nuremberg-like rallies, regardless of the question. It was a powerful display of ignorance and delusion, hell-bent on revenge against those who would hold him accountable for his crimes. He belongs in a courtroom on trial.
Meanwhile, President Biden made a feeble attempt at answering the moderators’ questions with facts, but had a hard time articulating them. He belongs in a rocking chair on a porch somewhere.
All in all, not an evening that inspired confidence in the future of American democracy.
I dreaded reading your post this morning because I figured you would write the truth and you did. The start of the debate was a disaster and the loss of his train of thought made even me think he shouldn’t be president. I had difficulty sleeping last night with the realization that Trump will become our president. There seems no way out if Biden does not quit and I doubt he will.
It’s hard to admit decline when you think you can still do it. Basketball players in their 40 s believing they would still dominate. Michael Jordon playing as a shell of his former self. I was proud that at my last yearly evaluation in which I was being effusively praised I indicated that I was still pretty good, but slipping. I remember my boss telling me I needed to stop saying that or she might have to rewrite my evaluation. I stopped as I had one more year to work. Admitting decline is hard for some.
I hoped the naked king would be Trump, but instead it was Biden.
Last night was an absolute disaster for anyone who cares remotely about seeing Trump never set foot in the White House again. The idea that Biden was able to make Trump seem competent by comparison is crazy, but that's EXACTLY what he did.
I know that many Democrats have taken offense at the whole "Biden is too old" thing, but after last night it would take a truly MAGA-like level of delusional thinking to not see it. For the good of the country Biden MUST step aside, and the sooner the better. There is a less than 0% chance the guy we saw last night will defeat Trump in the general election.
My post today on X.
"Dad had been a skillful, safe driver all his life and I loved riding with him at the wheel. He is 81 and last night he drove the wrong way on a one way street and caused an accident.
It's out of love, Dad, that I must ask for your keys."
It was painful to watch last night. He did his duty in defeating Trump. Now, he should step aside and let someone else do it. He certainly cannot. Not this time. I've heard Galvin, but he has a lot of baggage trying to govern California. I've also heard Roy Cooper, Governor of North Carolina. No minorities, no women, not this time. A regular white guy who can take on Trump directly. Cooper is a moderate democrat in a Red state. No controversy. He speaks well and is popular in his state. Whoever they choose, they had better do it quickly. Trump looked better than Biden last night. That's a fact. So, it's time to change. Now.
Perhaps his closest advisor, Jill Biden, praised her husband enthusiastically at the post-debate rally. "Joe, you did such a great job. You answered every question. You knew all the facts".
But it was a disaster for the President, especially the first half hour. He mumbled weakly and often incomprehensibly. And "We finally beat Medicare"? That gaffe wasn't from his stutter.
I saw a live Biden event immediately after the debate and he was great, lively.
I, too, was disappointed in both but at least Biden was honest. He'll bounce back.
Hard to watch.
Still, nothing has really changed. Trump is a felon, Republicans are promoting a white supremacist agenda, and the both candidates are a day older.
On the bright side, no more questions about Biden's age.
I was driving home when it started, and I think it was worse hearing him without the pictures. When I got home I turned it on and saw what we all saw, a feeble Elder who looked and acted confused. He looked at Trump as though he didn't recognize him.
I think you're right on point, Peter, and it is a dangerous time we are in.
No need for me to pile-on.
We don't have to vote until November. One down, one more to go. It's a matter of who and when, not how that will happen.
It's best to leave the working world while on top. That is how one wants to be remembered. It worked for me. I'm proud to see examples of my efforts when I visit Apple and other computer stores during my travels around the US, Europe, and Asia.
I watched the debate later on YouTube, and for some reason, did not see the disaster you are all picturing. Biden spouted facts and trump issued lies. Biden could have been more forceful, yes, but I thought he looked OK most of the time. I think that this will pass and we will get on with the next few months with Biden making a comeback at some point.
He will not be replaced, and no one is suggesting anyone who could step forward. Harris cannot win, which is too bad, of course.
So, unless you come up with the alternative person by name, please lay off and support Biden!
President Obama was elected because the public wanted change, and he promised that. The American public didn't get enough change from Congress and the Obama administration.
Hillary Clinton versus Donald Trump: America still wanted change in 2016. White men and women who thought a Black man, President Obama, was a plausible change agent (albeit one who didn't deliver the change they wanted) switched over to Trump and put him in office. These white people didn't think Hillary Clinton (a white Secretary of State and former First Lady to the first President to be impeached since Andrew Johnson) was a plausible change agent. Donald Trump said in 2016 and says now that he stands for change; a lot of people believe him. We Democrats say we still want change too. We were sick of Trump in 2020, so we gave up on change and voted for President Biden. Now it looks like we Democrats have nowhere to go, so I guess a lot of us will stay home and not vote. MAGA means change. We just want a different kind of change, but maybe not as passionately as the MAGA Republicans want their kind of change. A change is coming whether we like it or not. Are you ready for change?
If, for reasons beyond my comprehension, we’re faced with a choice between Biden and Trump in November, Biden’s poor performance yesterday would make it no less foolish to put the White supremacist leader of a coup attempt in charge. The Weimar Republic tried that, and it didn't work out so well. I’m sure a lot of Americans would love for us to become the next Thousand-Year Reich, but let’s not.
I blame the Democrat reforms of 1972, which replaced the “smoke filled rooms” with primary elections. Neither Trump nor the current version of Biden would have ever gotten their party’s nomination under that older system.
Relying on primaries has turned political nominations over to a small minority of the most ideological voters. The political parties have been gutted as a result, and It has not been good for democracy.
The New York Times editorial board called on President Biden to step aside as the presumptive Democratic nominee in the 2024 presidential race Friday, one day after his abysmal performance in a debate against Donald Trump.
While insisting that Biden, 81, had been an “admirable president,” the liberal Grey Lady concluded the incumbent appeared on the debate stage as “the shadow of a great public servant” and would be engaging in a “reckless gamble” by continuing his candidacy.
I am so saddened by this. Last fall, early this year many were clamoring for Biden to step aside. I hope that he realizes that he is the sole reason trump will be in the White House next year. Apparently not only trump, but he took is a narcissist.
People have suggested Michelle Obama.
Ain't gonna happen. Michelle really doesn't like the Bidens at all. Deep conflict between them due to Jill's actions during the Hunter Biden saga.
Barack Obama cannot run again.
The funds were donated for the Biden/Harris ticket, so if President Biden drops out, only the Harris campaign can use that campaign chest. So whatever happens it will be Harris with someone else partnering with her.
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