There were many right responses this question, the obvious being something like: “If I didn’t believe with all my heart that I will beat Trump, I wouldn’t stay in this race.”
Instead, Biden offered what was close to the worst possible reaction, and not because of the slightly fractured syntax: “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, Biden’s capacity to a “good” job in the campaign is not “what this is about.” Donald Trump’s threat to democracy is the overriding question before the country — and the centerpiece of the president’s case for reelection. Biden’s answer undercut his core rationale. He made the issue about him, not Trump.
Less dramatic but regrettably instructive about his campaign’s seeming lack of seriousness about the crisis it confronts was his response to Stephanopoulos’s query as to whether the president had watched the debate afterward. “I don’t think I did, no,” Biden replied.
Put aside that Biden offering a somewhat qualified response to a simple yes/no question was hardly a confidence-builder. The fact that the president did not review the performance that put his entire campaign in jeopardy helps explain why he did not immediately grasp the need to reassure his party’s leaders and rank and file quickly and forcefully after the event. It’s why he lost so much time after the disaster.
Until now, Team Biden has been able to dig in because most of those in the world of commentary who have been calling on him to withdraw were those who had already done so so long ago. Seen from Biden’s perspective, they are just using a “bad night,” the president’s unfortunate term to Stephanopoulos, to trash him yet again.
His challenge, however, is not with critics who always underestimated him but with those who have long respected him, liked him — and continue to appreciate the large achievements of his presidency. We bought into the rationale for his reelection campaign: That despite his age and its effects, he was still his party’s best option. Given that a battle for the succession could have torn the party apart (and it could still be messy if he drops out), Biden was the one politician who could hold the party’s often fractious coalition together.
All this was premised on our confidence that Biden would be able to prosecute the case against Trump effectively enough and give voters the assurances they needed that he could serve successfully if he were reelected.
Among the many words I have written over the years, these, offered a few days before the debate, may have aged worse — and certainly more quickly — than almost any others. I poked fun at “Democrats who need constant hand-holding and reassurance that Biden can prevail.” I predicted confidently that given the “low bar for Biden’s performance” and “his success at other big moments, such as his State of the Union addresses,” he would “likely to meet or surpass” expectations.
I think the contemporary expression for that prediction is: epic fail.
But what even friendly pundits think doesn’t matter. What should count to Biden are the views of elected officials. He now needs to reach out far more broadly than he has to members of the House and Senate whose fates are inextricably tied to his.
They, in turn, owe him their candid thoughts — something Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) and Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) offered on the Sunday shows without calling outright for his withdrawal. “Let’s just be honest,” Murphy said after heaping praise on Biden and his record. “I think there are still questions out there in the minds of voters. … This is a really critical week. I do think the clock is ticking.”
Schiff stressed the need for wide consultation, noting that while Biden had talked with his family about the problems raised by the debate, “he should seek out people with some distance and objectivity.” Yes.
Of course Biden remains hugely preferable to Trump. But reporters aren’t making up the alarm they are hearing from Democratic politicians. Many who worry that his candidacy is unsustainable have been holding back out of esteem for Biden. They can’t do so any longer.
One of the hardest things — for the president, for those around him and for the many who believed he was still the country’s best option — is to acknowledge that those who worried about the effect of Biden’s age on his capacities may have been right all along. This is difficult enough for mere commentators. I can only imagine what it’s like for the president and those closest to him.
Many Democrats are rightly upset that the news is dominated by Biden’s debate travails, not the profound danger to the republic posed by Trump. For those who admire Biden, the great sadness of the moment is that his withdrawal may now be the only way to move the focus back to where it belongs.
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