Democrats in panic

Mere seconds after last night’s debate, every reporter and pundit on CNN shared how their phones were “blowing up” with messages from Democratic politicians, donors, and organizers. They were all panicking, bemoaning their party’s fate if Joe Biden remained at the top of their ticket for the November General Election.

Thomas Friedman is the lead columnist for The New York Times. More to the point, he’s the EF Hutton of Democratic politics. Here is how he opened his lead column today, headlined ever so lovingly, “Joe Biden Is a Good Man and a Good President. He Must Bow Out of the Race”:

I watched the Biden-Trump debate alone in a Lisbon hotel room, and it made me weep. I cannot remember a more heartbreaking moment in American presidential campaign politics in my lifetime — precisely because of what it revealed: Joe Biden, a good man and a good president, has no business running for re-election.

I urged Biden to retire, gracefully

Trust me, that’s how every Democrat in America feels. But it didn’t have to be this way. Because, with all due respect to Friedman, here is how I presaged what unfolded last night and urged Biden not to run for reelection over a year ago:

No doubt politics can be uncaring and ungrateful in equal measure. But I urge Biden to take the results of the 2022 midterm as both a vindication and a valediction. He can fairly claim he’s the most successful one-term president in US history.

He should remind everyone that he gave his word as a Biden to serve only one term. And that his mission was to clean up the mess Trump left behind and restore American leadership on the world stage. He should declare, “Mission Accomplished!”

With that, instead of launching his reelection campaign, he should announce that he’s passing the torch to a new generation of Democratic leaders. And that he’s confident they will continue the good work of showing the world why “it’s never a good bet to bet against America!”

Clearly, I’m no EF Hutton. But it’s a shame Biden did not heed my advice, which would have spared him this humiliation and potential rejection.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Joe Biden built laudable careers as selfless public servants. But she resisted public-spirited calls to retire, and her selfishness resulted in MAGA Republicans controlling the Supreme Court for a generation. Now, he’s resisting similar calls, and his selfishness could result in them controlling the whole friggin’ country.

Biden expecting the loyalty Trump demands

I reiterate my call last night for the Biden whisperer, Rep. James Clyburn, to lead a delegation to the White House to prevail upon Biden to take his bow, now!

The irony seems completely lost on Biden that he’s expecting the kind of blind loyalty from Democrats he scoffs at Trump for demanding from Republicans. But if Democrats oblige by sticking with Biden, they will be no different from MAGA Republicans who have abandoned all, including their common sense, to stick with Trump.

American democracy depends on Democrats putting loyalty to the country above loyalty to Biden. History will judge Barack Obama and Bill Clinton harshly if they do not help Democrats “move on” from Biden.