If President Joe Biden’s debate performance had been a Broadway play, it would’ve closed the night it opened. At times stiff and unresponsive, he stood there as if his spirit were encased in wood, like some mythological creature whom the gods would destroy before loving, while former President Donald J. Trump hammered home false narrative after false narrative. Good grief.
What are we to make of it all? The best thing would be for Biden to suspend his candidacy for reelection. It pains me to say this. He hasn’t just been a caretaker after four years of abuse. He’s been a damned good president, who got the economy moving again with infrastructure funding, student loan debt reduction, jobs creation and vaccine distribution. He also created the coalition that has stood up to Russian President — and Trump BFF — Vladimir Putin. If the southern border is a mess, well, it’s been a mess for a long time. The only thing I think Biden did wrong was withdraw from Afghanistan — a Trump commitment that he should’ve shelved instead of honoring.
Now he’s an object of pity, but let’s make no mistake about it. Old age is a complex situation, particularly in an adolescent country like the United States where everyone is so afraid of dying. Try being an older woman. You’re faceless or the object of ridicule. An older man is seen as still vigorous. Look at how many people mistake Trump’s bluster for passion.
Of course, much of the Biden old age debate is really about any excuse to elect Trump. It’s not just that Biden is old or appears old. It’s that for many people, though maybe not most, Trump is charismatic, entertaining, relatable. He’s what they want, for some reason. And if he is what it turns out the majority want, then, well, there is little the rest of us can do about it in the end.
But it’s not too late now to resist with all our might. Biden came out swinging in his debate follow-up. That’s the way it is when you’re old: There are good days and bad days, as there are for all of us, the problem being that the pendulum swings are more frequent when you’re older, the inconsistency is greater.
It’s hard not to sympathize with the old boxer getting up from the mat one more time. It’s difficult enough to let go of a job, which in this country is a lion’s share of your identity, but imagine letting go of a job with that much power, that you’ve done well, that you think you still can do well.
You don’t see Rafael Nadal — who lost in the first round of the French Open, a tournament he once dominated — retiring, or Novak Djokovic, despite knee surgery. They’ve spent much of their careers down a set or even two to come back and win. That’s how winners think.
But as an athlete ages, it becomes a case of the spirit being willing while the flesh is weak. So, too, with presidents — or any of us. We tire more easily. We’re not always as sharp as we’d like to be.
Should Biden go? Ideally, yes. But who would replace him? Vice President Kamala Harris has a reputation for being a poor manager to the extent that she has a reputation at all. I don’t see her beating Trump. And it may be too late to brand a fresh face.
The two “new” faces who seem to have some traction — Nikki Haley and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — would never form a ticket and each is problematic in different ways.
So it’s the old, unpopular Biden versus the only slightly younger and slightly less unpopular Trump. What it may come down to in the end is whose base is more passionate. So far, it’s the contented MAGA crowd. For all the Democrats’ hand-wringing over this, where’s the Republican equivalent for a narcissist with no love for anything but the next adulation fix?
I’d rather have a declining lion in winter, raging against the dying light, than a man who thinks he’s the sun around which we all revolve.