Joe Had to Go

Taking stock of where we are as Biden attempts to pass the torch to Kamala Harris

U.S. President Joe Biden delivers remarks on the assassination attempt on Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump at the White House on July 14, 2024 in Washington, DC. Biden was joined by Vice President Kamala Harris. (Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)

My first post expressing serious concerns about President Joe Biden’s capacity to run a successful campaign for re-election against former President Donald Trump, published on September 5, 2023, was titled: “Hey Ho, Joe’s Gotta Go: Democrats are sleepwalking toward catastrophe with Biden.” The June 27 debate jolted Democrats awake from their slumbers. The result, a little more than three weeks later, is that Biden has announced his intention to step aside and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris to serve as the Democratic Party’s nominee in his place.

Here are six initial thoughts, hastily written on Sunday afternoon and evening, on this extraordinary series of events.

---

1. For all of its abundant problems, the Democratic Party in 2024 is still a party and not a cult of personality around one man. Some will say that implicit contrast with the GOP circa 2016 is unfair because Trump had genuine and strong grassroots support, far more than Biden has ever enjoyed from his party, least of all in the three weeks since the debate, when numerous polls showed voters preferring another nominee. But Trump’s support built sharply over the course of the Republican primaries, as he at first narrowly won crowded contests, then constructed a narrative of inevitability, and slowly increased his vote share. Rather than use strong-arm tactics to clear the field of all but one or two challengers early on, when it could have made a difference, the party closed its eyes and hoped and assumed Trump would self-destruct on his own. He never did—and then it was too late.
   
   What we’ve seen over the past three weeks is very different, as major players in the Democratic Party have put the good of the party (and the country) ahead of the vanity of one individual who wanted to think of himself as indispensable. That is a sign of the institution’s health and vitality—one that’s been sorely lacking from the GOP since Trump first descended the golden escalator at Trump Tower in the summer of 2015.