In life, the right decisions are often the most difficult.
We think it should be otherwise. After all, we should always aspire to do “the right thing.” But what happens when that decision is the most painful, as I am sure it was for Joe Biden.
“It has been the greatest honor of my life to serve as your President,” Biden said in a written statement released Sunday afternoon. “And while it has been my intention to seek re-election, I believe it is in the best interest of my party and my country for me to stand down and to focus solely on fulfilling my duties as President for the remainder of my term.”
Imagine spending your life in public service, achieving the highest office in the land, easily winning re-nomination by your party, and then having to make the decision to walk away, especially if you feel as though the decision was forced upon you.
However, Biden reached this point because of the political miscalculation by himself and those around him. There was always an enthusiasm gap for him, and his election in 2020 was less about him and more about being a bulwark against a second term for Donald Trump.
Biden had an opportunity for a more graceful and appropriate exit a year ago. In July 2023 he could have said he has accomplished what he set out to do and it was time to turn things over to the next generation. Yes, he would have instantly become a lame duck, but not much was going to get accomplished in 2024 anyway since it’s an election year.
That would have opened up the Democratic field for spirited Primary Elections and allowed Vice President Kamala Harris to try to earn the nomination. Now, if party leaders choose her, it will seem like a back-room deal and it deprives her of the opportunity to secure the nomination on her own merits.
West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin appeared on several network talk shows Sunday morning and called for Biden to step aside. He called Biden a “friend” and credited him for his accomplishments, but he said it was time for new, younger leadership.
Manchin, who recently switched from Democrat to Independent, said what many Democrats were thinking, but were afraid to say publicly.
The media focus now will be on choosing a successor to Biden, naturally. That is a huge and historic story. We are in uncharted territory and the trajectory of the presidential election has changed dramatically with less than four months to go.
But we should also keep in mind the life lesson in what has just happened.
Some Republicans charge that Democrats and sympathetic media covered for Biden. I’m sure there was some of that, but I suspect there was also a considerable amount of denial by Biden and those closest to him.
We do not handle the vagaries of aging well. On a personal level, we would like to reside in an era we imagine our mental age to be. I’m nearly 70 and want to think like I am 45, but I am not and I am reminded of that when I exercise or make more frequent visits to the doctor.
You have probably been through that as well, if not with yourself, then with a family member. When granddad forgets where he was going while driving to the store we might express concern among family members, but we are reluctant to have the candid and difficult conversation about taking his car keys away.
What transpired with Joe Biden, on a human level, is relevant to every family who has watched loved ones begin to diminish with age. Thank goodness we don’t have the same pressures as Biden, but that does not mean the decisions are any less real or personally consequential.
Joe Biden made the right decision to step aside. The failure to make that call earlier, or for the people closest to him to think more objectively about the consequences of their inaction, is a difficult life lesson for us all.