President Joe Biden addressed the nation last night, explaining his reasons for dropping out of the election while still insisting he is perfectly fit to carry on as president for the next six months.
Biden said the move was all about allowing a “new generation” to take over and about “saving our democracy,” despite the fact that by dropping out, he has utterly nullified the will of every single voter who chose him to be the Democratic Party’s candidate in the November election. Add to this the fact that he has subsequently endorsed a candidate to replace himself who has never received so much as a single vote in a Democratic presidential primary, and it makes you wonder if he even understands what the definition of the word “democracy” is anymore. By the few, for the few?
“To hear the president tell it, he was fine with running for re-election, thought he could win the race and serve for four more years until sometime between Saturday night and Sunday morning, when it dawned on him, apparently, that it was time for a new generation of leaders,” said Fox News chief political analyst Brit Hume about the president’s address. The question that must be asked is what happened that made Biden suddenly feel he couldn’t continue his election campaign? Did someone threaten to invoke the 25th Amendment?
Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich told Fox News that Biden’s reasons for dropping out were not true, saying he “lied” in his address. Gingrich said Biden was pushed out by former President Barak Obama and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, calling it a “coup against a freely elected sitting president.” So much for “saving democracy” — looks more and more like Americans are living in a banana republic.
Politico reports on Biden’s Wednesday evening address to the nation and how it highlighted why Democrats believe he needed to step aside. Here’s the start of the story:
In most respects, President Joseph R. Biden is a thoroughly conventional president — a leader deeply respectful of precedent, a man whose style and values are shaped by living through more than half of the 20th century even as he ends his career navigating the disruptive politics of the 21st.
By contrast, the great foil of his presidency — predecessor Donald Trump — is in style and contempt for precedent the most radical person ever to hold the office.
Biden’s Oval Office address Wednesday night, however, underlined a paradox. There is one way that Trump represents continuity and Biden is the anomaly. This paradox is also the reason Biden won’t be his party’s nominee for a second term.