Cruel to be kind?

I've just watched Joe Biden's televised valedictory address to the American people from the Oval Office officially announcing his decision to stand down as the Democratic Party's presidential candidate.

It was a dignified and statesmanlike performance but it also showed quite clearly that the decision, whether voluntary or enforced, to stand down at the end of his term, was the right one. His voice was weak, he occasionally faltered, but he made it through to the end without further embarrassing mishap. However, it was quite clear that his physical strength, never exactly robust, is waning and his faculties may be impaired. 

Whatever the reality, it was glaringly apparent that another four years in the White House would have been an impossibility for Biden. He looked frail and vulnerable, which is emphatically not the image a sitting US President needs to project to the world, much less when he is also going into an election as a Presidential candidate.

Biden may go on to live to a great old age - eighty-one is nothing remarkable these days after all - and I sincerely hope he does so. But the high-powered and stressful role of leader of the free world is frankly too onerous a position to be entrusted to any octagenarian - and remember Trump reaches that milestone in two years' time, midterm if he wins. 

I'm glad that, whether willingly or reluctantly, Biden has now accepted standing down as a fait accompli and bowed out of the contest gracefully, handing over, as he himself acknowledged, to the next generation. It is disappointing that the process was so protracted and bruising but this was the right outcome and there is still time left to repair any damage. 

For his part, Biden can safely be left to hold the fort at the White House while his Vice-President, Kamala Harris, goes out on the campaign trail. If she is successful, as I have a feeling she might well be (she is certainly raising the necessary funds - in spades!) Biden will then be free to act the latter-day Cincinnatus, metaphorically returning to his plough having saved the Republic from disaster. I hope he will be accorded the respect due to him when he does so.

Of course, a second Trump presidential term may still come to pass but, at worst, Biden provided a four-year hiatus from it and gave Anerica time to heal. At best, he set the stage for Harris to ensure that Trump cannot succeed in his second attempt to regain the Presidency.

Biden was always more than a stop-gap President; he presided over some truly significant economic, social and diplomatic successes. There were foreign policy missteps, too, such as his precipitate withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan and his refusal to demand an Israeli ceasefire in Gaza. 

In the end, though, as Bill Clinton's strategist, James Carville, drily observed in his 1992 presidential campaign, "it's the economy, stupid". The 2.8% growth in GDP in the second quarter of 2024, just announced and twice what was forecast, will be seen by Biden, and rightly claimed by Harris in her campaign, as a vindication of four years of Democratic Presidency and a hopeful omen for another term.

The role of Vice-President is generally seen as a thankless one. Presidential running mates are generally chosen to secure the nomination of their state and, on election to office, promptly disregarded and forgotten. However, Harris now has a head start in the Presidential race and experience to back it up. Barring any mishaps before, or at, the Democratic Convention on 19-22 August, she will be endorsed as their Presidential candidate and able to choose her own running mate. 

Biden, himself Vice-President to Barack Obama from 2008-16, said of the job "It's easy being Vice-President - you don't have to do anything". He was being modest, of course, the role is a Constitutionally vital one and the incumbent is only a heartbeat away from the Presidency, as several 'Veeps' sadly found out when their Commander-in-Chief was injured, inapacitated or died in office and they were called to step up to the plate. 

In the two hundred and fifty years of the Republic nine Vice-Presidents have succeeded to the Presidency during their term and four sitting Vice-Presidents have been elected president. Two former Vice-Presidents have gone on to win the presidency, one of them being Joe Biden in 2020.  So, history provides no reason to write off Kamala Harris as the next President of the United States.

God knows, there is every reason to pray she succeeds.



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