Biden's Last Hurrah
Why the President Needs a True Friend...
During my long travels in politics and showbiz, I’ve discovered that candidates are much like performers (especially comedians). Both work very hard to earn the love of strangers. I’ll leave it to licensed professionals to explain why, but the candidate and eventual elected officeholder searching for love is a powerful phenomenon. Candidates, trapped in the entrepreneurial death march of running for office, are forced by the tough nature of the business to become relentless takers; making transactional friends and then vacuuming them for money and favors, like red, white and blue crepe covered Draculas. There are exceptions of course, and I’ve been lucky to work for more than a few. But the “I need you to help me get elected to ________” is usually a one way street.
So where do politicians find real love? From staff. There is always one, or a few, long-suffering staffers who trudge along behind the Great Man or Woman, supporting them and assisting them despite the temper tantrums constant slights that come along with the dizzying ups and lonely downs of a political life. The best of these loyal factotums build a special relationship with the pol that, in the private places and quiet spaces, earns them the license to be frank and honest, telling the politician what they do not want to hear but need to hear.
Of course saying “that tie looks stupid” is the easy part of this. The important stuff, the difficult truth on the other hand, takes real courage. The rocket fuel that propels most politicians through the endless humiliations and defeats of a political career is epic stubbornness. A gritty refusal to never, ever quit. A savvy old hack once told me, “in this business first you need to be too damn dumb to ever quit, and after that, the ability to grow thick elephant skin.” He was right. No wonder so few politicians easily accept hard news, especially when they first hear it.
Joe Biden has no shortage of longtime staff and helpers that love him. (Even through his increasingly cranky old Irish bastard style behavior is starting to leak out in the media. Reminds me of my grandfather… yup, an longtime elected Irish pol in the old Detroit Democratic regular organization.) But in the Stockholm syndrome infected world of the loyal sidekick/political staffer, being barked at is just part of the life of the approval craving long-time staffer. Politicians, insecure after a long career of slights and betrayals, often share a toddler’s psychology about a parent; I’ll behave poorly to test them and make sure they really do love me.
So a plea to Biden’s true intimates. Tell him the truth. This second term caper is a big, dangerous, selfish mistake. And with the grim specter of the Mad King Donald Trump back within reach of the Oval as a potential GOP nominee, the stakes are way too high to fool around. Biden, simply put, is too damn old to be as formidable a candidate as this moment in American history demands.
No doubt telling the Boss this delightful morsel will push the big red DISLOYAL button on any pol’s forehead and trigger a world class chewing out with a high probably that a pair of classic Ray Ban sunglasses will fly through directly at the truth-tellers’ head. It will be heartbreakingly hard for a true friend of Biden’s to deliver this truth. But maybe, it will sink into Biden’s head and hopefully prompt the POTUS to think about it. Will he fold the tent? Oh, I doubt it. As I wrote above, it pays in politics to soldier on no matter what. March or die often works.
But this is the Presidency of the United States, not the infantry of the French Foreign Legion we are talking about. Imagine you too love Joe Biden as a loyal staffer, yet 15 months from now the very worst happens; Trump beats Biden. That would be a political apocalypse for our nation and our Democracy. In the first minute after a Biden loss to Trump, Biden’s entire (and mostly impressive) legacy as a President with real achievements would be wiped away. And deservedly so, because there are just too many younger Democratic stars out there who could — after being relentlessly testing in a tough primary — be far more formidable 2024 candidates than Joe Biden. Whitmer, Polis, Shapiro, Buttigieg, Raimundo (!), it’s a long list. No, it’s not fair, but that’s politics. And with the stakes this high and the danger so grave, it’s just not about you anymore Mr. President.
Nor should Biden’s people be destracted by phony if comforting rationalizations. First, Biden’s numbers are bad and getting worse; a terrible harbinger of next year’s election. Second, Presidential elections are about the incumbent, not the challenger. Even with Trump’s massive barge-load of negatives and lunatic flaws, that still might not be enough. (Biden’s intimates should hear all the Trump can’t win the general stuff and feel a scary echo of the old DC Democratic insiders’ wisdom from 1980 about Ronald Reagan, “Sure the county really doesn’t like Carter, but they’ll never vote for a washed up B-movie actor with crazy far right opinions in the end, not for President! It can’t happen!"
Nor is it certain — sorry DC CW — that Trump will be the GOP nominee. I think it is just too early to truly know. Let’s watch IA and NH first, then the GOP situation will be far more clear. Finally, the excuse that it’s “too late” for a contest is phony. There is still time for a competitive Democratic primary, to test the rising starts and galvanize them with a frantic, but very useful, primary campaign. Not much time, maybe three weeks. The the window is closing, but it has not closed yet. And no, Biden doesn’t have to endorse Kamala. Ronald Reagan didn’t endorse his loyal VP George H.W. Bush. Bush had to earn it. The same tough rules should apply to VP Harris.
In 1958 John Ford adapted Edwin O’Connor’s classic novel “The Last Hurrah” into a wonderfully sentimental picture about on old-school Irish pol’s last campaign. I don’t know a political hack that doesn’t love that movie and Spencer Tracy’s performance as wily Mayor Frank Skeffington. I do. Sadly, 2024 is looking very much like Joe Biden’s last hurrah. And a stop-Trump Republican Biden voter from 2020, I want to root for Biden pulling it out against Trump like I rooted for Skeffington to win his last race. If Biden was running for Governor of Delaware, I’d say let him fight his last battle on his own terms.
But this is a far bigger battle. Presidential stakes are far too high. I deeply doubt Joe Biden will step aside, and I understand why. But it is the right thing to do, for our nation and for the Democratic Party. Declare victory Sir. The staff who love him know this too. In private they should speak up and tell him the hard truth. That is the final service they owe him, and the nation, most.