Biden Bids Goodbye

Opinion by Team Thomas

And history has been made again … 

Modern history has only witnessed a president voluntarily bowing out of a campaign for a second term in the White House a few times.  Lyndon Baines Johnson was the last to do so in March 1968 when he realized how unpopular he was to Democrats and before we learned how compromised he was health-wise.  Harry Truman decided in 1956 not to run for a second full term, having served the remainder of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s term and then being elected in his own right in 1952.

Joe Biden made it a three-fer for those who called it a day in the past sixty years.  His announcement was, by many accounts, a selfless nod to a party and a nation immensely worried about what a second Donald Trump presidential term might do to American democracy.  The 46th president came to terms with the fact that he was not up to the task of campaigning as actively as needed to defeat former president Trump, let alone be able to serve another four-year term at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

Biden’s Vice President, Kamala Harris, was anointed his successor and rapidly consolidated convention delegate pledges, making the first woman vice president in history the presumptive Democratic party nominee and possible first woman commander-in-chief.  The vice president also wasted little time hitting the campaign trail in Delaware and Wisconsin taking to task the 45th president of the United States, who stands in stark political and electoral contrast to Harris.

A race leaning heavily in favor of Trump and the Republicans coming off their unified convention in Milwaukee now appears to be a toss-up again, with polls not yet able to determine who has the better starting position going into the general election season.

The carefully choreographed Republican playbook for November was suddenly turned upside down and inside out by Biden’s historic decision to leave the race to Harris.  So much so that Donald Trump has bitterly complained about the change in plans on his social media account, Truth Social. Harris, for her part, will bring a different political animal to the campaign trail than the one Donald Trump and team were betting on.

Vice President Harris (59) is far more energetic than Mr. Trump (78).  She is also more focused and disciplined in her speeches and messaging.  Mr. Trump likes to meander and go off script with deep accompanying scowls that are opposites of the smiles and laughs Ms. Harris likes to bring to the podium.

The former prosecutor, Harris, who made criminals felons, is now facing a 34-time convicted felon (Trump) and says she knows how to handle such people.  On the other hand, Ms. Harris will have to play defense with Mr. Trump on how she did or did not manage the immigration crisis at the southern border with Mexico, which is sure to be a frequent line of attack from the Republicans.

Couple this political reality with the fact that Ms. Harris was awful as a presidential candidate in 2020, losing to Joe Biden, of course, and that Donald Trump lost his 2020 race to Joe Biden as well, and you have some exciting and entertaining political drama to experience in the lead up to November 5th.

The selection of Trump and his running mate, Ohio U.S. Senator J.D. Vance, and the pending nomination of Kamala Harris and whoever will be her running mate does mean for sure that the gap between the left’s extreme party leadership and the right’s extreme party leadership just got a lot wider.  This wider gap will make the down-ballot races for Congress even more challenging when a significant percentage of the American voting population would prefer more moderation from their elected officials.

Depending upon who looks to be the probable winner in November may cause more than some voters to hedge their bets and ticket split their votes to keep one party or the other more in line with their moderation expectations.  A clean sweep of the White House, U.S. Senate, and the U.S. House by the GOP would mean a clear path for Donald Trump to exact his retribution and wholesale reorganization of American government, perhaps at the expense of democracy as Americans know it today.  A clean sweep of the White House, the U.S. Senate, and the U.S. House by the Democrats would mean a clear path for Kamala Harris to give more of the country away to folks that many in America do not support.

We will know more soon when the Democrats hold their national convention in Chicago, which starts on August 19th. Kamala Harris has made known her choice for vice presidential running mate. Until then, Thomas will be watching as events unfold.