Biden’s bid for re-election in 2024 meets its definitive match: time

When Joe Biden ended his re-election bid on Sunday, he became the first president since Lyndon B. Johnson in 1968, not to run for a second term – and the only president in US history to resign his party’s nomination after winning the primaries.

“It has been the greatest honor of my life to serve as your president,” Biden wrote in a letter to his “fellow Americans,” which he posted on his official social media accounts. “And while it was my intention to seek re-election, I believe it is in the best interest of my party and the country for me to resign and focus exclusively on fulfilling my duties as president for the remainder of my term.”

The unique nature of Biden’s decision reflected the unique nature of his dilemma. On March 31, 1968, LBJ said he would not “seek nor accept” the Democratic presidential nomination because of the toll the Vietnam War had taken on him. But Biden’s withdrawal was not due to some controversial issue. No laws were violated. No scandal was exposed.

The president’s problem was both more prosaic and deeper. His problem was time.

Everyone knows – has known for a long time – that Biden, now 81, is the oldest person to occupy the Oval Office. He has been since his first day on the job. When Ronald Reagan’s second term ended on January 20, 1989, he was still 16 days shy of his 78th birthday. Biden turned 78 two months before being inaugurated.

But not everyone knew — or perhaps not everyone was willing to accept — that time is not just another political obstacle to overcome. Its effects are inevitable, inexorable and, ultimately, evident. Once seen — as Biden’s decline was seen onstage during his debate last month with former President Donald Trump — they cannot go unnoticed. They cannot be diverted. They cannot be reversed.

Therefore, Biden could never recover. He tried, of course. Over the past 24 days, the president has given nearly a dozen interviews, participated in nearly a dozen events and called nearly a dozen meetings with panicked Democrats. He sent a letter to lawmakers on Capitol Hill. He held the longest solo press conference of his presidency. “He tried to ignore [it and] moving forward”, Politico remembered Sunday. “He tried to be defiant and angry. He tried to be humble.”

Nothing worked. First, some members of the House spoke; some donors began to squirm. Then senators began to question Biden’s fitness. When polls, both public and private, began to show that key swing states were trending in Trump’s favor, putting lower-voting Democrats in danger, the dam finally broke. Washington knew it was over as soon as former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi got involved. “He wanted the Lord Almighty,” a Democratic strategist told the Hill. “Well, this is the Lord Almighty.”

In the coming days, conversations will move from what Biden just did to what Democrats will do next. In a separate post on social mediathe president supported his vice president, Kamala Harris, to be the party’s new candidate – just as LBJ supported his vice president, Hubert Humphrey.

“My first decision as the party’s 2020 candidate was to choose Kamala Harris as my vice president. And it was the best decision I made,” wrote Biden. “Democrats – it’s time to come together and defeat Trump. Lets do this.”

Will anyone challenge Harris? Or will the party close ranks around her? Will next month’s Democratic National Convention in Chicago be as chaotic as the one in 1968? Or will fear of a second Trump term force Democrats to fall into line, and quickly?

But before we go any further, it’s worth dwelling on the man who continues to be president – ​​and who will continue to serve, as he made clear on Sunday, during the last six months of his term. In recent weeks, Trump has commanded the national spotlight. He dodged a bullet; he had a convention. And as the entire Democratic Party fell apart, their scathing attacks on Biden’s presidency went largely unanswered.

This is now likely to change. In his letter to the nation, Biden told a story from recent years that, until now, has not been realized. “Together, we overcame a once-in-a-century pandemic and the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression,” he wrote. “Now America has the strongest economy in the world.” He went on to list some of his proudest accomplishments: “reducing prescription drug costs for seniors”; “expand affordable health care to record numbers of Americans”; pass “the first gun safety law in 30 years”; appoint “the first African-American woman to the Supreme Court; implement “the most significant climate legislation in the history of the world”.

Maybe voters will hear this story now that someone else – someone younger – will be the one telling it. Maybe not. But at least they can consider what it took for Biden to reach this painful moment and what that says about his character.

Biden’s former boss, former President Barack Obama, probably said it best.

“Joe never backed down from a fight,” Obama wrote on Sunday. “For him, looking at the political landscape and deciding that he should pass the torch to a new candidate is certainly one of the most difficult things in his life.”

“But I know he wouldn’t make this decision unless he believed it was right for America,” Obama continued. “It’s a testament to Joe Biden’s love for country – and a historic example of a genuine public servant who once again puts the interests of the American people ahead of his own, which future generations of leaders will do well to emulate.”

The passage of time wears people down. But it also blesses them – some of them – with maturity. When Biden took office in 2021, I wrote that “his age” was not “the disability his competitors hoped it would be”; it seemed, instead, to have matured him.

And what does that mean? At the time, the most accurate definition of maturity I found was a sign in a store window: “Resist the temptation to do this for yourself.”

“The point isn’t just that you’re not the center of the universe,” I wrote. “The thing is, you never really get over the urge to act like it. The point is that the best thing you can do is resist.”

In his inaugural address, Biden called on Americans “not to turn inward,” but rather to “show a little tolerance and humility.” To realize that they don’t always come first. To resist doing this for themselves.

“Let’s start listening to each other again,” the president then said. “Listen to each other. See each other. Show respect for each other. Politics does not have to be a raging fire that destroys everything in its path. Every disagreement need not be the cause of an all-out war.”

And now, by resisting that impulse within himself, Biden is leaving the same way he came in: asking us the same.