Bike racer Mark Cavendish, the Manx Missile
Right now, the Tour de France bicycle race is taking place. It is considered one of the most grueling of all sports events; essentially the equivalent of running several marathon races a day, every day, for 21 days straight. The terrain and conditions include mountains, cobblestones, headwinds, rain, and oppressive summer heat. Such a sport is, naturally, a young man’s game. Age 39 in the Tour is considered ancient.
Yet, one of the biggest stories of this year’s Tour de France is the return, out of retirement, of 39 year-old racer Mark Cavendish. A sprinter from the Isle of Man, known as the Manx Missile, Cavendish was tied for the record for most Tour de France stage wins (34), and desperately wanted to break that record. Last year, Cavendish entered the Tour with the hope of breaking the record, and announced that he would retire afterward. Unfortunately, he crashed and broke his collar bone during the early stages, without the win. Cavendish has had many bad days as a bike racer, including a number of serious crashes and injuries, but he has always gotten back up on his bike. He ended his retirement to come back this year, and, with strong team supporting him, he won the stage yesterday and broke the all-time record.
If the parallels to President Joe Biden are not apparent, let’s name them:
–First, as everyone says, Biden is “old.”
–Second, Biden effectively retired from politics in January 2017 after a long and distinguished career in the U.S. Senate, followed by a very successful eight years as Barack Obama‘s Vice President. Biden decided in 2015 not to run for the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination, in large part because his son Beau was suffering from cancer, and died soon thereafter. However, as Biden tells it, Beau, with not much time left, told his father that he should run for president.
–Four years later, with Donald Trump running for re-election after a disastrous four years in the White House, Biden (who had lost his wife and daughter in a tragic car accident years earlier) fulfilled Beau’s dying wish and ran for president, winning the Democratic nomination to face Trump in the general election.
–Biden did defeat Trump, and has done a fabulous job as president since then, including getting our economy on track; creating millions of jobs; increasing wages among lower and middle income workers; lowering inflation; rebuilding our infrastructure; promoting renewable energy and EVs; standing with our ally Ukraine against Russian aggression; protecting our healthcare and Social Security; protecting women’s health and abortion to the extent possible; appointing hundreds of federal judges, many of them women and/or minorities, including U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson; record stock markets; and much more. Biden is a warrior and a winner.
Now, incredibly, many people want to terminate Biden’s run for re-election as a successful incumbent president, or worse, cut short his presidential term, all because he had one bad night at the recent presidential debate against Trump. Biden was suffering from a cold, had just crisscrossed the western hemisphere from Normandy to Hollywood, has a lifelong stuttering problem, and he looked and sounded bad that night. But what President Biden said at the debate made plenty of sense, especially in contrast to convicted felon Trump, who lied and dodged questions throughout the entire debate, but was judged to have “sounded better.” This is putting style over substance to an absurd degree.
Moreover, changing presidential nominees — or worse yet, presidents — in the middle of an election is a prescription for disaster. In March 1968, for example, with the country in turmoil over the Vietnam War and amid harsh criticism from Democrats, incumbent President Lyndon Johnson announced that he would not run for re-election. The result was Republican President Richard Nixon. Likewise, in 1972, a lack of vetting of the Democratic vice presidential nominee, Sen. Thomas Eagleton, led to surprise revelations about his mental health. After a tumultuous period, Eagleton was forced off the ticket and hastily replaced. The result was a massive Republican landslide, and the re-election of Republican President Richard Nixon. Then in 1980, Sen. Ted Kennedy launched a vicious primary challenge to incumbent Democratic President Jimmy Carter. The Democrats lost to Republican Ronald Reagan in another landslide. While the mainstream media may love political instability, American voters do not.
Finally, let’s look at who wants President Biden to quit the presidential race or resign. It’s largely a collection of Republican operatives who want to make mischief, political pundits and newspaper editorial boards who want to make money, or a combination of both. The truly insane part is the number of Democrats who have turned tail so quickly to join them. Indeed, Biden has very important presidential duties to fulfill right now, such as his continuing efforts to bring about a fair cease-fire between Israel and Hamas in Gaza. Forcing Biden instead to spend his time and energy at this late point explaining why he should keep his job — which is what the earlier presidential primaries are for — is a really bad idea.
Well, guess what? President Biden came out yesterday, the same day that Mark Cavendish smashed the record books, and told supporters via email:
So, let me say this as clearly and simply as I can: I’m running.
I’m the Democratic Party’s nominee. No one is pushing me out. I’m not leaving, I’m in this race to the end, and WE are going to win this election.
If President Biden, and bike racer Mark Cavendish, have taught us anything, it’s that, when you fall, you get back up and keep fighting. Apparently, some Democratic voters need to learn this lesson.
Photo by Andy Thornley (SDlondon37), used under Creative Commons license. https://is.gd/zW7BBB
