An “impaired” president and his wife
Since President Joe Biden‘s debate against Donald Trump on June 27, there has been a media feeding frenzy about Biden’s “performance” on TV. First, that kind of framing turns the position of president into something superficial, and leads to having actors and reality TV hosts vault to the top of voter preferences. No wonder Trump got himself elected once.
Fortunately, in the current presidential election, we have actual experience from history indicating that Joe Biden, who is not only the incumbent president but also the Democratic Party’s presidential nominee, is once again the best choice to beat Trump again. That experience can be boiled down here to five lessons from history. The first three such lessons were mentioned in our post from a few days ago, and we can simply repeat them here:
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.
These three lessons can be considered cautionary tales, i.e., reasons not to dump incumbent President Joe Biden just four months before the election. Biden was subject to primaries during the first half of this year, and obviously, that would have been the time to challenge his fitness to serve another term. President Biden won those primaries, and more than enough delegates to capture the Democratic presidential nomination, easily.
The next two examples from history demonstrate why Democratic voters should feel comfortable with Biden running for another term, aside from his very successful record during his first term:
First, Republican President Dwight Eisenhower suffered a heart attack in 1955, during his first term. In 1956 (the election year), Eisenhower had to have emergency surgery for intestinal obstruction due to ileitis. Yet, Eisenhower ran for re-election that year and won handily. Eisenhower was 64-66 years old during this period, which was considered old given the average U.S. life expectancy (no more than 69, certainly lower for men) at the time.
Second, President Franklin D. Roosevelt suffered from polio, and as an adult eventually was confined to a wheelchair. That did not stop Roosevelt from ending the Republican-induced Great Depression, enacting the New Deal (including Social Security, emergency relief programs, banking reform laws, etc.), and winning World War II. Presidents exercise judgment and make decisions. They don’t have to arm wrestle to be successful.
Finally, here are two bonus reason why Democrats should strongly support Joe Biden for re-election, now:
1. Remember what happened in the 2016 election. Democrats were bitterly divided between Hillary Clinton and Sen. Bernie Sanders. Perhaps most disappointing were the attacks on Clinton from Sanders supporters and others who were supposedly on the Democratic side. They even repeated Republican attacks on Clinton (“her emails!”), and added some of their own (“her speeches!”). At the end, most (but not all) of them said they would vote for the nominee Clinton against Trump. But by then the damage was done, and Clinton lost to Trump by just 80,000 votes in three states, even winning the popular vote. We do not want to see anything like a rerun of 2016 in 2024.
2. Only one person has ever beaten Donald Trump for the presidency. Moreover, Trump had the advantage of running in 2020 as an incumbent president. That person was Joe Biden. He has earned not only the nomination, but also the right, to beat Trump again, and uniting behind Biden is the best strategy for Democrats to win in November.
Photo by Tony Fischer, used under Creative Commons license. https://is.gd/xXKZ2G
