The Atlantic Gift Link
Trying this again (another excerpt from Tapper's book):
The Congressman Who Saw the Truth About Biden
While many Democrats remained in denial, Mike Quigley perceived something painfully familiar.
For starters, thank you so much for this article link. I read it, and I digested it.
Anyone old enough to remember the 1992 campaign probably remembers how "old" George H.W. Bush looked in that campaign. He was "only" 68 that June (younger than Hillary in the 2016 election cycle), but he admitted in his diary that the post-Gulf War time frame really depressed him, going from all that activity to almost nothing. I'm still convinced PART of why Bush lost was you had this old guy who may not have had dementia (he was still pretty sharp) but did look old and not exactly enthusiastic competing with this young, handsome, idealist who (yes) was a helluva campaigner (and a liar, but I digress). It was vibrancy of the future versus a tired old man who was still respected even when he wasn't loved.
I keep thinking this thing over and over, but beyond someone having the ability to point to Biden and say, "Look, we your rich donors will not be backing you in 2024, so you need to announce you're not running", I don't know what else would have worked.
I can 100% blame every single person who willingly came forth and lied, especially if they went over the top with it. Or attacked Republicans for daring to suggest it - because it was true and we were seeing it. They could have just said, "I'm a Democrat, I support our President, and I will support any nominee our party nominates."
But I think in the bigger scheme of things, people are forgetting that the moment Biden announced he wouldn't run - had he done so in 2023 - he was at that point a lame duck that nobody in either party had ANY reason to walk over hot coals and defend or support with legislation. Does anyone here really believe that if he had whispered it to a few folks that when the next nominees began moving into the starting gate nobody would have noticed? LBJ - we now know - decided at Thanksgiving 1967 that he wasn't going to run again in 1968, he didn't think he would survive another team (and he was right; he died two days after said term would have ended and that without the stress of Vietnam every day). But he also knew that if he announced it at that time, VIETNAM had zero reason to do anything with him, and if he could then present himself as the President of peace with Humphrey serving to preserve continuity (which is why the myth of RFK winning in 1968 was never gonna happen, not in those pre-primary across the board days).
It's EASY for all of us to say what Biden should have done, but it seems to me that he would have a stronger legacy if he would have resigned over the Christmas holidays in 2023 and turned the country over to Harris - because that would have shown he thought he was RIGHT in choosing her in 2020. She could then run on her own, good or bad.
"I can't run because I'm old BUT I will stay in office" was never going to fly.