Biden withdraws from the 2024 race

President Joe Biden’s announcement this evening that he will not seek a second term came after weeks of increasing pressure from Democratic party insiders, alarmed that voters had finally discovered what they had known for months: Joe Biden is a shell of the man he once was. Voters knew it, and they won’t reelect him. They also knew they had been lied to by the White House, Biden’s political allies, and the mainstream media. The cumulative result was almost certain to cost Democrats not only the White House but the House and Senate, as well.

The party’s problems were never limited to Joe Biden’s poor health

Biden’s inglorious exit evoked the fate of that great cartoon character, Wile E. Coyote. His futile pursuit of the Road Runner usually ended with Wile E. running off a cliff but remaining suspended in mid-air until he looked down. When he finally looked, he began plummeting to the canyon floor, far below.

That is Joe Biden’s fate, and he was as slow to grasp it as Wile E. Coyote. He ran off the cliff after his catastrophic debate performance against Donald Trump. For weeks he refused to look down. He wouldn’t look when his wife helped him walk down a few stairs after the debate. He wouldn’t look when Barack Obama had to guide him off the stage at George Clooney’s star-studded fundraiser in Los Angeles. He wouldn’t look when major donors reported their shock at his frail appearance and began closing their cheque books. He wouldn’t look as he stumbled through recent interviews. He wouldn’t look as more elected officials began calling for him to end the race for reelection. The canyon was too far below. Better to try and stay suspended in mid-air.

He had a little help, at least for a while. The major media was slow to abandon the candidate they had backed for so long. The day after the Clooney fundraiser, the Washington Post ran a rainbows-and-unicorns article about fine it all was. Nothing to see here; please move along. A month later, the same paper reported on the same event, saying, in effect, their earlier article didn’t give the full picture and that Biden was in bad shape. Of course, they never admitted their own shameful role in misleading their readers.

After the debate fiasco, the only way for Biden to get back on solid ground was to give extemporaneous interviews and avoid major mistakes. If he were successfully, he would prove he could still do the job.

Unfortunately, those interviews did not go well. He waited too long after the debate to begin them and then did too little to assuage voters’........

© The Spectator