STAND!

I’m writing this on the morning after the first 2024 Presidential Debate. The media are filled this morning with laments about President Biden’s performance and even as eminent a commentator as Thomas Friedman in the New York Times has called for Biden to step down.

There is no question about the weakness of POTUS’ debate performance. He started very weak and got up to OK, which was, in my opinion, below where he should have started. I hoped for him to come out swinging, and he came out like a doddering old man. Joe Biden and I are the same age, and have spent much of our respective lives speaking and leading in front of audiences, and I was very disappointed in how he came across compared to what was called for.

But here’s the problem I have with political debates: They have nothing to do with qualifications for office. The Presidency, in particular, is not a debate platform, it’s a platform for leadership, and leadership is nowhere reflected in the so-called debate (really Q&A) format.

To be sure, Trump’s performance was poor – full of lies and invective – but Biden’s weak start put him on his back foot, and his responses, while substantive, came off as weak and defensive rather than aggressive and on point.

But replace him? I don’t see it. First of all, it’s still early days – the Democratic Party and Biden himself have plenty of time to aggressively promote the truth about Biden’s record, his leadership, and his program for a second term.

Second, replace him with whom? There is, as far as I can tell, no one on the Democrat side that has the track record or the stature to beat Trump, especially with a late start. Kamala Harris, whom I admire and respect, has been quiet, even by Vice Presidential standards. I have no idea what’s gone on behind the scenes but compare how she has shown up publicly with how Biden was as Obama’s VP – not in the same league.

And who else is there? Newsom, Booker, Warren, even Sanders all appear to bases that are too narrow to be considered.

The stakes for 2024 are too high to change horses in midstream. Biden can and must recover from this setback, and it must be seen historically as just that – a setback – and not the death of a campaign, because in this election, the death of Biden’s campaign will mean the death of American democracy as we know it.

And, in my view, this morning’s mourning does damage. It plays right into Trump’s narrative that Biden is too old and feeble even though Agent Orange is himself only a few years younger, and demonstrably more impaired than Biden, even as compared to Biden last night.

We must stay the course – we who care about the American experiment and about human values must shore Biden up, not tear him down. Democrats and Progressives in general have a deserved reputation for killing off their leaders the instant those leaders show that they have feet of clay, and we must stop letting our high hopes that Biden would demolish Trump in the debate cause an orgy of disappointment. If we are disappointed (and I certainly am) we need to recognize that in large part that disappointment is a function of our expectations more than it is of Joe’s performance.

There is no alternative, so what is needed is for people of good will to strengthen their resolve. To paraphrase Aragorn at the Battle of the Black Gate:

“Hold your ground, my people! I see in your eyes the same fear that would take the heart of me! A day may come when courage fails. When we forsake our friends and break all bonds of fellowship, but it is not this day. An hour of wolves and shattered shields, when the age of democracy comes crashing down! But it is not this day! This day we fight! By all that you hold dead on this good earth, I bid you stand!”