NEW YORK (TNS) — It’s been a month like few others in American political history.
And now we’ve seen something that most of us have never seen in our lifetimes: a sitting president and presumptive nominee for re-election bowing out of the race.
That’s what President Joe Biden stunningly did over the weekend, saying that it was better for the country for him to step aside rather than see the fight through to November against former GOP President Donald Trump.
In standing down, Biden endorsed his number two, Vice President Kamala Harris, for the Democratic nomination.
It’s a historic moment, putting in motion the possibility that America could have its first woman and its first Black woman as president.
The last time something this titanic happened in a presidential race was 1968, when President Lyndon Johnson stood down after a poor showing against Sen. Eugene McCarthy in the New Hampshire primary and amid increasing unrest over the Vietnam War.
But there are key differences.
LBJ bowed out in March, not a month before the Democratic National Convention, as Biden has done. And Johnson did not immediately endorse his own lieutenant, Vice President Hubert Humphrey, for the nomination.
And Johnson had not suffered the mental and physical decline that we’ve seen with Biden, including during that disastrous debate against Trump in June.
But if Biden really thinks that Harris is fit for the presidency, then Biden should resign and let Harris be the nation’s chief executive for these months leading up to Election Day in November.
If Biden is not fit for the campaign trail, he’s certainly not fit for the White House.
And resigning would give Harris a leg up in the race and, more importantly, would allow Americans, including the millions of Democrats who voted for Biden in the primaries, to vet her in the actual office.
Because let’s remember that Harris didn’t exactly set the world on fire during her own presidential run in 2020.
She got a big boost when she went toe-to-toe with Biden on the debate stage, taking Biden to task for his stand against forced busing decades ago. Harris as much as called Biden a racist in front of the whole country.
But that turned out to be Harris’ high-water mark. Her campaign was riven by internal strife and her poll numbers eventually cratered. She exited the race before a single vote was cast.
She has also had her own word-soup struggles and will have to answer just the same for Biden administration shortcomings, including the open border, which was a main piece of the Harris portfolio.
Ironic, to say the least, that Biden, who was furious about the debate encounter, has now given Harris his imprimatur for the presidency, a brass ring that Biden spent more than 30 years chasing before nabbing it.
As it is, not every Dem has rushed to back Harris for the nomination, most notably former two-term President Barack Obama.
You would think that Obama, the first Black president in the nation’s history, would be quick to get behind Harris, as many other Democrats, including Bill and Hillary Clinton, have been.
Maybe Obama will find that he no longer speaks with the loudest voice in the national Democratic Party. Because the Dems look more than eager by the minute to make Harris their standard-bearer, no matter what the 44th president has to say about it.
Every week, it seems, the 2024 presidential race has been transformed.
We had Biden’s debate flameout, which brought extraordinary calls from within his own party for him to step aside.
We saw the assassination attempt against Trump, and his fist-pumping response that electrified supporters. It was another echo of 1968, when the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy were felled by assassins’ bullets.
Now we’ve seen Biden stand down in favor of Harris, which has again remade the race.
Instead of two older white men battling it out, we see an older white man versus a younger Black woman. There’s a different kind of energy now.
At least until next week.
