What is to be done?
My immediate response to Thursday's debate (admittedly not a unique view), was that President Biden (for whom I have long felt, and for whom I continue to feel, genuine admiration, and affection) should step aside.
But--at least as of this (disquieting/disorienting) moment--I am not (as, simply, one Biden supporter) confident concerning what the next step should be.
I just know, really, that I feel stricken, because of what has taken place.
The Editorial Board of The Washington Post wrote in part, on Friday:
If President Biden had weekend plans, he should cancel them in favor of some soul-searching. His calamitous debate performance on Thursday raises legitimate questions about whether he’s up for another four years in the world’s toughest job. It’s incumbent on this incumbent to determine, in conversation with family and aides, whether continuing to seek reelection is in the best interests of the country.
Former president Donald Trump proved emphatically on Thursday why preventing another Trump presidency is the paramount consideration. Mr. Biden faces a personal decision but also a presidential one: What would be best for the country, his personal feelings notwithstanding?
The Post editorial also said this:
Little good ever came from panicking. Mr. Biden cannot be coerced into doing something he doesn’t want to do. Nor should he be. What he can do is what many Americans are doing this weekend — wondering whether he is up to the job.
The Editorial Board of The New York Times had this headline, for an opinion piece on Friday: "To Serve His Country, President Biden Should Leave the Race."
Columnist Thomas L. Friedman, of the Times, wrote a piece the same day, titled: "Joe Biden Is a Good Man and a Good President. He Must Bow Out of the Race."
Mr. Friedman wrote:
I watched the Biden-Trump debate alone in a Lisbon hotel room, and it made me weep. I cannot remember a more heartbreaking moment in American presidential campaign politics in my lifetime, precisely because of what it revealed: Joe Biden, a good man and a good president, has no business running for re-election. And Donald Trump, a malicious man and a petty president, has learned nothing and forgotten nothing. He is the same fire hose of lies he always was, obsessed with his grievances — nowhere close to what it will take for America to lead in the 21st century.
Other columnists, as well as the Editorial Board of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, have also suggested that Mr. Biden leave the presidential race.
One of the most interesting Editorial Board recommendations, however, was the following contrary view on Saturday, from The Philadelphia Inquirer.
The headline of the Inquirer's Editorial Board essay (in what appeared to be a response to the headline, noted above, of the New York Times's Editorial Board piece, the day before) said this:
"To serve his country, Donald Trump should leave the race."
The editorial said, in part:
President Joe Biden's debate performance was a disaster. His disjointed responses and dazed look sparked calls for him to drop out of the presidential race.
But lost in the hand wringing was Donald Trump's usual bombastic litany of lies, hyperbole, bigotry, ignorance, and fear mongering. His performance demonstrated once again that he is a danger to democracy and unfit for office.
In fact, the debate about the debate is misplaced. The only person who should withdraw from the race is Trump.
Trump, 78, has been on the political stage for eight years marked by chaos, corruption, and incivility. Why go back to that?
