I’m ridin’ with Biden
Why this moment calls for doubling our efforts to help Joe Biden, not abandoning him
Have you ever had a dreadful day? Like a disastrous social encounter that left you thinking, “Maybe I don’t ever want to go out in public again.” Have you ever said something to a friend or a family member you deeply regretted? Have you ever bungled something at work to the point that it caused the people around you embarrassment or severe inconvenience?
I could go on, but you get the point. We’ve all screwed up royally. And part of what keeps us going and connected to our friends and family — and society — is forgiveness, acceptance, faith, and forbearance.
The people who care for us keep going when the going gets tough. They support us, love us, fill in our gaps, and shine a light on our strengths. They make us better with their support and their faith in us.
One way of naming all this is to call it “grace.”
We give to the people around us who disappoint us. And we survive — sometimes, thrive — on it from the people in our lives when we fail them.
Grace makes the world a better place.
Which brings me to President Joe Biden’s debate performance the other night.
It wasn’t great. Everyone, including Biden, knows that. He didn’t get what he and his staff wanted from the 90-minute encounter with Donald Trump. It was a dreadful performance and a missed opportunity. And it’s led to dozens of prominent pundits and others calling for Biden to drop out of the race.
First, let’s be clear: That. Will. Not. Happen.
Biden’s not going anywhere. But, if he did, Vice President Kamala Harris is the only viable alternative. Whether that’s good or bad is better left for another post, but any scenario other than Harris as the nominee would be a political disaster.
How do you think Black women, the backbone of the Democratic base, might respond to a party that dumped Harris for someone like Gretchen Whitmer or Gavin Newsom?
The resulting chaos of dumping Biden would make the president’s bad night look like a smashing success.
More important, however, is the total absence of grace from many on my side of the political spectrum. One bad night — and, I admit, it was a big event that demanded a better performance — and we would abandon the best and most successful American president in the last 50 years? One bad night, and we would walk away from the party’s nominee four months before election day and plunge the Democratic Party into chaos?
I recommend the op-ed in Saturday’s New York Times by Stuart Stevens, a former Republican consultant who helped manage Mitt Romney’s 2012 presidential campaign. Stevens now supports Biden. Here’s some of what he wrote about the effort to persuade Biden to drop out:
It’s baffling that so many Democrats are failing to rally around a wildly successful president after one bad night. But it does remind me of why Republicans defeated Democrats in so many races Republicans should have lost.
Donald Trump has won one presidential election. He did so with about 46 percent of the popular vote. (Mitt Romney lost with about 47 percent.) The Republican Party lost its mind and decided that this one victory negated everything we know about politics. But it didn’t.
One debate does not change the structure of this presidential campaign. For all the talk of Mr. Biden’s off night, what is lost is that Mr. Trump missed a great opportunity to reset his candidacy and greatly strengthen his position. . . .
Before Thursday’s debate, the presidential race was about the past versus the future. After the debate, it is about the past versus the future. And so it will be on Nov. 5.
A bad night for Mr. Biden doesn’t change the fact that Mr. Trump opposes any mandatory vaccines for public school students. Do Americans really want to live through more polio, measles and whooping cough epidemics?
It’s easy to be for your guy on good nights, but it doesn’t mean much. The test is on bad nights.
Of all the Democratic pearl clutchers, the most disappointing and offensive are the Barack Obama insiders who can’t bring themselves to do what Mr. Biden did for their old boss: cover his back and fight. For them, politics is “Love Story,” that one true and pure love when they were young and the future stretched out before them in glorious possibility. Every non-Obama candidate will forever be like a fourth marriage, regrettable and unsatisfying.
Gov. Gavin Newsom of California showed Democrats how to fight after the debate: “You don’t turn your back because of one performance. What kind of party does that?”
Like it or not, Biden will be on the Nov. 5 ballot. If you want to help elect Trump, then walk away from Biden, keep denigrating him, or join the parade of pundits and political operatives calling for him to drop out.
All of that only helps Trump.
Trump and his aides are thrilled by those on the left calling for Biden to drop out. It’s precisely what they wanted from this debate.
As for me, I’m ridin’ with Biden.
Many of us have been expecting too much of our president. He needs our help, and our country needs our help. We cannot expect Biden and Harris to do all the work of saving the country from Trump.
That’s why I’m doubling my efforts to help him. This morning, I logged on to the website for Postcards to Swing States and ordered 200 more postcards. I’m close to finishing the first 200, but after Thursday night, we need to do more.
Instead of abandoning Biden, we must help him.
That starts by granting him some grace — something we all need — and then doing whatever we can to win this election.
If you’re in Louisiana — not a swing state, by any stretch — the best thing you can do is contribute to the efforts in a swing state. That’s why I’ve chosen Postcards to Swing States. But you can also contribute to the Biden campaign. You can sign up for other remote activism from a list at this link.
Whatever you think about Biden’s debate performance, please respond to it in a spirit of grace. He stumbled. Let’s pick him up. Let’s do whatever we can to help this man win.
Our country’s future depends on it.
Well said, as ever. Anyone can have a bad day (or night, or moment). It's appalling that so many people want to toss President Biden aside because of a bad debate performance, without demanding the same of trump, who spent 90 minutes lying, making up total BS and sidestepping questions he didn't want to answer. Interesting that the video of President Biden at the after party just after the debate ended showed him more animated and articulate than during the debate. And his campaign speech the next day was nothing short of his energetic State of the Union performance.
I think POTUS's image will be rehabilitated in short order. The hysteria over his admittedly poor debate performance will subside. Just ask Barack Obama about one disastrous debate. It's not the end of his candidacy. But it's probably going to be just the catalyst needed to give the Biden campaign more energy.
I’m ridin’ with Biden too. What you wrote in this piece hits home with me. Who hasn’t had a bad day or night in their life and who then felt badly after they dropped the ball thrown directly into their hands by someone who expected you to catch it? Joe Biden has 5 decades of federal government experience under his belt and a long list of accomplishments during his current term as President. Although I chose not to view the so called debate live on CNN, I viewed a couple of dropped balls by Biden during the show rehash afterwards on Cable TV. Again as you pointed out, Biden has acknowledged that he dropped a few footballs during the debate but has recovered nicely after the 90 minutes. Everyone who I know acknowledges that they have had dropped balls In their lives like Joe Biden did. We need to extend him the grace that others have extended to us when we have dropped a ball thrown to us. Unquestionably for me Joe Biden is the President that I will be supporting and voting for re-election. I urge everyone to go all out in working to get Joe Biden elected. There can be no alternative to Joe Biden being elected once more in 2024.