Posted on 06/28/2024 7:30:19 PM PDT by DoodleBob
Much of the commentary on last night’s disastrous debate has focused, quite reasonably, on the next four months and the question of whether Joe Biden can defeat Donald Trump.
The answer: probably not.
Yet it is critical that Donald Trump be defeated. And so there are calls—compelling calls, in my view—for Joe Biden to step aside.
But let’s be honest: Last night provided ample cause for concern, not just about the next four months, but about the next four years. Even were Biden to prove the doubters wrong and and defeat Trump again, it is difficult, after last night, to answer with conviction the obvious question, perhaps the most important one:
Is he up to the task of serving another full term as president?
Those of us who were enthusiastic 2020 Biden voters—as I was—have to ask ourselves this question.
Those of us among the 40 percent of Americans who approve of Joe Biden’s job performance so far—as I do—have to ask ourselves this question.
Those of us who believe the country owes Joe Biden a debt of gratitude, not just for defeating Trump in 2020 but for governing responsibly since then, have to ask ourselves this question.
And if the answer is that Joe Biden is not up to it, we have to be willing to say the difficult truth: We owe Joe Biden a debt of gratitude, but we do not owe him four more years.
How can we make the case to our fellow citizens for four more years if Joe Biden can’t make the case for four more years himself?
Of course we can and will make the case against Trump. But it’s hard to make the case against Trump without making the case, with some degree of conviction and credibility, for his opponent.
Biden deprived us of that last night.
For Never Trumpers this is particularly tricky.
How many times have we used this Orwell quotation against Trump, his apologists, and his enablers: “The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command”?
We’ve been right to do so. As we saw and heard again last night, Donald Trump is a liar and demagogue. He is also an aspiring authoritarian. He is a dangerous and contemptible figure. He should never again be president.
But how can we deny the evidence of our eyes and ears when it comes to Joe Biden?
The evidence of our eyes and ears is that Biden should step aside.
We will be accused of being handwringers. But it is not we who are wringing our hands in private while putting on a good front in public.
We will be accused of urging a risky course. But surely the greater risk is trying to persuade our fellow citizens to pretend all is well. A messy and unpredictable open Democratic convention would be risky. But that risk is better than an orderly march to a neat and predictable defeat.
We will be accused of being unrealistic. We will be told there’s no way Joe Biden will step aside. That will be the excuse of senior statesmen and prominent Democrats for not making a serious effort to persuade him to do so. But their “realism” is merely a cloak for fatalism and defeatism. It’s a form of apathy in the face of a crucial task.
“Country First” is the motto that many of us opposed to Donald Trump have embraced. It’s not too much to ask of President Biden.
—William Kristol
Pathetic. Humiliating. I’d feel sorry for him if he weren’t such a rat bastard who has done everything possible to ruin America for 50 years.
Kristol is on my Airport List.
L
Kristol's more-conservative-than-thou game is to take Reagan's "My eighty percent friend is not my twenty percent enemy" into "my eighty percent friend fails my litmus tests two hundred percent of the time", while leaving off this means Republicans are better off in second place to Democrats. As if he gets to decide.
Biden provided good governance? What planet does Kristol live on?
If you notice, almost all of Trump’s opponents are light in the loafers.
I expected Dark Joe on meth, supported by rabid moderators, so I was pleasantly surprised.
Kristol no longer even pretends to be conservative.
“ Trump should ask people to think,
1. Who is running (ruining) this country??
2. Why do they try to hide all this from you the American public
3. What will Brandon be like by election day??? How about next January???
4. Do you really think Joe and the Democrats are for YOU knowing what you know now and what has been on display???”
Brilliant assessment, crisp and to the point!
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