We Win Either Way

I love Joe Biden. But we need a new nominee.

I’m guessing you’ve already read that one.

Both men running for president right now are unfit for the job: One is a good man in obvious cognitive and physical decline, and the other is a bad man who lies as he breathes, whose main platform is revenge . . . .

It’s worth reading in full, but that’s the nub of it: Which would we rather have? A good man who’s slowing down; or a bad man with enormous energy to do terrible things?

Consider:

If Biden says “Putin” when he means Zelensky or “Trump” when he means Harris (and then quickly corrects himself), no damage is done. He’s not going to slip and accidentally veto a bill that revitalizes the nation’s infrastructure (a bill Trump never managed to get passed); or accidentally side with Putin against the FBI and against Ukraine.

But when Trump carries out Project 2025 — and becomes the world’s strongest strongman — terrible damage will be done, with more to come in his third and fourth terms. (Do you think he would ever willingly give up power, except, perhaps, to his son?)

Consider, too, the difference between the two parties:

As Friedman notes, “only one party in America’s two-party system is ready to defend our constitutional order anymore.” The other “is ready to renominate Trump even though many of those who worked most intimately with him in his first term — including his vice president, secretary of defense, secretary of state, chief of staff, national security adviser, press secretary, communications director and attorney general — have warned that Trump is erratic, immoral and someone who must never be let near the White House again.”

Whom would you rather have: a good man in a wheelchair with serious health problems who might not live out his fourth term, or a fascist with a mustache who holds legendary rallies? Or, to move it forward 80 years: an aging but experienced, principled leader like Biden; or someone with more energy like Putin/Le Pen/Trump? (I lump them together because Le Pen recently did.)

Consider this anecdote from 1962: When Presidents Played By the Rules. (And read books. And tried to set a good example for the nation’s kids.)

Democratic Presidents still do.

I titled this post Either Way, We Win because, whatever happens, we must and, I think, will.

There’s no question that Joe and his team of 4,000 highly competent appointees — who will need no transition or learning curve to keep moving the country forward — would be a thousand times – a million times – better than Trump and the team he would assemble once he released some of them from prison. If Joe is our nominee, I feel sure we can persuade enough voters of that to win.

It will be tough — but so was Georgia in 2022, when we had to elect that state’s first Black and first Jewish senator. No one thought we could – but we had to, and we did.

That said . . . and as clear as yesterday’s press conference made it that, though old, Joe Biden really knows his stuff and has invaluable relationships with leaders around the world . . . I’m in the camp that believes our odds are better if Joe takes the win, passes the torch, and gives us the energizing excitement of a mini-primary, and/or a fresh story.

However the next few days and weeks play out, though, we have to win — and absolutely can.

Have a great weekend.