Coming to Term

One term, that is. 

I really like Joe Biden. I really don't want Joe Biden to run for re-election. These things aren't mutually exclusive.

The current moment in history calls for bold, decisive action, righteous anger, and focused execution. Joe Biden is an institutional man above all else, and an incrementalist by constitution and experience. He's served his beloved country well for longer than anyone had a right to ask him. He's seen pain and suffering like few others, his extreme empathy forged in a crucible of sorrow we should count ourselves lucky to never experience.

We owe him a great debt.

And I believe he owes us one final grace note. It is increasingly obvious that President Biden isn't as sharp as he once was. This is inevitable for an 79 year-old human. Let the record show that I, too, have lost a few miles per hour from my fastball, both mentally and physically. It's also saddeningly apparent that his administration isn't firing on all cylinders. The rollout of vaccines for kids under the age of five has been botched. The CDC can't find its ass with both hands in combatting monkeypox. The administration has let comms on inflation and gas prices be hijacked by the right, and solutions to both problems are comically underwhelming.

Let it be clear, however, that the Biden Administration has been a force for good in a number of ways, not the least being its performance more broadly on the economy. I come here not to bury the President, but to ask him respectfully to choose to go quietly into that great retirement. The next election is too important, as is the work that needs to be done.

I harbor no illusions that the 2024 election will be easy for any Democrat to win, though I do believe there's a fervor let loose in the land after the Supreme Court's recent Sherman's March through civil and individual rights and the January 6th Committee's outstanding and painstaking work in exposing the outrageous and comprehensive nature of the last guy's mendacity. Kamala Harris is less popular than Biden, for example, and she'd be the most obvious candidate to take the mantle from Uncle Joe.

Biden's decision to step down after a single term would be a selfless, country-first act. The kind of thing he's been known for his entire public career. And notwithstanding my point above regarding the challenges in finding an electable Democrat, there is a solution that's both practical and directly in G:TB's wheelhouse.

Friends, patriots, and right-thinking Americans. That...that's John Fetterman's music.