Alan Zendell, July 12, 2024

President Joe Biden is 81 and suffers from neuropathy, which is the reason he looks stiff when he walks. Neuropathy can greatly reduce sensation in legs and feet. I’m 81 too, and I also suffer from neuropathy. Some days, if you saw me walking, you might think I was a feeble old man about to collapse. The fact that you’re reading this demonstrates that that has nothing to do with my cognitive ability.

Until they reach eighty, most people have no idea what aging is really like. Put ten octogenarians in a room, and each of them will likely report that some part of their body doesn’t work the way it should. They’ll also likely tell you that everything else works just fine. I was as horrified as everyone else when Biden appeared to lose himself at the debate with Donald Trump. But two weeks later, the polls reflecting Biden’s worst moments haven’t really changed, and as I’ve contended for months, there’s no reason to have confidence in them, anyway.

I’ve followed Biden’s career for fifty years, and always admired his commitment to public service and all Americans in the lower 99 percent. But even I was on the fence about whether he should quit. Simply put, nothing, not Joe Biden’s legacy, not Kamala Harris’ ambition, not whether Biden occasionally trips over a word (I did it twice, today) matters more than preventing Donald Trump from destroying our country.

As Biden said at his press conference Thursday night, show him evidence that he can’t beat Trump and someone else can and he’ll retire. His first term has been a marvel of accomplishment. When the history of the aborted MAGA era is written, people will look back on Biden the way my generation revered Harry Truman. All the noise and bluster from Trump can’t negate Biden’s obvious successes. Every significant economic measure and index is soaring, with equity markets at record levels and unemployment still at twenty year lows.

Ignore the pundits for a while – they don’t matter, because the only two people who could convince Biden to step aside are his wife and Nancy Pelosi, who is older than he is. The Democrats who have said he shouldn’t run have told us they’ve been listening to their constituents, which means they were afraid Biden might cost them their own seats. Wait a few days until those same constituents weigh in about Thursday night and see if some of those nervous House members change their minds.

In the meantime, here are a few things to reflect on. Governor Greg Abbott of Texas has spent his entire time in office governing from a wheelchair. President Franklin Roosevelt governed us through the Great Depression and World War 2 from a wheelchair. Senator John McCain served with one arm disabled. Illinois Senator Tammy Duckworth has no legs. Biden isn’t what he used to be – neither am I – are you? The leaders of the nearly forty countries who attended this week’s NATO conference laud Biden and consider the possibility of another Trump presidency an existential crisis. Did any of them suggest that he shouldn’t run?

Biden’s campaign is in crisis, but his press conference convinced me of two things: he’s up to the job, and if at some point in the next four years he feels he isn’t any longer, Kamala Harris will be a more than adequate steward of his legacy. I wonder if Harry Truman is watching from the great beyond.

The media are so obsessed with their feeding frenzy, they’re overlooking the elephant in the room. Americans have not yet fully assimilated what it means to have a candidate running for president who is a convicted felon and who has been found by two courts to have been running his business as a criminal enterprise. Millions of voters held their noses and voted for Trump because they knew Republican majorities in Congress would pass a huge tax cut, and Trump would sign it. They knew he was an immoral sociopath, but they just couldn’t vote for another Clinton. Next time around, the stench was too great, and he lost.

When the fury over the debate dies down, if Biden continues to do what he did at his press conference, and videos of Trump inciting insurrection flood the airways with excerpts from Project 2025, voters will grasp the danger and reject him soundly. Millions of people let themselves be seduced by a con man, but faced with the reality of what Trump intends, Americans will realize what a sick romance they got involved in.

I understand why Biden won’t quit, and I commend him for it. I also believe he will save the country from Trump – again. You may not love Biden, but at least you don’t have to wear a HAZMAT suit when you’re near him.