Alan Zendell, July 18, 2024

I love you, Joe, and I wish I didn’t have to say this – but it’s time. There’s not much left, and every day that passes makes the situation more urgent. You’ve been an outstanding president, the perfect man for his time. You held off the first wave of MAGA Fascism like no one else could have. You fixed our economy and rebuilt NATO. You brought inflation to its knees and put people to work in jobs that didn’t de-humanize them. You showed exactly the right strength and fortitude when Russia invaded Ukraine, and you have kept the lid on the most explosive situation that has existed in the Middle East in fifty years.

Fifty years – that’s about the length of time I have admired you for your service and basic decency and honesty. Your genuineness has gotten you into trouble in the past, but I always thought “Gaffe Machine” was a term of affection. You simply told the truth too much. To those in the Trump Republican party, that’s a worse crime than assaulting women or instigating insurrection, and we love you for it.

But let’s be realistic. I’m six months younger than you. I still have all my marbles and I can analyze and argue as well as ever. But when people see my obvious physical problems, they don’t see someone they want to entrust their future to. I believe you’re up to the job, just as I’m sure Hillary Clinton was, and would have been a far better and more empathetic president than Trump was. But the voters didn’t see it that way, because the qualifications for being a presidential candidate have very little to do with the qualifications for being president. With an opponent like Trump, and helpful public servants like James Comey, she never stood chance against the onslaught of lies and slander spewing from right-wing media.

This time, it’s even worse. The only way to defeat Trump is to be as mean and vicious as he is, at least until Election Day. You can’t fight sewer rats without getting down in the filth. He needs to be hit hard every time you or VP Harris is near a microphone. Voters need to be reminded in his own words and all the videos he loved starring in of the sociopath he is. Every voter who hasn’t already overdosed on MAGA Kool Aid needs to see and hear it every day until the election. You could do that, but it’s really not in your nature. It is very much in your Vice President’s, however.

You have said for four years that she’s ready to step in and be president any time she needs to, and this may be her moment. Imagine Kamala Harris, a dark-skinned woman going head-to-head with the bullying white misogynist, Trump. Imagine her with her no-holds-barred prosecutor’s hat on, trying him in the court of public opinion using everything he’s said and done against him, complete with audio and video confirmation from Trump himself.

Throughout your career, I only seriously disagreed with you once, when you failed to defend Anita Hill against Senate Republicans during Clarence Thomas’s confirmation hearings. And look what happened as a result? That one misstep put a nasty, corrupt Justice on the Supreme Court for life, and we’re all paying a price for that. We can’t afford another misstep now, because the result could be Donald Trump in office long enough to destroy everything you hold dear.

Whether your supporters, those of us who have revered you for decades are willing to gamble on your ability to continue, the problem is that undecided voters, particularly those who are too young to understand the trade-off between advancing age and wisdom, don’t. They will never unsee your occasional lapses and moments of frailty, just like my friends and family can’t unsee mine.

Joe, it’s a tragedy that it’s come to this. You deserve the legacy of a great American leader, to have the history books refer to you as the little Dutch boy with his finger in the dike, holding back the forces of hate and Fascism until younger, stronger reinforcements could take over. It’s time to retire with grace and dignity, basking in the love and adoration of the nation and party you have served for so long.

Whether you pass the nomination on to Kamala Harris, or your party holds an open convention, the result will be a far better one for America than one that sees you defeated, with your legacy tarnished. We still need you, but as an advisor and commentator, a beloved, avuncular old friend with a voice worth listening to. Stay at the wheel and steer us safely home until January, and let someone else carry the load of campaigning.

I can’t sing it as well as Andrea Bocelli and Sarah Brightman, but It’s Time To Say Goodbye. Play that in the background when you go, and feel it’s triumphant climax.