Opinion | Bidens Stake in This Election Is Like Nobody Elses
President Joe Biden’s record is his record, and history can’t overwrite it.During his years in the White House, he signed major pieces of legislation regarding economic stimulus, infrastructure, clean energy, gun safety, the American semiconductor industry, marriage equality and more.
They were not foregone conclusions.They have brightened many Americans’ futures.
He’ll be remembered admiringly for that.But his legacy all in all hinges on Nov.5.
If Vice President Kamala Harris beats Donald Trump, Biden is golden — not just forgiven for his long delay and fierce reluctance before giving up on a second term but also lionized for letting go of that dream.If Trump wins, Biden will face a much different judgment.All of us who recognize the danger and depravity of Trump are on tenterhooks, and all of us will suffer, as a country, if he returns to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.But Biden’s stake in this election is singular, and that’s not even factoring in Trump’s sinister and chillingly undemocratic pledge to sic federal investigators and prosecutors on Biden and his family.The historical anomaly of how Harris emerged as the Democratic presidential nominee and the unusually hurried, compressed nature of her campaign are the direct result of Biden’s initial insistence, despite voters’ clear concerns about his age and vigor, on running for re-election, and of his persistence for more than three weeks after his disastrous performance in a debate with Trump in June.By the time he dropped out of the race on July 21, three days after the end of the Republican National Convention and less than a month before the beginning of the Democratic National Convention, there was no real opportunity for any mini-primary to determine his replacement.
No way to see how various candidates might stack up against one another in a competition for the nomination.Perhaps Harris would have prevailed.
Perhaps not.And the postmortems after a Trump victory would not focus primaril...