The Speech Biden Needs to Give

Today on TAP: All the conjecture about 2024 is diverting urgent attention from 2022.

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There is now a stampede of reporting and political commentary concluding that Joe Biden should not be the Democratic nominee in 2024. This kind of story feeds on itself, given the media’s herd instincts, and quickly becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.

In the Times, Michelle Goldberg tried to make the case as kindly and gently as possible––Biden is a good man, he’s just too old—which is almost worse since it suggests pity. A recent Siena Poll showed that an astounding 64 percent of Democrats want a different nominee in 2024.

We are in the unprecedented situation of a sitting president being increasingly treated as a lame duck, fully two and a half years before his term expires—this at a time when the future of democracy is on the line. If this is bad for Biden, it’s worse for Democrats.

More from Robert Kuttner

I recently published a book, Going Big, reviewing all the headwinds that Biden faces, praising him for moving the Democrats away from the disastrous neoliberal policies of the past three Democratic presidencies, and discussing the narrow path to Democrats holding Congress in 2022. With the revelations of the January 6th Committee and the hugely unpopular recent decisions of the Supreme Court, that path just got a little wider—if Biden is not in the role of albatross.

My Prospect colleagues and I keep writing about initiatives Biden could take to make himself a more effective leader. I hope he is paying attention.

In the meantime, Biden can help himself, his party, and his country by giving this kind of speech:

My friends, like anyone who follows the media, I’m well aware that a lot of Americans and even many Democrats think I will be too old to run again in 2024. That issue will sort itself out in due course.

For now, we have a more immediate and urgent election to think about. We should not be distracting ourselves with conjectures about a decision that my party will make in democratic fashion more than two years from now.

As recent Supreme Court rulings show, underscored by new revelations by the January 6th Committee and reports of widespread voter suppression, one of our two major parties has stopped believing in democracy. Most Republicans in Congress defended President Trump’s clumsy efforts to cling to power as a dictator. Most cheered the Court ruling denying women basic reproductive rights and exposing our schoolchildren to gruesome murder by military-style automatic weapons.

Right now, nothing is more important than electing good Democrats this fall and keeping Republicans from controlling Congress. I am not on the ballot in November. To the extent that attention focuses on me and speculation about 2024, especially on the part of Democrats, we divert vital energy from this year’s more urgent business.

Whatever my own political future, I will be fine. It’s far more important that America be fine.

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