It has been over five weeks since the debate between President Biden and Donald Trump. In the two commentaries I delivered after, I chose not to say a word about the implications of that debate because, to be honest, I was depressed --- depressed by the thought that Trump was about to waltz into the Presidency. The behavior of the Trump campaign at the Republican Convention indicated that they were extremely confident of victory --- that is why they chose a person even more extreme than Trump in terms of being against a woman’s right to choose and in favor of the extreme proposals of Project 2025.
[See “JD Vance writes glowing foreword to Project 2025 leader’s upcoming book,” available here.]
And then, two Sundays ago, everything changed. President Biden made the clearly painful yet essential decision to end his campaign for a second term and urge the Democratic Party to nominate in his stead Vice President Harris. It was clear that President Biden strongly resisted the recommendations of those who were appalled by his debate performance on June 27 and believed that if he stayed in the race, he would be giving the Presidency to Trump. In the end, either he figured out that those people were right or he believed that the conflict over his staying in the race would be a serious impediment to his victory. I applaud President Biden’s decision. I also applaud the decision of the delegates to the Democratic Convention to quickly throw their support to Vice President Harris, making her the presumptive nominee. A so-called “open” convention with a number of potential candidates vying for the nomination would have been a disaster. The quick unification of the Democratic Party around Vice President Harris was validated by the incredible outpouring of support for Harris from all the grass roots elements of the Democratic coalition.
Before getting to my reasons for being so pleased with the seamless transition from a Biden to a Harris campaign, I want to dispense with a ridiculous suggestion by some Republicans that if President Biden cannot run for re-election he cannot discharge his duties as President. Yes, the Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson, actually made that ridiculous demand. He said, ““If Joe Biden is not fit to run for President, he is not fit to serve as President. He must resign the office immediately,” [Clare Foran and Morgan Rimmer, “Speaker Johnson calls on Biden to resign after the president announces he won’t seek reelection,” CNN.com, available here.]
What utter nonsense. There a big difference between campaigning for an office and serving in that office. I mean what do you need to run a good campaign? --- You need to be a good public speaker --- to exude confidence and fire up a crowd. You need to be quick on your feet when confronted by tough questions from a reporter. You need to be ready with a quick response when engaging in a public debate. Those are not the skills necessary to run a business or a political organization --- including a state or national government.
Those skills include being a good listener and being able to take the information that your staff gives you and translate it into policy decisions. One needs to also be knowledgeable about the various issues in order to make useful sense of your staff’s reports and recommendations. One still needs communication skills but they are not the skills of verbal combat --- but of explaining the meaning of policy decisions to the public.
We all saw the difference between the skills necessary to be good at campaigning and the skills necessary to serve in a major executive office. On June 27, Biden fell flat when attempting to debate Trump. He let Trump get away with outrageous lies without effectively countering them. For example, he never once mentioned the fact that Trump caused many COVID deaths because he had earlier disbanded the group tasked with planning responses to medical emergencies. In Gary Gerstle’s comprehensive book The Rise and Fall of the Neoliberal Order, the author makes it very clear the Trump’s decisions as President at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic cost hundreds of thousands of lives in the United States.
“Trump did not take full advantage of his powers during the pandemic. The Defense Production Act of 1950 gave him the authority to direct any sector of the private economy to shift production to materials required for national security. To fight the coronavirus, he could have ordered manufacturing companies to produced ventilators, masks, and other personal protective equipment (PPE) that hospital staffs so urgently needed. He could have commandeered private transportation networks to rush these materials to the cities, towns and rural areas where they were needed. Trump may also have had the authority under the Public Health Act of 1944, to impose quarantines on parts of the country hit heavily by the virus and even to impose bans on travel within the United States. Trump was reluctant to exercise this authority --- … His reluctance arose in part from his desire to PLAY DOWN THE THREAT OF THE DISEASE HOPING TO CONVEY THROUGH HIS WORDS AND DEEDS ITS FAILURE TO DOMINATE EITHER HIM OR THE COUNTRY. … Trump pretended that the disease was not really dangerous, largely ignored the sick and dying, and told Americans repeatedly that the economy and the nation would soon rebound to full operation and health … Trump actually seemed to think he could bluff his way past the virus, as he had with so many human adversaries in the past. HALF A MILLION AMERICAN DIED ON TRUMP’S CALLOUS WATCH.” [280-281. Emphasis added.]
A week after the disastrous debate, on July 4 President Biden appeared for a far ranging Press Conference. For over an hour, he gave coherent responses to reporters’ questions on a wide range of issues. He proved he had command of those issues --- issues he had to deal with as President.
So the Mike Johnson assertion is total nonsense. Biden remains good at being President. But he was not up for the rigors of a campaign. Both the State of the Union speech and the press conference were well delivered, proving he was on top of his game as President. But the debate proved that he had lost the ability to campaign effectively. Now that he has abandoned the campaign, he can concentrate 100 percent of his energies on being President. Meanwhile, Vice President Harris has jumped in the Presidential campaign with energy and vigor. She clearly is able to take the fight to Donald Trump.
For months, the media has let Trump get away with lies and with mind glitches indicating cognitive decline because they’ve been so focused on old man Biden. Those days are over. It’s now old man Trump versus the young energetic former prosecutor. Harris proved her prosecutorial skills when questioning potential appointees while she served in the United States Senate. She proved her debating chops against Vice President Pence in 2020. And she will beat Donald Trump like a drum if he dares get on the debate stage with her this Fall.
(And it appears Trump and his campaign realize that as they are backing away from the commitment to meet Harris in a debate on ABC TV on September 10.)
In the weeks after June 27, it was clear that President Biden’s debate performance had demoralized many of the people he counted on to carry him to a second term --- particularly the young people who registered in record numbers to vote both in 2020 and in 2022. But what happened immediately after he withdrew from the race and threw his support to Vice President Harris? In addition to the millions of dollars raised for the Harris campaign, thousands of people volunteered to work on the campaign and over 40,000 registered to vote for the first time during the first 48 hours. (And the majority of those were under 34.)
The enthusiasm with which the grassroots greeted the withdrawal of President Biden and the entrance of Vice President Harris is very good news indeed. I am no longer depressed.
CODA WRITTEN AUGUST 1 --- Nothing exemplifies Biden’s abilities to fulfill the duties of his office, than the fact that he successfully negotiated a multi-country multi-prisoner swap with Putin of Russia (throwing egg all over Trump’s face --- he the man who predicted only he could get Putin to free Americans held “prisoner” in Russia!). Biden had to get cooperation from a number of our NATO allies ( the organization Trump denigrates) so that Putin would get enough of his people back to justify freeing three Americans as well as a number of Russian dissidents. Virtually every news cast discussing this prisoner swap emphasized that it would have been impossible for Donald Trump to do anything similar because he has burned bridges with many of our allies.
Michael Meeropol is professor emeritus of Economics at Western New England University. He is the author with Howard and Paul Sherman of the recently published second edition of Principles of Macroeconomics: Activist vs. Austerity Policies.
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