It’s The Washington Post, after all, so should anyone really care about the nation’s pre-eminent left-wing rag’s op-ed page?
In most cases, the answer is no, but this time seems a bit different.
Longtime WaPo columnist David Ignatius penned a lengthy exploration into why Biden – and Kamala Harris – should step aside in 2024 and let someone else take the reigns on the Democratic side. While Ignatius says he likes Biden, of course, he provides a couple of reasons why it’s time for the longtime Washington swamp creature to go:
But I don’t think Biden and Vice President Harris should run for reelection. It’s painful to say that, given my admiration for much of what they have accomplished. But if he and Harris campaign together in 2024, I think Biden risks undoing his greatest achievement — which was stopping Trump.
Biden would carry two big liabilities into a 2024 campaign. He would be 82 when he began a second term. According to a recent Associated Press-NORC poll, 77 percent of the public, including 69 percent of Democrats, think he’s too old to be effective for four more years. Biden’s age isn’t just a Fox News trope; it’s been the subject of dinner-table conversations across America this summer.
Because of their concerns about Biden’s age, voters would sensibly focus on his presumptive running mate, Harris. She is less popular than Biden, with a 39.5 percent approval rating, according to polling website FiveThirtyEight. Harris has many laudable qualities, but the simple fact is that she has failed to gain traction in the country or even within her own party.
In other words, Biden’s too old, and Kamala Harris is too unpopular, a scenario that Ignatius fears might open the door to a second term for Donald Trump.
Ignatius claims that beating Trump in 2020 was the pinnacle of Biden’s success and it’s basically been downhill from there. Well, Ignatius doesn’t criticize Biden’s failed economy and disastrous foreign policy, he seems to be just fine with all that. His main concern is an ongoing chronic bout of Trump Derangement Syndrome.
Basically, Biden was good for beating Trump in 2020 but if he can’t do it again in 2024, then get out of the way.
For that reason, maybe Republicans should cool their impeachment inquiry and just let the Biden stench keep rotting away in the White House and let Democrats become more desperate.
Ignatius’ reasoning is merely on the surface for practical reasons. Americans feel that Biden should step aside for deeper reasons, such as his total disconnect from what his policies have inflicted on the trajectory of the country, both at home and abroad.
Thanks to Biden we’re more dependent on foreign oil than ever before and we’re at the behest of some of our worst frenemies, like Saudi Arabia. Bien’s record on inflationary spending and failed economic policies of empowering Washington at the expense of individuals have also proven to be a drain on the average household.
However, for all of that, Ignatius points out that Joe Biden is nothing if not thick-headed in his decisions so it’s unlikely he will change his mind on his own. Biden will have to be pushed out and columns like Ignatius’ in a major left-leaning publication could be a tipping point in that direction.
