On the evening of March 31, 1968, President Lyndon Johnson spoke to the American public from the White House oval office. His topic was the war in Vietnam, but at the end of his address, he said this: “With America’s sons in the fields far away, with America’s future under challenge right here at home, with our hopes and the world’s hopes for peace in the balance every day, I do not believe that I should devote an hour or a day of my time to any personal partisan causes or to any duties other than the awesome duties of this office — the presidency of this country. Accordingly, I shall not seek, and I will not accept, the nomination of my party for another term as your president.”
That statement surprised and shocked the country, and because our challenges today are just as serious— “America’s future under challenge right here at home” and “our hopes and the world’s hopes for peace in the balance every day,” — I believe the time has come for a similarly shocking statement from President Joe Biden.
Credit: contributed
Credit: contributed
Don’t misunderstand. I believe President Biden has done an outstanding job as president. He has skillfully managed ending a pandemic, including getting shots in arms, stimulating an economic recovery and then bringing the economy in for a soft landing. He has also masterfully united our allies in support of Ukraine’s resistance to Russian aggression and taken serious steps to address two of the transformative issues of our time — climate change and increasing income security for lower- and middle-income Americans.
But with the recent brutal attack by Hamas on Israel, there is a real possibility that either one of today’s two major wars could quickly escalate into larger conflicts, and there still exist economic challenges and very real threats to our democracy. Overall, I believe the challenges Biden faces are even greater than those faced by Johnson, and like LBJ, he should not “devote an hour or a day of (his) time to any personal partisan causes or to any duties other than the awesome duties of his office — the presidency of this country.”
While focusing on the very real and very demanding duties of the presidency is reason enough for Biden to end his candidacy for a second term, there is another equally important reason — a very negative public perception of Biden and his performance as president means that he could very well lose the 2024 election to former President Donald Trump, and it seems increasingly more likely that he would lose to another Republican candidate such as former governor and U.N. ambassador Niki Haley (whom polls have leading Biden by 17 points!).
Despite the successes that Biden has had as president, the public perceives him to be too old to serve four more years. Unlike Trump, whose loud voice and theatrics make him somehow appear younger than his 77 years, Biden, despite having enormous experience, knowledge, and an agile mind, is considered much older by most Americans. This may not be fair, but it is a fact and the public’s perception will be almost impossible to change before election day. Additionally, regardless of strong economic numbers, most Americans do not feel that the economy is working for them, and understandably, they are also feeling unsettled by the costs and chaos of disturbing world events.
Joe Biden ran in 2020 to bring an end to Donald Trump’s presidency of lies, chaos, and incompetence, and he succeeded in his mission of returning a sense of normalcy to the presidency and of getting important things accomplished, but for a variety of reasons the American people are not grateful. Instead, many are bitter, and others are unsettled and looking for simple answers to complex problems. It is almost certain that an 81-year-old Joe Biden will never be perceived as someone who can give a majority of American voters what they are seeking.
I believe it is important for the president to withdraw from the 2024 presidential race very soon so that a strong field of Democratic candidates can get in front of primary voters in time to choose the strongest candidate possible to go up against Donald Trump or any other candidate Republicans choose. Eventually, historians will recognize this sacrifice as a part of Biden’s legacy of service to our country.
After teaching high school American history and government for 11 years, Lee Raudonis worked with Republican Paul Coverdell in the Georgia Senate and later with a Republican member of the U.S. House of Representatives. Raudonis also served as the executive director of the Georgia Republican Party in 1988.
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