"Joseph Robinette Biden Jr.’s obituary will be stalked by the counterfactual: What if he hadn’t made the selfish decision to run for reelection?"

"What if he had passed the torch a year or even six months earlier?... The way that events unfolded—his catastrophic debate performance, the stark clarity with which the nation came to understand his geriatric state–-beggars belief. Why didn’t Democrats stage an intervention earlier? Why didn’t his aides stop him from running?"

Writes Franklin Foer in The Atlantic, in "How Biden Destroyed His Legacy/The president’s accomplishments are considerable, but on his signature issue of preserving democracy, he failed spectacularly."

Let me answer those questions (as I'm sure you can answer them): Democrats wanted 4 more years of a mentally deficient presidential figurehead for their power. They just desperately changed their plan when we the people got too good of a sudden, scary glimpse at what they'd been up to.

But Foer says: "A cabal intent on preserving its own power would never have blundered in such tragically self-defeating fashion." And: "Democrats ignored a cascade of warning signs...." Is Foer writing to give them cover?

What do you think? Why didn’t Democrats stage an intervention earlier? 

So, what's your answer?

Cabal

Bumblers

 

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ADDED: I keep rereading this sentence: "A cabal intent on preserving its own power would never have blundered in such tragically self-defeating fashion." It gets funnier every time. 

The saddest, loneliest Althouse blog tag: "Biden the healer."

I created this tag on November 8, 2020, and I don't create a new tag unless I think there will be a good number of other posts that will support that tag. I imagined Biden stepping up to the role of healer. I went back today, looking for "Biden the healer" in my archive, because I've been thinking how much better Biden might be doing — and, more importantly, how much better this country might be doing — if Biden had followed the path of healing — of bringing us together. But Biden was and is a divider. Maybe January 6th was too much of a temptation, such great raw material for tearing us apart. He could have said — like Lincoln — "with malice toward none, with charity for all" and forgiven everyone involved and called upon all of us — on his side and the other side — to "bind up the nation's wounds." But he didn't do it. And now it's too late.

Here's my November 8, 2020 post. Read it and weep. It's title is an eloquent quote from someone who has gone on to distinguish herself for her comical lack of eloquence:

"Joe is a healer, a uniter, a tested and steady hand, a person whose own experience of loss gives him a sense of purpose that will help us as a nation reclaim our own sense of purpose, and a man with a big heart who loves with abandon."

In that one crowded sentence, Kamala Harris — in her victory speech last night — stated the theme for Biden's presidency. 

I see the laying-on-of-hands concept that we were talking about yesterday.

"Biden has in many ways remade himself as president. He is no longer the garrulous glad-hander I met when I first covered Congress..."

"... more than four decades ago. He’s still an old-time pol, to be sure, but he is now more focused and strategic; he executes policies systematically, at home and abroad. As Franklin Foer writes in 'The Last Politician'... 'he will be remembered as the old hack who could.'... In a month or so... [i]t will be too late for other Democrats, including Harris, to test themselves in primaries and see whether they have the stuff of presidential leadership. Right now, there’s no clear alternative to Biden — no screamingly obvious replacement waiting in the wings. That might be the decider for Biden, that there’s seemingly nobody else...."

Writes David Ignatius in "President Biden should not run again in 2024" (WaPo).

Ignatius is tripping over himself. The somebody else is screamingly obviously Kamala Harris. If Biden steps aside there will be a grisly interlude in which Harris is destroyed. Who wants to see that? I mean, who wants to see that who doesn't wish the Democrats ill?

ADDED: No sooner did I publish this post than I noticed this Guardian piece by Sidney Blumenthal: "Democrats need to realize that there is no alternative to Biden – and buck up/Spooked by Trump’s shadow, Democrats react with disapproval of Biden, whose numbers are stagnant. They risk creating a self-fulfilling prophesy."

Blumenthal doesn't even mention Harris. He just says there's "no alternative," which is an obtuse way to say Harris is an unworkable alternative. 

"I was going to call my old, first phone number in the Bronx, and talk to whoever answered.... I would interview this person long enough to reveal our common humanity..."

"... and I would then tell his or her story with compassion; whatever differences we might have — cultural, political, whatever — would disappear with greater familiarity and understanding. Above all, we would, together, two ordinary people, prove that for all this country’s troubles, modernity does not have to be soulless. So I called. And got this recording: 'The next available service specialist will be with you momentarily. They will be happy to assist you with any inquiry.' Then I was put on hold, where I remained for 22 minutes, until I hung up." 

Story idea goes bad for Gene Weingarten, but he got a column out of it anyway: "Maybe the past is only a phone call away" (WaPo). They say you can never go home again, and, it seems, you can never phone home again. 

 

We were just talking about E.T. yesterday. Remember? "Like Steven Spielberg’s E.T., [Biden] seems to instinctually believe in the healing power of physical connection—even if that intimacy can sometimes feel a bit too close."

Everybody's trying to make a connection... but maybe nobody's there anymore. Weingarten's column made me think of Bob Dylan's "Talking World War III Blues":

"Joe is a healer, a uniter, a tested and steady hand, a person whose own experience of loss gives him a sense of purpose that will help us as a nation reclaim our own sense of purpose, and a man with a big heart who loves with abandon."

In that one crowded sentence, Kamala Harris — in her victory speech last night — stated the theme for Biden's presidency. 

I see the laying-on-of-hands concept that we were talking about yesterday. Remember? The writer in The Atlantic — Franklin Foer — talked about Joe's "effort to heal... to wrap himself around others in mourning." He saw "something religious in this laying-on of hands... an act of communion." Because we are "desperate" and Joe is the "parental figure," what is required of us is "an almost irrational faith in healing."

Kamala presents Joe the "healer" — using his "tested and steady hand." But she doesn't, like Foer, make it sound like any sort of miracle or anything religious. She grounds the power in Joe's real-life experience — "experience of loss " — and his "big heart." 

Now,  the word "healer" is problematic in speech. It has a homophone...

 

A fine dog, but you don't want to call your President a dog. Especially not a "heeler." To heel is not to lead. To whom is he heeling? 

Ah, but the dog that is called a "heeler" is not called that because he heels. The Australian cattle dog is nicknamed a "heeler" because he moves cattle along by biting at their heels! That's leadership of a sort.

It is good with older, considerate children, but will herd people by nipping at their heels, particularly younger children who run and squeal.... The ACD was originally bred to move reluctant cattle by biting, and it will bite if treated harshly. The Australian Cattle Dog's protective nature and tendency to nip at heels can be dangerous as the dog grows into an adult if unwanted behaviours are left unchecked.

You'd better train this dog! It's not time for "irrational faith."  

(Photos © Meade. ) 

"As a young widower, he drove them to school, blasting Elton John’s 'Crocodile Rock' from the car radio, willing normalcy’s return."

"In an effort to heal, he rushed to wrap himself around others in mourning. Like Steven Spielberg’s E.T., he seems to instinctually believe in the healing power of physical connection—even if that intimacy can sometimes feel a bit too close. As the Irish literary critic Fintan O’Toole has written of Biden’s grasp, 'There is something religious in this laying-on of hands. It is an act of communion.' After the destruction of the Trump era, the nation is desperate for a parental figure to cultivate renewal amid ruin; shattered institutions will require an almost irrational faith in healing."

From "Winning Was the Easy Part/Now Joe Biden needs to repair a badly broken country" by Franklin Foer (in The Atlantic).