I doubt that President Biden is a fan of reggae music, but these days he seems to be channeling some Jimmy Cliff lyrics:
Sitting here in limbo, like a bird without a song
Sitting here in limbo, but I know it won’t be long
Well, they’re putting up resistance
But I know my faith will lead me on
Sitting here in limbo waiting for the tide to flow
Sitting here in limbo, knowing that I have to go
Well, they’re putting up resistance
But I know my faith will lead me on
That was my big takeaway from last night’s rare news conference, where he performed juhhhssssst well enough to keep his entire party languishing in limbo for who knows how much longer – long enough to ratchet up the terrifying risk of delivering America to an imbecilic criminal and the fascist architects of Project 2025.
At one point during the news conference, Biden said: “I just got to, just, pace myself a little more.” But minutes later he said: “If I slow down, I can’t get the job done.” Oy. And I say that as someone who has heralded Joe for years.
Are we doomed to teeter along with him for another four months as he tries to crisply articulate a raison d’etre and second-term agenda? Because here’s what that sounded like last night: “I’m going to be going around making the case of the things that I think we have to finish…I’m determined on running. But I think it’s important that I real – I allay fears. I’ve seen – let them see me out there, let me see them out, you know – for the longest time, it was, you know, ‘Biden’s not prepared to sit with us unscripted; Biden is not prepared to’ – and anyway.”
Jim Hines, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, framed the situation perfectly last night, shortly after he called for Biden to step down: “Imagine that, three months from now, we get another performance like there was in the debate, right before the election. Do you want to take that risk? I don’t.”
Granted, Biden discoursed impressively and at length last night about foreign policy – the kind of substance that the MAGA criminal would need a brain transplant to master – and that may slow Democratic demands for his departure, thus prolonging the intramural torture. Worse yet, the MAGA criminal knows darn well that most voters (especially low-information swing voters) know even less about foreign policy than he does, and that they don’t care a whit about what happens in faraway lands unless American soldiers are getting killed there.
Indeed, Trump’s authoritarian plotters were reportedly thrilled about Biden’s performance because they dearly want him to stay in the race. It’s no mystery why. The last thing they want is an opponent who can fire on all cylinders every day between now and November. Someone like Kamala Harris, who stumped yesterday in North Carolina, detailing Project 2025 and highlighting reproductive rights: “We have worked too hard and fought too long to see our daughters grow up in a world with fewer rights than our mothers.”
Biden said at one point last night that he decided to seek a second term because of “the gravity of the situation I inherited.” Then he tried to elaborate: “If tomorrow, if we had a circumstance where there was a lineup and I…hadn’t inherited what I did, and we just move things along – anyway, it’s going to change.” I’m still trying to decipher that one.
But he did open the door, ever so slightly, for a graceful exit. Whereas last Friday he said that he’d step down only if advised by “the Lord almighty,” last night he said he might consider it if the polls show there’s “no way” he can win. For starters he should consult the new ABC News-Washington Post-IPSOS poll, which says that 73 percent of Americans – including 56 percent of Democrats – want him to step down. Anti-Trump commentator David Frum says it well: “If Biden loses to Trump, the nation Biden believed in does not outlive him.”
Sitting here in limbo, waiting for the dice to roll
Sitting here in limbo, got some time to search my soul
Well, they’re putting up resistance
But I know my faith will lead me on
But time is fast running out. For him, for the party, and for us.