The Little Engine That Could

"I think I can. I think I can. I think I can." Joe Biden

This is not a political post, but it does concern the psychology behind Joe Biden’s decision to stay in the race for the next presidential term. He’s not a quitter! When you fall off a horse, you get right back on! After all, we can imagine a boy who’s made a couple of errors and struck out in his latest basetball game and is pressured to quit the team, but who decides to stick it out and prove the naysayers wrong. It’s his pride and self-esteem at stake, but that’s okay in this scenario. We would all admire the boy’s gumption.

But we should not be talking about Joe Biden’s well-being here, his gumption, or pride or self-esteem. It’s the country’s well-being that concerns us. According to recent news accounts, Joe Biden has no intention of dropping out, and he has the full backing of his family and closest advisers, all of whom seem to be urging him to “stay the course.” Our interest is not in making one man feel better about himself, but solely about what’s best for the country. Do we want Joe to do what’s best for Joe, or what’s best for the country?

Based on recent media reports, it’s Jill Biden, the rest of his family, and a close circle of advisers who are pushing hardest for Joe to stay in the race. If so, Jill Biden and the family are being incredibly small-minded. They’re worrying about Joe as if he were the kid who struck out three times and made two errors in a ball game - of course you’d tell such a child to shake it off and keep working on his game. But this is the presidency we’re talking about, the office, and who is best to hold it.

Biden’s advisers can’t be excused, either, though their motivation may be different than the family’s. They’re like touts who play the ponies, people who have placed their bets on Joe and feel they cannot change those bets without losing out on a personal level. For who among them will get the best appointments if Joe stays in and wins (but none if he drops out), or the best jobs with the media or on some university campus or at a think tank? Who will get the best book deals? All of these perks are at risk if Joe drops out of the race. If he stays in the race, well, he might win! Deliverance! For them, that is.

There are political reasons why Biden might not want to not seek re-election, of course. He risks being a “lame duck” president were he to drop out. Will it be harder to pass important legislation later this year than it is already, however? Worse, he’ll look like Lyndon Johnson, who was forced out of his re-election campaign during the Vietnam War in 1968 (and bizarrely proclaimed he wouldn’t “accept” the nomination if it were to come his way anyway).

This post is not political, but I must correct some misstatements I’ve heard about presidential succession recently. An “open convention” means it is only the delegates who get to determine who a replacement for Joe Biden on the November ticket might be. Neither Joe or Jill Biden, Biden insiders, or the Democratic National Committee get to say who might replace him on the ticket. Only the delegates get to do that. We are not in an autocracy or a monarchy – only those delegates selected in this spring’s primaries and in party conventions get to decide. That’s democracy in action and the rule of law. Anything else is another nail in the coffin of American democracy.