It’s no secret that Joe Biden has spent most of his adult life wanting to be President of the United States. After being elected to the Senate in 1972, it was only 8 short years before Biden — then just 37 years told — was seriously eyeing a presidential run. Although he ultimately didn’t run in 1980 or 1984, Biden finally pulled the trigger in 1988 and threw his hat into the ring against Democratic frontrunners Michael Dukakis and Jesse Jackson.
This was a disastrous mistake.
Ultimately, Jill got her way and Joe entered the 1988 race — only to be forced out after just 3 months following humiliating accusations of plagiarism and lying about his credentials. This video of an angry Biden lying about his law school accomplishments put the nail in the coffin of his campaign:
(Side note: I have met exactly zero smart people who brag about how smart they are.)
Biden finished the 1988 campaign with 2 delegates — just one more than he got in 1984, when he wasn’t even officially running. This humiliating defeat kept Biden out of national politics for two decades — but the ambitions of the Biden family couldn’t be contained forever:
Once again, Joe listened to his family (And why not? Most of them were campaign staff!) and jumped into the race against Hillary Clinton, John Edwards, and Barack Obama. In this race, Biden was humiliated once again, as his “clean and articulate” comment about Obama torpedoed any Joementum he had going into the election.
Biden finished 5th in Iowa and dropped from the race without winning a single delegate.
However, instead of spending the rest of his career as an unexceptional Senator from Delaware, Biden was tapped as Barack Obama’s VP in 2008, and served two terms in that position. (Not without some playful teasing.) Unsurprisingly, Biden’s new position was a windfall for the family members who encouraged him to join the race in the first place. (I’m sure that was just a coincidence.)
In 2020, Joe Biden finally grabbed the brass ring he’d been seeking his whole life. Sure, it took a pandemic (or “pandemic”, if you rather), the establishment Democratic candidates coordinating to defeat Bernie Sanders, and some………suspicious……..irregularities in the election, but Biden — after almost 50 years in government — ultimately ended up in the White House.
It’s gone about exactly as well as his previous presidential bids.
Rising inflation, escalating conflicts in Ukraine and the Gaza Strip, a wide-open border, and Biden’s obviously deteriorating condition contributed to his historic low approval rating of 36%. This ignited a Democratic party revolt that forced Biden to withdraw from the 2024 race. (Ironically, Biden’s approval rating is up 3% since.)
In a prepared speech ostensibly to explain his sudden change of heart, the President instead sounded like his campaign ads, listing off accomplishments (some of them dubious) and promising to do even more:
When I watched this speech, it hit me like a ton of bricks: Biden has finally realized this it for him, and he’s terrified about what his legacy will be. He’s still (technically) the President of the United States, but he’s already being ignored like a middle child. The media is in full-throated Kamala worship, and tying the ‘new’ candidate to the old, unpopular one is certainly a losing play. Instead of being the candidate at this month’s DNC, Biden is speaking on the first night of the convention — after which he will likely be shuffled off the stage for the rest of the election cycle (if not for good).
Biden has been dreaming of being President his entire life — about the historically awesome things he would do and how he would leave the country better off than when he arrived. Even he has to realize — as of now, at least — that’s not the case.
Biden’s desperation to leave a mark on the country has him promising outlandish stuff like “beating cancer” before he leaves office. (You may remember that promise from the 2022 State of the Union address. Or the 2023 version. Or the 2024 version.) It also has him proposing some truly terrifying measures that would cement his “legacy” but leave the country much worse off.
Up first his Biden’s proposal to ‘reform’ the Supreme Court by implementing term limits and a code of conduct. (You first, Congress!)
Biden has been attacking the Supreme Court basically his entire term, as they have repeatedly slapped down the President’s student loan shenanigans and the CDC’s eviction moratorium. (For ‘some’ reason, this doesn’t count as a dangerous attack on our most sacred democratic institutions.) Biden claims reform is necessary because people are losing faith in the Supreme Court — but he fails to mention exactly who it is that’s losing faith in the Supreme Court:
A curious media member might look at this and wonder “Why do Democrats not have faith in our Supreme Court? Is there some sort of catalyst for this major drop? Is the explanation perhaps some of that fiery rhetoric that we’re always condemning?”
That curious media member would be fired.
The newly hired media member would extol the brilliance of Kamala Harris agreeing with President Biden about all his proposals.
As seen in this statement from Harris, Biden also wants to reverse the Supreme Court’s recent ruling that Presidents have qualified immunity for official acts. (Just like all government officials.)
On that topic, I can only say — be careful what you wish for.
Biden’s desire to leave a legacy isn’t ALL bad, though. He did just coordinate a release of American prisoners held in Russia. (Negotiation with foreign governments, actually one of his jobs!) I haven’t looked TOO deeply into the issue, but this trade sure looks like it beats the pants off Britney Griner for the Lord of War.
As far as legacies go, this certainly beats starting WWIII:
Though even this Biden win couldn’t survive 20 seconds of unscripted Kamala Harris:
There’s a lot that you could say about Joe Biden and his legacy, but none of it would be talking about how amazing he is at diplomacy. Biden has undermined peace talks in Ukraine and continues to fund both sides of the war in Gaza. He constantly villainizes his political enemies and refuses to talk to his geopolitical ones.
But the line sounded good (granted a generous definitions of “good”) at the time, and that’s the only thing that matters to Kamala Harris. Unfortunately for Joe Biden, his political legacy is now firmly intertwined with her political future — and that’s bad for both of them. Maybe that’s why she’s so gung-ho about being unburdened by what has been…….
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I covered Biden in the 1988 Iowa caucus. He was a jerk. He's an old jerk now. Shed no tears for him. He got kicked to the curb like the apparatchik he is.
My deepest fear is that Harris wins. Though I am not a fan of Trump, I want him to win by a landslide. I want him to win with no chance of him having to wait for votes to be counted, delegates to be confused. I know this means cities will burn, and there are those who would happily start the fire. I know a recession is coming, big wars, inflation kicking in even more horrendous than we have now. There is an undercurrent of something else though, it is foreign, and unknown to me. I can not put my finger on it, but it is bad, very bad like a Stephen King kind of bad.
In my humble opinion. This will happen even if Trump loses. There is no way to stop what is coming down the pike. It’s just with Trump in power, I have a sliver of hope that we make it out. Sorry to be so negative and a downer. This is not what I want for any of us.