Biden’s valedictory

 It was a brutal, though benignly couched rite of passage at the Democratic National Convention (DNC) in the United States, last week. President Joe Biden was cheered off into history by an adulatory crowd at an event where he could well have delivered an oration at his own funeral. He had strongly pushed to stay on, and had the imprimatur of the party’s primary elections to lead Democrats into battle against former President Donald Trump of the Republican Party in the forthcoming national polls in that country. But his hands were forced by his party to pull his re-election bid, and he was at the convention in Chicago formally passing the torch to Vice-President Kamala Harris. Politics is glamourous, but it can also be cruel. 

Until he folded his campaign about a month earlier, 81-year-old Biden was his party’s presumptive nominee and had looked forward to delivering the keynote on the final night of the 2024 convention after he would have formally accepted the presidential nomination. In Chicago last week, however, he was the major act on the opening night because he had to cede the keynote spot to Harris. The ironic twist did not escape the president’s old foe, Trump, who posted on his social media handle that Democrats were “throwing him (Biden) out on the Monday night stage.”  Trump, of course, overstated things out of excessive partisan animus. But the role switch at DNC 2024 illustrated the merciless nature of politics and, as anyone with an ageing relative knows, the mercilessness of time by which tomorrow’s star fades off into yesterday’s man. Following his disastrous outing at a presidential debate last June with Trump, Democrats feared Biden was leading them to sure defeat in the November polls and party stalwarts overrode the primaries by which he earned re-nomination and pressured him to give way to someone else, which he did by endorsing Harris for the race mid-July.

That act of self-sacrifice booked the octogenarian president a luminous spot, not just in the Democratic Party but in America’s political history. When he was at the top of the party’s ticket, his advanced age and suspected cognitive decline constituted a lightning rod that Trump and his Republican fold used to outpace him in the presidential race and edge towards a sweeping victory in the 5th November elections. But the snap substitution of Biden with Harris recalibrated the race and turned the tables on the Grand Old Party (GOP). Harris has succeeded in  redirecting the mood of Democrats from despondent anticipation of defeat to an energised pursuit of victory and she looks well on course to beat Trump to the finishing line. The drastic transformation of the race naturally won the president the gratitude of most Democrats, particularly for his instrumental role in picking a winning replacement. But it didn’t change the harsh undercurrent that he himself had been turned down and his hard-earned prize passed on to a substitute.

Biden’s address at the Chicago convention marked a wistful bookend to a political career spanning more than 50 years. It also offered useful lessons in the stewardship of power. In the nearly hour-long speech, he recalled a verse from a song known as the “American Anthem” that he said held special meaning for his family: “What shall our legacy be, what will our children say, let me know in my heart when my days are through. America, America, I gave my best to you,” he said. 

And he has an impressive career record on which basis he could make that claim. His political life began in 1972 when he burst into the spotlight as a youthful and energetic 29-year-old running for the US Senate, and getting elected. While serving as senator, he ran unsuccessfully for Democratic nomination for the president twice – in 1988 and 2008. Whereas the nomination eluded him again in 2008, he got tapped by Barack Obama that year to pair with him as running mate on his historic ticket. Under Obama he served two terms as vice-president, during which time he used his legislative experience to facilitate strategic deals with Congress. Despite having been vice-president, however, he was passed over by Democrats in 2016 to hand ex-First Lady and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton their nomination to stand against Trump, who at the time was having his first outing leading the Republican ticket. Trump defeated Clinton in that poll by electoral college vote count that is crucial for victory in the US electoral system, even though Clinton won the popular vote. Biden returned in 2020 to pick the Democratic nomination, went on to defeat Trump and become president. “Nowhere else in the world could a kid with a stutter and modest beginnings in Scranton, Pennsylvania, and Claymont, Delaware, grow up to sit behind the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office,” he said in his DNC 2024 address.

“As a one-term president, Biden didn’t attain the fulfilment he desired from his long political career”

Biden was heralded onto the stage in Chicago with more than four minutes of standing ovation by the party crowd who were far warmer to him as outgoing president than they had been when he stomped the hustings in his re-election drive. The president walked to the lectern smiling, pointed at no one in particular, looked pensive, smiled again and dabbed his face with a handkerchief. He appeared to wipe tears away as he hugged his daughter, Ashley, who had just introduced him on the heels of remarks by First Lady Jill Biden. The crowd cheered and chanted “We love Joe” and “Thank you, Joe” before he began his address. “I love you!” he shouted back, perhaps knowing there won’t be another night like this for him. Among those holding tall narrow signs adulating the president was ex-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who is reputed as America’s most influential Democrat and is famously believed to have pulled the brakes on Biden and bluntly told him his time was up.

Analysts touted the DNC 2024 platform as Biden’s last chance to articulate a case for his legacy after being forced off the helm, and he seemed fully apprised of that historic import of the moment. In sharpened rhetoric that sublimely contrasted with his doddering performance in the June debate with Trump, he recounted the accomplishments of his administration, explained why he ran for president in 2020, canvassed the candidacy of his favoured successor, Harris, and took serial aims at the Republican torchbearer like one firing on fours. At 81 years, he was often reported to be the oldest president in America’s history. But he summed up his political career in a striking one-liner: too young to get started and too old to stay on. “For 50 years… I’ve given my heart and soul to our nation; and I’ve been blessed a million times in return with the support of the American people,” he said, adding: “I’ve either been too young to be in the Senate because I wasn’t 30 yet (or) too old to stay as President. But I hope you know how grateful I am to all of you.” 

The president seized the occasion to address the elephant in the room, telling the convention crowd he harboured no grudge against party wigs who publicly and privately pressed him to drop out of the 2024 race. “And all this talk about how I’m angry with all those people who said I should step down – that’s not true,” he said as the crowd chanted “We love Joe,” to which he responded: “I love my country more, and we need to preserve our democracy.” He used a large part of his address to sell Harris, describing her as “a president we can all be proud of” and crediting her with many of his administration’s achievements. On the other hand, he labelled Trump a loser who puts “himself first and America last,” reprising the ex-president’s ‘America first’ mantra. He took particular aim at Trump’s frequent assertion that the US is in decline: “He says, we’re losing. He’s the loser. He’s dead wrong.”

Harris made a surprise appearance on stage after the president concluded his speech. “I love you,” she could be seen saying as she hugged the president, who himself hugged Harris’s husband, Doug Emhoff, before welcoming his own children and grandchildren onto the stage while the convention crowd gave him an emotional standing ovation. The atmosphere was evidently electric with affection. But as a one-term president, Biden didn’t attain the fulfilment he desired from his long political career. He ought to have headlined the 2024 convention, but as the last cheers faded on the first day, he was on his way back to Air Force One for a flight through the night to California for vacation. He was neither seen nor heard from the rest of the week. He’ll be president until January 2025, but his time has passed.