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When a President Drops Out: What Biden Can Learn from 1968 Bari Weiss
On our nation’s 248th birthday, Joe Biden faces the wrath of a thousand pundits. The whole world watched the elected leader of the world’s oldest republic befogged, slack-jawed, and mentally vacant in a debate he had to win. A recent poll from CBS showed that after Biden’s performance last week, 72 percent of registered voters believed the man lacked the cognitive ability to be president.
Even his closest friends and sycophants are pleading for the old man to hang it up. The New York Times editorial board. Former advisers to Barack Obama. Columnist and Biden’s personal friend, Tom Friedman, said he wept in a hotel room in Portugal while watching the debate. They’ve seen enough. Joe Biden, for the good of your country, step down.
And yet, Biden’s White House is shrugging it off. It was just a debate, they tell us. Don’t let 90 minutes define years of accomplishments.
But it was not just a debate. It was indelible and undeniable proof that the leader of the free world lacks the stamina and acuity to do the job for four more months, let alone four more years.
As Biden weighs his decision, he may well think back to when he was a young man and then-president Lyndon Baines Johnson found himself in a similar position. Johnson was losing the country, and in the middle of the primary he decided to bow out.
Today, Free Press writer Eli Lake hosts a special episode about what happened in 1968 when President Johnson decided he was not fit for reapplying for his job. He listened to his critics and backed away from the White House, allowing the Democrats an opportunity to stage an open convention to choose their next candidate for the presidency. But why did the party want him gone so badly? And how did this seismic decision work out? It’s a tale of murder, war, and riots that culminated in the most explosive convention in the history of America.
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Things Worth Remembering: The Last Word on Vivien Leigh Douglas Murray
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Welcome to Douglas Murray’s column Things Worth Remembering, in which he presents great speeches from famous orators we should commit to heart. To listen to Douglas read from John Gielgud’s homage to Vivien Leigh, scroll to the end of this piece.
Of all the forms of public speaking, there is only one that I actually dread: the eulogy. I have had to give a speech at the funeral of someone very close to me only on a few occasions. But I would rank each as among the hardest things I’ve ever had to do.
I’m sure many readers have had to perform this task, and you will remember how, in the days or weeks before the eulogy is given, it consumes every moment of your thoughts. It seems impossible to do justice to the person’s life and say something that consoles the living while making sure you don’t break down into a big, slobbering, tearful mess.
To get through a eulogy you have to make sure you simultaneously show emotion without letting it overwhelm you. Many eulogists crack in the last sentence—think of Earl Spencer at the funeral of his sister, Princess Diana. You keep your grief in check, but when you see the end of the speech coming, for a moment you risk letting it all out.
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July 6, 2024 Heather Cox Richardson
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Happy July 4 weekend, from my home to yours.
Going to sleep for a week. (A nice thought, but actually will be back at it tomorrow.)
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July 5, 2024 Heather Cox Richardson
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