Like Washington’s Farewell Address, Biden’s speech would mark an extraordinary moment where a white-haired man stepped away from power for the good of the country. This patriotic speech would be studied in civics classes (you know, if U.S. schools still had civics classes.)
Biden could use the platform to reiterate the enormous threat to democracy posed by Day One Dictator Donald Trump and tear into the latest politically-motivated decrees from the John Roberts Six. Biden could speak to the accomplishments of his administration which include lowering unemployment rates, transitioning to green energy, and passing an actual infrastructure bill.
Finally, the speech is a perfect opportunity to restate the stakes of 2024, laying out the clear choice between the progress and safety offered by Democrats versus the cruelty and retribution promised by Trump.
It’s a big task, but The Daily Beast believes any of these seven writers would be up to it.
1.Nikki Glaser. Glaser was the breakout star of the recent Tom Brady roast and could supply Biden with devastating lines, like when she summed up Trump with, “…at least we now know the answer to the question, what if a bloated factory-farm pig corpse could grab your pussy?”
2. Jon Meacham. Pulitzer-Prize winning historian Meacham has written drafts of major Biden speeches and could capture the sweeping historical moment. He could crib from his 2018 bestseller The Soul of America: The Battle for Our Better Angels and passages like: “Fear feeds anxiety and produces anger; hope, particularly in a political sense, breeds optimism and feelings of well-being. Fear is about limits; hope is about growth. Fear casts its eyes warily, even shiftily, across the landscape; hope looks forward, toward the horizon… Fear divides; hope unifies.”
3. Alexandra Petri. Petri is a master of subtle sarcasm. In a recent column for The Washington Post, she channeled the Supreme Court justices ruminating on Monday’s ruling on presidential immunity: “‘Won’t this lead to overreach?’ you might wonder. But we have anticipated this! We are not providing the new executive with absolute immunity for all acts, but rather official acts only. And it is very easy to distinguish between official and unofficial acts! Official acts are acts that you do as president-king of the United States.”
4. Sherrilyn Ifill. Who better to state the stakes of this election…..