Joe Biden has bowed to the inevitable, and abandoned his attempt at re-election. It was a decision that should have been made four years ago in his first election campaign.
Even back then in 2020, there were clear concerns about the Democratic nominee’s age and health. But the Democratic party, with the active connivance of sections of the US media, worked overtime to cast any such concerns as nothing more than Republican slurs, and Mr Biden won the election.
Questions about his health, however, never quite went away. Clips of the President stumbling, misspeaking or appearing visibly confused continued to circulate for the duration of his term, in each case defused by helpful allies across the press, dismissed as “cheapfakes” or labelled “misinformation”.
When the change came, it came swiftly. When questions came one or two at a time from partisan sources, they could, with effort, be dismissed. When it became common knowledge that people of all persuasions could see that something was not quite right, they started to come thick and fast from all sides at once.
The shift in the public perception of Mr Biden’s mental state appears to have resulted in something close to absolute panic within the power structures of Democratic politics. It is possible to deny something that everyone knows, so long as you can maintain the idea that other people haven’t noticed, and punish those who speak out of line.
But this requires a coordination mechanism, and in this case, that appears to have been the idea that Mr Biden represented the best chance of maintaining Democratic control of the White House. The moment that wavered, the message discipline went with it, with a sudden burst of briefing about the President’s health released to Left-leaning organisations which had previously maintained the party line that there was “nothing to see here”.
The price for winning power with what looks, to the outside, like a deliberate strategy of deception is now being paid. The Democratic party has a little over 100 days to find a new nominee, install them, sort out their campaign financing, make their case to the American people – and seek forgiveness for the last four years.
After all, there is a considerable degree of explaining left to do. If Mr Biden was only “dependably engaged” for six hours of the day, what was the decision making process in the White House like outside of these hours? Who was guiding the President’s hand during the hours when he needed greater assistance to function? If the Commander in Chief loses his train of thought and is unable to “pick it up again”, who brings him round to a conclusion?