Mr Trump Second Term Thread

Bret Stephens: Michelle is right: Biden needs to get out. Now. But Democrats need to ask hard questions of themselves. Why did they ignore, or obfuscate, or deny, the plain evidence of the president’s decline?

Healy: I have wondered the same. Biden is good on a teleprompter, but we now have insight into what he’s like in private conversations and meetings. I realize this is based on just one debate, but Biden seems to have aged significantly in just the last nine months.

Stephens: Did he age significantly — or did too many Democrats just pretend not to notice, because it seemed uncouth to say the quiet part out loud and they felt that they had to support him as the nominee or else risk disuniting the party? And even if this aging is a more recent phenomenon, why did nobody in the party — a party elder like Chuck Schumer or Biden’s confidant Ted Kaufman — quietly urge him to make way for a younger candidate? Part of the answer, I’m sure, is that it takes a lot of nerve to say that to somebody as ornery and proud as Joe Biden. Another part, I think, is that they were afraid that Biden stepping aside inevitably meant Kamala Harris stepping up — and she may be an even worse bet for Democrats than her boss.