Why Biden Didn’t Resign

A lot of us wondered why President Biden stayed on, after stepping down as a candidate for reelection, this summer.

By conventional thinking, he would’ve been giving Vice President Harris the boost of incumbency’s prestige, not to mention making history with the first woman president.

The last several weeks have made clear the strategy of not handing the baton before the election.

While it’s clear that Joe Biden’s physical and mental decline is avalanching drastically, it’s also clear that Kamala Harris doesn’t want to inherit his record. Nor his responsibilities. Instead of promising “Day One” solutions and initiatives, “day one” would be right now.  Performance right now, not promises for January.

There’d be no lofty talk about “turning the page” or a “fresh start”. Newly-sworn in VPs-turned-president must humbly ask for the help and continued service of their predecessor’s cabinet. It’s expected that they will dedicate themselves to the work unfinished.

If Lyndon Johnson and Gerald Ford, both canny legislative veterans with no great connection to their former bosses, had to do this, Kamala Harris would.

And, she doesn’t want to.

She couldn’t skip news conferences, either. It would be incumbent (pardon the pun) to start talking in detail about things she is unable to converse about, and therefore avoids, right now. There is no way she’s hiding some capability to talk inflation, the Middle East, energy, Helene relief, etc., etc. Take your pick: she either can’t talk with facility about these areas, and/or can’t reveal how extreme left she is.

The strategy is to run out the clock without people finding out, although they are finding out.

So…

We don’t have a president in Joe Biden anymore. He’s left the building.

We do have a 25th Amendment, intended for the very circumstances we are in.

The plain, strange truth is that making Harris president now would hurt her being elected president.