David Arbeitman: President Biden — Thank you for your service but please step aside

President Joe Biden has accomplished much in the 3½ years that he’s been in office including: addressing the climate crisis, expanding the Affordable Care Act, bringing down unemployment, caring for our veterans, and fighting for reproductive rights, social justice and civil liberties. He declares that he is running for president for another term in office in order to prevent Donald Trump from regaining the levers of power.

Given Joe’s disastrous debate performance, the only way that Mr. Biden could prevent an aspiring dictator to have another four years in the oval office is to step aside and encourage Gov. Gretchen Whitmer or Gov. Gavin Newsom or another younger dynamic Democrat to compete in the November election. In all fairness, Biden had a cold, which made his voice hoarse and weak and no doubt affected his energy level. It is difficult to counter the onslaught of lies that were spewed by Mr. Trump during the debate; CNN failed to provide instant real-time fact checking that would have exposed those lies.

Nonetheless, Biden’s halting performance, his gaffes, and his being on the defensive (and looking down for almost the entire debate), allowed him to be steam-rolled by a more aggressive (and pathologically grandiose) opponent. Biden’s hesitations and misspeaking did nothing to assure voters about his ability to be this nation’s leader for another four years. One doesn’t need to be a good debater to be a good chief executive, but perceptions do matter. Biden’s chances of winning the presidential election this November are much diminished and the prospect of four more years of a Trump presidency should strike fear into anybody who cares about our democracy.

Democratic Party leaders need to sit down with President Biden and confront him with this reality. Trump has high unfavorability ratings; ironically, the only Democrat he could probably beat is Biden. The noble and patriotic thing for President Biden to do would be to release his delegates and allow for an open Democratic Party convention in August, enabling the nomination of a younger viable politician who would, in all likelihood, be able to defeat Trump. I thank President Biden for his five decades of public service, but it is time to step aside.

David Arbeitman

Florence