THANKS SO MUCH JOE!!

 In the past two weeks we've seen a failed assassination attempt made against Donald Trump and a Republican convention that degenerated into a cult fest around him.  In a truly surreal convention moment, former wrestler Hulk Hogan gave a speech that saw him ripping his shirt, and Trump, a convicted felon, fraud and adjudicated rapist, was introduced by Dana White, the president of Ultimate Fighting who was once caught slapping his wife on video.  So much for unity...

And now, our insane political environment just got a new wrinkle:  President Joe Biden has officially dropped out of the race.  In a way, this isn't a  big surprise: Biden's performance at the presidential debate on June 27th was painful to watch.  Although he and his staff have tried to salvage his campaign ever since, he just wasn't able to turn around that debate.  Going into it most Americans already thought that he was too old to run, and, sadly, that was just how he looked.

Along with dropping out, he has also endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris to be the party's nominee, which goes a long way towards locking it up for her.  Any other candidate would not be able to access the money that Biden has raised, and as VP Harris is the logical choice.  Plus, passing up the first Black female VP for someone else would be a bad look for the party, especially given that Black women have long been some of the most faithful Democratic voters.

Is Harris a perfect candidate?  No, she had some staffing issues early in her tenure, and has given some weak interviews.  She also may inherit the bad feelings that many voters have (rightly or wrongly) about the Biden years.  But on the plus side, she's been giving very strong speeches about abortion after the overturning of Roe Vs Wade, she's a former prosecutor, which makes her taking on a convicted felon like Trump logical, and she's grown into the office of Vice Presidency well after a rocky start.

Now that Biden's tenure will soon be in the rearview window, let's take a look at how he did: personally, I think he was a great president, perhaps better than Barack Obama because his lengthy time in congress made him better at getting his priorities passed.  And pass them he did: first there was a stimulus bill, then  the infrastructure bill, the microchips bill and perhaps best of all, the Inflation Reduction act, which went further in fighting against climate change than any action taken by any past president (which in some ways says more about our broken political system than it does Biden!).  Biden will also be remembered as  first president to put a Black woman (Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson) on the supreme court.  

One of the most frustrating aspects of his presidency has been that the public has given him low ratings on the economy and violent crime.  The reality is, unemployment is the lowest its been since the 60's, we managed to get through a pandemic recovery without lapsing into a recession, and violent crime has plummeted in the past few years.  Inflation, brought on by a number of factors (the pandemic, Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine) has been his Achilles' heel, with prices in 2022 spiking more than they had in 40 years, but raised interest rates have brought inflation down (although raised rates bring their own set of problems!).  Still, on the economy I would give him good marks in dealing with the tough hand that Trump (and the pandemic) dealt him.

Really, my biggest problem with Biden's presidency is that it has taken him so long to finally step down.  In a perfect world, he would have pledged to be a one term president four years ago instead of finally stepping down after much pressure a mere four months before the election.  And it appears that the people around Biden were hiding his age issues, possibly for years, before he finally crumpled during the debate.

Still, overall Biden's been an effective president who can now bow out gracefully.  Whoever the Democrats nominate, be it Harris or someone else, I will vote for enthusiastically.  Anyone but Trump!