There’s no sugarcoating what happened. Pushed out of the race by his own party and mostly out of sight since he withdrew his candidacy, President Biden in the eyes of some is a tragic figure. But that’s not the case. His poll rating has risen 10 points, to 46 percent.
History unfolds in mysterious ways and Biden has the chance to be a more consequential president for the remainder of his term than if he’d stayed in the race.
When he appears with Kamala Harris in Prince George’s County, Maryland, on Thursday, he will get a hero’s welcome. His chosen successor is blowing up the race in a good way. And by validating Biden’s judgment, he confers the legitimacy of his brand of moderate, get-things-done politics on her, a legitimacy it would otherwise be impossible for her to achieve without his stature backing her.
ADVERTISEMENT
The Russian hostages’ release early this month is a testimony to Biden’s strength of knowledge and his personal contacts across the globe. The complex deal freed 16 political prisoners and required the engagement of seven countries. Biden said he asked the leaders of Germany and Slovenia to do things that were against their interests. Harris stood with Biden on the airport tarmac to greet the returnees.
The relationship between a president and vice president is always complicated, and no one knows that better than Biden, who served two terms with Barack Obama. A late-night greeting of released prisoners that Biden had worked on for the better part of a year is not an occasion that he would normally share with his vice president. Yet she was there to share in the accolades. “Biden is including her in the good news, he obviously wants her to win,” says Jack Pitney, professor of American politics at Claremont McKenna College. “He was reluctant to step down, but he’s committed to not see Trump win.”
“We’ll see her more, maybe something good happens in Ukraine, and he’ll make her part of that,” Pitney continued. “As an eight-year vice president himself, he knows better than anyone what that position entails. Part of him must wish he was running, but a desire to beat Trump overwhelms everything.”
This is an election driven more by personal attributes, likability, charisma, and which campaign puts on a better show. Biden’s name won’t be on the ballot, but his high regard for public service is conferred upon his protégé. After a long drought, Democrats are back in the game with Harris on top, an outcome the Trump campaign should have foreseen.
Republicans pushed the idea for so long that Biden was a puppet, someone else was pulling the strings, Harris, they mischievously suggested. Now she’s riding high in large part because of Biden’s “Scranton Joe” trustability—the faith he put in her and his seamless transfer of the power of candidacy to her. He owes her—and she owes him.
“It wouldn’t be surprising if Biden had hard feelings about this. He was pushed out. But he’s being very Big Boy about this,” Republican pollster Greg Strimple told the Daily Beast. “It’s a big plus for her that she was there for the (Russian prisoners) release. Right now, she’s doing well, she’s new, she’s fresh, she’s not Biden or Trump. If he (Trump) wants to win the race, he’s got to get back on the issues – inflation and the border are a big problem for her.”
Republicans believe a more disciplined Trump could make the case against Harris if he sticks to the issues. They don’t necessarily mean policy positions. It’s more about scaring voters.
Joe Biden and Kamala Harris raise their hands as they stand on a White House balcony with first lady Jill Biden and second gentleman Doug Emhoff during an Independence Day celebration in Washington, U.S., July 4, 2024.
Elizabeth Frantz/ReutersThere’s a reason why Trump’s attacks on Harris as an out-of-control liberal are not working. There’s not much daylight between her and Biden on issues. The economic proposals she is introducing will reflect how much she strays from the Biden agenda, and whether she has any new proposals of her own. Stealing Trump’s idea to abolish the tax on tips is a smart political move designed to rankle him.
She can pair it legislatively with a rise in the federal minimum wage, which at $7.25 an hour is a shameful testimony to the inability of Congress to function. Almost two-thirds of tipped workers don’t earn enough to even pay federal income tax.
Harris is expected to back standard Democratic ideas like universal preschool, expanding the earned income tax credit, and a big boost in the child tax credit. But there could be some surprises.
“Tim Walz is the first Democrat on a national ticket to know the price of soybeans since Jimmy Carter,” says Jim Kessler with Third Way, the centrist progressive group. “We should see a rural economic agenda that doesn’t look like it was dreamed up in a suburban focus group.”
The Trump campaign calls Harris a chameleon because she’s changed her views. Well, yes, she’s not running to be president of California. She’s running to represent all the people and the old tricks of politics to trap people into positions they’d rather not hold may not have the power it once had. “I voted for the $87 billion before I voted against it,” John Kerry said, an inartful statement about money for the reconstruction of Iraq for which he was pilloried.
Voting on both sides as legislation winds its way through a long process is a common malady in Congress. Harris wasn’t in the Senate long enough to have a record that can’t bear up under scrutiny. But in politics, there’s always something. For Biden, he’s freed of all that now. His character stands strong. His legacy could be the end of Trump if only by denying the former president the retribution he seeks against the man who beat him in the election he claims to have never lost.
