Perspective from the 19^th Hole is the title I chose for my personal blog, which is meant to give me an outlet for one of my favorite crafts – writing – plus to use an image from my favorite sport, golf.  Out of college, my first job was as a reporter for the Daily Astorian in Astoria, Oregon, and I went on from there to practice writing in all my professional positions, including as press secretary in Washington, D.C. for a Democrat Congressman from Oregon (Les AuCoin), as an Oregon state government manager in Salem and Portland, as press secretary for Oregon’s last Republican governor (Vic Atiyeh), and as a private sector lobbyist.  This blog also allows me to link another favorite pastime – politics and the art of developing public policy – to what I write.  I could have called this blog “Middle Ground,” for that is what I long for in both politics and golf.  The middle ground is often where the best public policy decisions lie.  And it is where you want to be on a golf course.

New York Times editorial writers got it right yesterday when they said:

“The Democrat Party Must Speak the Plain Truth to the President.”

By plain truth, the writers indicated that they thought President Biden should get out of the race for the good of the country.

Though my position won’t matter one whit, it’s the same:  It is time for Biden to exit the office in what I would call an act of statesmanship if he were to do it.

Truth be told, if he runs, I will vote for him because I refuse to vote for Donald Trump for anything.  But, however I vote, I think Biden will lose. 

Here is how the NY Times editorial began:

“For voters who held out hope that President Biden’s failure to communicate during last month’s debate was an aberration, the intervening days have offered little comfort.

“Donald Trump’s candidacy for a second term poses a grave threat to American democracy.  Biden, instead of campaigning vigorously to disprove doubts and demonstrate that he can beat Trump, has maintained a scripted and controlled schedule of public appearances.

“He has largely avoided taking questions from voters or journalists — the kinds of interactions that reveal his limitations and caused him so much trouble on the debate stage.  And when he has cast aside his teleprompter, most notably during a 22-minute interview with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos on Friday, he has continued to appear as a man in decline.”

The Times put it very forcefully:

“The president, elected in 2020 as an antidote to Trump’s malfeasance and mendacity, is now trying to defy reality.”

So, the Times joins other credible journalism outfits – the Washington Post, for one – in advocating that Biden step aside.

Further, he list of Biden failures is growing, no matter what he tries to do each day.

As the Times analyses the situation:

“Since his feeble debate performance, multiple polls have shown that both Biden’s approval rating and his chance of beating Trump have markedly dropped from their already shaky levels.

“In response, he has adopted a favorite theme of the floundering politician, insisting that the polls are wrong in showing that his presidency is historically unpopular.  Even if the polls were off by historic amounts, they would still show overwhelming skepticism about his fitness.”

Biden has denied that age is diminishing his abilities, not even bringing up the subject in a lengthy letter to congressional Democrats.  In that letter, The Times added, “he insisted that he is the candidate best equipped to defeat Trump in November — thereby dismissing the potential candidacy of Vice President Kamala Harris or any other younger, more vigorous Democrat, and in effect asking the American people to trust him instead of their own lying eyes.”

The Times posits that those who lead the Democrat party should meet with Biden “as one group” and demand that he resign.

My sense is that such a ploy won’t work.  It will just solidify Biden’s intent to stay in office.

I think the only person who can convince Biden to step down is his wife, Jill. So far, she has been leading charge to convince him to stay.

I’ll give columnist William Galston from the Wall Street Journal the last word this morning.

“It’s not hard to understand why Biden is resisting leaving. He sought the presidency for more than three decades before finally attaining it.  Giving it up would be hard for any president, let alone one with his history.  

“It would also mean accepting a reality that no one his age wants to face — that he’s no longer capable of doing the job he loves.  He’s proud of his record, but what matters most is the next four years, not the past four.

“For the good of the country, those Joe Biden trusts most must persuade him to look squarely at the evidence — the medical indications and the political facts.

“The point of the debate with Donald Trump was to dispel doubts about the president’s fitness to serve and turn public opinion against his opponent.  The reverse happened.  Trump gets to stand on the sidelines while the public watches the president and his party flail.”