Editorial
To deserved
applause, the president bowed out at the start of a pivotal week in Chicago.
Now it is time to write the story of America’s future
Mon 19 Aug
2024 23.00 EDT
Amonth ago,
Joe Biden and his aides were beginning to draft a closing speech with which, on
Thursday, he would top off this week’s Democratic convention in Chicago. The
speech would seal Mr Biden’s bid for a second White House term and send his
party out to do battle with Donald Trump in November. Instead, on Monday, Mr
Biden did not deliver the convention’s closing address. He delivered his own.
Mr Biden’s
convention speech is one of his last big moments in the political spotlight,
and the start of his withdrawal from the US political field after half a
century. From today, the Democratic party belongs to Kamala Harris. It is she
who matters now. For the next few days, Mr Biden will not be in Chicago or on
the campaign trail, but on holiday.
If Mr Biden
had not withdrawn from the race, as he did last month, Democrats would
undoubtedly have greeted him in Chicago with enthusiasm. But the misgivings
about his age, his grasp and his ability to serve four years would never have
been far away, not least in the media coverage. Nor would the growing and
gut-wrenching expectation of defeat in November’s general election, a defeat
that could change the United States – and the world – for ever, in irreparable
ways.
By stepping
down, Mr Biden has turned that situation around, at least for now. Ms Harris
has moved smoothly into the campaign driving seat. The party has quickly united
behind her and Governor Tim Walz. They have been rewarded with a huge influx of
cash and a Democratic poll uptick, both nationally and in swing states.
Down-ballot Democrats are relieved too. Mr Trump still seems nonplussed.
Expectations of a Democratic defeat have been replaced by expectations of a
competitive contest that is winnable once again.
All of this
will have assured Mr Biden of a hero’s welcome in the appropriately named
United Center on Monday night. The cheering comes from the party’s heart, and
it is overwhelmingly deserved, the more so because it involved Mr Biden doing
something he manifestly did not want to do. But he did the right thing. He
deserves the plaudits.
It will,
however, be Ms Harris, more than Mr Biden, who defines the convention. Both
have rightly made Mr Trump’s unquestionable threat to democracy and liberty the
centre of their pitches. But the other key question for the week is how well Ms
Harris positions herself as the candidate of change as well as continuity.
Mr Biden,
showcasing his achievements as he passes the baton to Ms Harris, implicitly
casts her as the latter. Her own task, while embracing the Biden
administration’s record, is to turn the page and become the former. The
argument about Gaza, which is dominating Chicago streets as the convention
starts, is the most emotive issue where this matters, but it is not the only
one. A truncated campaign means Ms Harris arrived in Chicago with enthusiastic
backing, but still without a domestic policy manifesto on her campaign website.
Mr Biden has
been a pivotal figure in the divisive 21st-century politics that emerged out of
the Reagan era, 9/11, the banking crash, the rise of China and Black Lives
Matter. He is also the man who saved his country once, by standing against Mr
Trump in 2020, and may perhaps have done it again, by not standing against him
four years later. As he leaves the stage, the US – and the world – should
salute him. Ms Harris, however, must use this week to speak to America’s future
too.
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