There’s a great passage in Richard Ben Cramer’s What It Takes—which covers the 1988 presidential race and remains one of the great books on American politics—in which Joe Biden’s advisors desperately attempt to convince him not to buy a million-dollar house (which he can’t actually afford) on the eve of his first run at the White House.
Two things stand out in retrospect. First, one glimpses the same obstreperousness that since led him to hold onto his present office, in spite of his diminished faculties, and to commit to running for re-election against the advice of many around him before unexpectedly dropping out last weekend under what remain obscure circumstances.
Second, it presents a memorable picture of a man who could steamroll real estate agents and talk his staffers into exhaustion—a picture that his administration, in conjunction with a friendly media establishment were at pains to efface, given how strongly it contrasted with the present reality. That reality became inescapably obvious following Biden’s disastrous debate last month against Donald Trump. Up to that point, they emphasized his history of stuttering and downplayed his recent public reticence. Of course, the narrative that he had always been a shy or impaired public speaker was convincing mainly to those with no recollection of the man in his prime (see him here in full fettle).
Answering the call
The truth is that late in life, Biden was pressed into service under highly specific circumstances—namely, the fact that he was seen as the candidate with the widest appeal at a time when the Democratic Party’s had two overriding imperatives: blocking Bernie Sanders’ rise and denying Donald Trump’s re-election.
A similar dynamic is now at work with Biden’s vice president and apparent successor, Kamala Harris. For, the Harris candidacy’s raison d’être has less to do with her own virtues and more with the necessity of defeating Trump, given the short runway remaining. It should not be controversial to note that Kamala is not an inherently inspiring candidate. Her political record is not marked by any great accomplishments, and seemingly no one regards her tenure as V.P. as particularly successful. Outside of a limited and highly online contingent of superfans, she commands something less than widespread public loyalty, and her public speeches are known to rely upon repeated phrases that can sound like verbal tics.
