Good leaders know when to step aside
EDITOR'S NOTE
US President Donald Trump and former president Joe Biden during last year's election campaign before he finally bowed out with just over a hundred days left before the historic polls. Picture: Sergio FLORES and Brendan Smialowski / AFP
Image: Picture: Sergio FLORES and Brendan Smialowski / AFP
The man who bequeathed Donald Trump 2.0 to America and the world has spoken out for the first time since he left the White House.
Yes, that one. That sometimes “addled old man” – a description used by a couple of CNN journalists – who wanted to run again for president when he was simply a bit too long in the tooth.
Joe Biden was a great leader and president, but he destroyed everything when he overstayed in politics. It was painful to watch him during his last cringeworthy election campaign, watching him stumble over his words, etc.
Biden initially did a splendid job wrestling the Oval Office and the nuclear codes away from Trump 1.0, before overstaying and clinging to the Democrats’ baton for too long.
He should have thought then of the welfare of his followers as well as ordinary citizens of the world who value democracy, peace and stability. Instead, he gambled away and insisted on running for a second term when he had reached his best-before date. Or was he propped up by some around him with their own egos and private agendas?
Biden will go down in history as the last decent president before Trump’s nightmarish return, the last “leader of the free world” as some call the US-Europe-led global order.
This week it became clear that the old man is still his old stubborn self. He still doesn’t think he made a mistake by not bowing out of the presidential race earlier.
"I don't think it would have mattered," he said in an interview with the BBC’s Nick Robinson in his first interview after leaving office ignominiously, having to hand the keys to Trump.
Surely poor Harris – or any other candidate taking on Trump - would have benefitted from more time and other resources than the 107 days she had left before the elections when Biden finally bowed out?
At 82, Biden wouldn’t have qualified for the papal conclave elections where the cut off is 80, but – numerically speaking – he isn’t too old to be president. He simply didn’t age very well and simply overstayed, costing his party, his country and the “free world” dearly.