Adam Cancryn and Jonathan Lemire reporting for POLITICO (“Biden heads to Chicago for a hero’s goodbye“):
This is not the Democratic convention that President Joe Biden envisioned just a month ago.
Stepping onto the stage in Chicago was supposed to be the capstone of a half-century electoral career, a triumphant recognition of his prolific first term and hard-earned validation of the belief that he alone could once again defeat former President Donald Trump.
But a week that Biden once saw as his political pinnacle will now last just a few hours, overtaken by an extraordinary series of events that has reenergized the president’s party at the expense of his own ambitions. The deafening roars Biden receives at the United Center Monday night will communicate just as much relief as reverence from a party grateful he’s stepped away, further signaling that Biden’s exit from the race is the only reason Democrats are confident they have a shot to win in November.
And when Vice President Kamala Harris delivers her acceptance speech later this week, Biden will already have been out of sight and out of mind, on vacation far from the celebration.
“He’s going to get an incredible reception,” Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-Mich.), a staunch Biden ally, said ahead of his convention-opening speech Monday that will now effectively double as the president’s pass-the-torch moment. “But I’m sure it’s very complicated. I know it’s very complicated.”
Complicated, indeed. By most accounts, he’s still angry and resentful that Nancy Pelosi and other leaders of his party rallied to push him out. But, reluctant as it was, his stepping down was after having secured the nomination was unprecedented and has energized a party in a deep malaise. He’ll rightly get a hero’s welcome.
The revamped convention now set to dominate the political landscape for the next four days will mirror the shifting dynamics of a Democratic Party trying to celebrate Biden’s tenure — while also eagerly preparing to move past it.
The week’s programming will be infused with talk of Biden’s accomplishments, even as they’re carefully rebranded as joint achievements with Harris, aides familiar with the planning said.
Officials want Monday, in particular, to remind Americans of the reeling, pandemic-plagued nation that Biden inherited three-and-a-half years ago and the progress he made while charting the U.S. out of a confluence of crises — from restoring relationships abroad to curbing unauthorized border crossings and crime at home, while executing on a sweeping economic agenda.
Biden’s own speech — which was still undergoing revisions in the days leading up to the convention — will also feature that recitation of accomplishments that aides have often favorably compared to the legacy of former President Lyndon Johnson. Biden and his senior advisers have fixated on the finishing touches of his career in the weeks since dropping out of the race, viewing Harris’ run as a final critical chapter of Biden’s history — and one that hinges on beating Trump and becoming the nation’s first woman president.
To that end, Biden is expected to deliver a stark warning about the dangers of another Trump term to make a forceful case for his vice president, aides said, touting Harris as an indispensable governing partner more than ready to take over the Oval Office. Harris is expected to be in attendance for Biden’s speech.
“As he likes to say, it’s an inflection point — an inflection point for our country and for his presidency and his career,” said Ron Klain, a longtime Biden confidant and his former White House chief of staff. “He made a decision [to bow out], and now he has to make that decision successful.”
LBJ comparisons are rather over-the-top. Nothing in Biden’s tenure compared to the Great Society, much less the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965; those measures radically reshaped the country.
But, yes, he inherited a country in an absolute mess—exacerbated by his opponent’s attempt to steal the election by violent means. While the COVID vaccines were ready a month before he took office, there’s simply no doubt that the roll-out was far, far smoother under Team Biden than it would have been under Trump. And he certainly passed some massive spending bills under difficult circumstances, given an opposition part that woudn’t concede even a single vote.
I’m honestly rather surprised that Biden is giving a major speech in prime time, given his recent track record. It would seem far better to have him in a luxury box being feted by party leaders for his great contributions to the nation, more akin to a Kennedy Center Honors than normal convention.
