Biden's Bittersweet Goodbye

Joe Biden came into government in 1972, three years after the first moon landing and two years before the first presidential resignation, beginning his service in the Senate during a decade of strife defined by inflation, stagnation, and crisis. He ended the night here with a speech that began around 11:30 p.m. ET.

If Biden was bothered by the parade of other, more junior Democrats who ran long in their remarks and ate up his time, he didn’t show it. Sticking to his script, the president was, instead, all gratitude.

“America, I gave my best to you,” he told a party that clearly loves him more now that he is leaving. “I’ve been too young to be in the Senate because I wasn’t yet 30,” he continued, “and too old to stay as president. But I hope you know how grateful I am to all of you.”

It was one of the most sudden reversals in modern American politics. Biden was fighting against the dying of the light just weeks ago. He had stumbled badly at the first debate in Atlanta and subsequently lost the confidence of his own party. He still refused to go, declaring in one interview last month that only the “Lord Almighty” could convince him to step down from the ticket.

All that was forgotten last night as Biden basked in the adoration of a crowd that kept interrupting his remarks by chanting “We love you, Joe!” Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, hardly a deity but certainly one of the architects of the premature end to his presidency, was spotted mouthing those words. “I love the job,” the president said in explanation of his exit, “but I love my country more.”

Many observers couldn’t shake the feeling that the 81-year-old president had been done a disservice. “They took the nomination away from him,” tweeted veteran journalist Mark Knoller, “and now booted him out of prime time.” An aide to the Harris-Walz campaign protested that this was unfair, telling RealClearPolitics that the gripe was “just a ridiculous and silly suggestion.”

A very real consideration for Biden: his legacy. It is intertwined with the coming election, and if Vice President Kamala Harris fails to keep the White House, the president who took his time stepping aside could shoulder considerable blame in the history books. If Harris wins, however, Biden will be remembered as magnanimous. The crowd here prefers the latter option. Projecting confidence that Democrats will triumph in November, the party faithful were all smiles, occasionally even through happy tears.

Rick Wilson, founder of the anti-Trump Republican group the Lincoln Project, said Biden had done “something painful on a level that none of us can really appreciate professionally by giving up the presidency.” He told RCP that there was “a merit to that sacrifice” that in time “we are going to appreciate as a country.”

The sacrifice was not lost on the vice president who made the obligatory “surprise” appearance in the convention hall to “celebrate our incredible President Joe Biden.” Even as she prepares to accept the nomination that Biden so recently refused to surrender, Harris praised the outgoing elder statesman “for your historic leadership, your lifetime of service to our nation, and all you continue to do.”

As Democrats prepare for the changing of the guard, Biden did not discuss the behind-the-scenes circumstances that led to his ouster. The president and his people still insist that he could have won a 2020 rematch in 2024 and deny reports of his bitterness. For the first time, Biden did the same in public when he said that “all this talk about how I’m angry at all those people who said I should step down, it is not true.” He did shout a lot, though.

Biden again argued that former President Trump was an existential threat to democracy. Then he took a victory lap that sounded like a laundry list of accomplishments. He talked about uniting Europe, even sharing a story about how the late Henry Kissinger had called to congratulate him. He heralded his own fight with the pharmaceutical industry and pointed to drug pricing reform. He told a story about how his administration had helped put the country back on its feet after the pandemic.

At Trump headquarters, Biden’s speech and the entire first day of the convention were panned in a single sentence: “Look no further than day one of the DNC in Chicago to demonstrate why Democrats aren't fit to govern. It was a glimpse into the addled minds of the Radical Left – filled with lies, hateful rhetoric, and distasteful conduct.”

But here in Chicago, Biden and the roster of speakers who preceded him – including Hillary Rodham Clinton, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and Rep. James Clyburn – gave the delegates in the hall exactly what they were looking for. Clinton, who was crowned as the party’s nominee eight years ago only to lose narrowly to Trump in a result she had trouble accepting, was greeted with a standing ovation. She did not shy away from her own painful experience. Afterwards, she said, “We refused to give up on America. Millions marched, many ran for office, we kept our eyes on the future. Well, my friends, the future is here. I wish my mother and Kamala’s mother could see us. They would say: ‘Keep going!’”

The woman who most wanted Joe Biden – and not Kamala Harris – to “keep going” was believed to be Jill Biden. But when the first lady introduced her husband Monday, night she was all in.

“Joe and I have been together for almost 50 years and still there are moments when I fall in love with him all over again,” she said recalling how he held their daughter Ashley after her birth, and again “just weeks ago, when I saw him dig deep into his soul and decide to no longer seek reelection and endorse Kamala Harris.”

“We are all a part of something bigger than ourselves and we are stronger than we know,” Jill Biden said in urging the country to support Harris. “It’s going to take all of us and we can’t afford to lose.”

Then it was, at last, Joe Biden’s turn at the podium.  All politicians are vain, and few Democrats would fault Biden for a nostalgic speech more in the style of a State of the Union than a campaign address. The president still understood his assignment. “Selecting Kamala was the very first decision I made when I became our nominee,” he said. “And it was the best decision I made my whole career.”

“Let me ask you: Are you ready to vote for freedom?” Biden said, to rile up the convention. “Are you ready to vote for democracy and for America? Let me ask you: Are you ready to vote for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz as president and vice president of the United States?”

The crowd responded with such a resounding “yes” at each question that recent history was forgotten. A month ago, Biden was talking about democracy in a different way. “The voters – and the voters alone – decide the nominee of the Democratic Party,” the president wrote in a letter to Democratic lawmakers. “How can we stand for democracy in our nation if we ignore it in our own party? I cannot do that. I will not do that.” Biden did, in fact, do exactly that. To his allies, this makes him the picture of selflessness.

One of his former rivals, California Rep. Eric Swalwell, said as much in an interview with RCP. “Our kids will drive on the roads that he built. They'll feed their families with the jobs that he created. They will power their devices with the chips that he manufactured,” said the Democrat who once chastised Biden in 2020 for an unwillingness “to pass the torch.”

“For the first couple years of his presidency,” Swalwell continued, “we thought he'd be remembered for the 60 million jobs he created, but we're actually going to remember him for the one job that he left.”

The work will continue though, even after his exit, Biden cautioned from the mainstage. “With a grateful heart, I stand before you now on this August night to report that democracy has prevailed,” he said. “Democracy has delivered. And now democracy must be preserved.”

California Rep. Ro Khanna takes the challenge seriously and believes, despite the positive convention vibes, that Democrats could still lose if they are not careful. “We would make a mistake to underestimate the challenge ahead of us in the next 80 days,” he told RCP before the Biden speech.

“I think he did the gracious thing,” Khanna added of the president, “because Kamala Harris now has given us a second chance at winning.” The president, for his part, later vowed that in retirement he would be “the best volunteer Harris and Walz have ever seen.”

Left unsaid during his remarks was the fact that Biden never wanted to deliver this kind of speech. The crowds, the convention pageantry, even the balloons hanging in the rafters, had first been prepared for him. Biden was the presumed nominee just weeks ago, not Harris. By the time the president reached Chicago, stepping on the stage well past schedule, the clock had already run out on his career.

The crowds showered him with affection throughout the long night, signaling that they love him as, and perhaps because, he is leaving. This was a bittersweet pill for the president. His family joined him on stage as some delegates headed for the exits after his speech. He kissed the hand of first lady Joe Biden. The president, who had been pushed first from the ticket, and then from prime time, appeared to wipe a tear from his eye as he waved goodbye.