Lukewarm Take: Should Biden have stayed in the race?

I can empathize with the predicament that Joe Biden was in. I personally got so sick in 2024 that it affected my cognitive functions. I couldn’t walk, take care of myself, or even be my own advocate in terms of medical care. And yet I was still able to grasp that I couldn’t make those decisions. So my family made them for me, and I didn’t fight them.

What I did not do was try to clock in and do my job at the warehouse. I had to get better first.

So now that I’m better and I’ve had a few months to think about this, I feel like Biden made the wrong choice when he decided to drop out of the 2024 race. There are TWO other choices that would have made more sense.

1. Drop out of the race, and resign the presidency.

2. Stay in the race, but let  Kamala Harris and the Cabinet decide what to do.

I feel that if Joe Biden wasn’t fit to run for office, then he wasn’t fit to serve either. Likewise, if he is fit to serve, then he should have tried for a second term with the public understanding that he can still be removed from office if his mental status degrades. Section 4 of the 25th Amendment enables the Vice President and the Cabinet to remove a President due to incapacity. It has never been used, although we can all think of at least one time when it should have been.

Dropping out of the race but staying President was a half-measure that may have cost us the 2024 election. Historically, incumbents performed better than challengers in Presidential elections. The incumbency advantage could have been maintained by Biden staying the course or stepping down and having Kamala succeed him as the 46th President. But that advantage was discarded and here we are.
 

If you like my writing, you might like my novel, A Long Way From Tipperary.