Editorial: Democrats face uphill battle even post-Joe Biden

Joe Biden has made the right choice, but as Barack Obama pointed out, these are uncharted waters for the Democratic Party, writes the editor.

Joe Biden has made the right choice to not contest November’s US presidential election. His deteriorating cognitive health meant the decision was inevitable, but he still deserves credit for having the courage – if a little belatedly – to make the tough call.

As we wrote here a fortnight ago, the inconvenient truth is that Mr Biden’s battle with the eternal enemy – age – had reached the point where he was not ready to take the proverbial 2am phone call.

From a global perspective, there were serious risks in the possibility that a man who was said to be – today, let alone three or four years from now – effective only between 10am and 4pm would be the counterweight to the Xi Jinpings, Vladimir Putins, Kim Jong-uns and Ali Khameneis of an increasingly fractured world.

Mr Biden was right to reflect, as he did in his open letter early yesterday, that “it is in the best interest of my party and the country for me to stand down” at his successor’s inauguration on January 20.

What happens next is anyone’s guess. Mr Biden has thrown his “full support and endorsement” behind his vice-president Kamala Harris to be the Democratic Party’s nominee, a call that makes sense on a number of fronts – including, importantly, the ease with which the funds the President has raised for his campaign could be reallocated directly to hers.

Joe Biden has bowed to pressure from within his own party.

But as former president Barack Obama sagely pointed out after Mr Biden’s announcement, these are uncharted waters for the Democratic Party – and Vice-President Harris’s nomination cannot (and we would add, should not) be assumed.

Mr Obama posted on X, pointedly, that: “I have extraordinary confidence that the leaders of our party will be able to create a process from which an outstanding nominee emerges.”

It was a seriously telling statement; an intentional and necessary handbrake in this suddenly careening presidential contest.

Republican nominee Donald Trump’s campaign is resurgent, following his extraordinary near-miss assassination attempt and a successful Republican National Convention last week that formally signed off on his candidacy. And while the odds on Mr Trump winning blew out from $1.20 to $1.50 after Mr Biden’s exit yesterday, that means he is still clearly the raging favourite in a two-horse race.

And so, having managed to rid themselves of a candidate who was almost a certainty to lose, the Democrats now need to ensure they chart a course towards November 5 that takes advantage of their new situation – and that gives them a realistic chance to win.

While a Harris candidacy would be historic, the Democratic Party needs to also make sure it is viable.

The US presidential election every four years is the world’s most consequential vote. It must be one that is hard fought.

Former president and Republican nominee Donald Trump

The Democrats need to resist an urge to simply go with Ms Harris because of her gender and background (she is of Indian and Jamaican descent).

As important as it is to ensure diversity in the world’s most powerful post – as in all spheres of life – there is no point pursuing that outcome if she has no chance of victory.

That said, we are reminded today of our editorial on November 9, 2020 – the day after Ms Harris’ ascension to become the first female US vice president was confirmed.

She wore the white of the suffragette movement that day as she told the world’s girls that her accomplishment in becoming “the first but not the last” woman in that office meant they could feel confident to “dream with ambition, lead with conviction, and see yourself in a way that others might not see you simply because they’ve not seen it before”.

We wrote in this column of our hope that Ms Harris’s ascension would have the same impact in the US that Australia’s first female premier, Carmen Lawrence in Western Australia three decades ago, had on our politics in paving the way for the popular election of Queensland premiers Anna Bligh and Annastacia Palaszczuk in 2009 and 2015, and prime minister Julia Gillard in 2010.

Their trailblazing – in the spirit of those suffragettes such as Queenslander Emma Miller more than a century ago – has meant the gender of a candidate is no longer ever a mainstream concern here in Australia. Our hope is for the same in the United States.