The only traces of joy left in the Democratic Party’s campaign for president appeared to be on the face of Joe Biden on Thursday (Friday AEDT).
The outgoing president had a spring in his step, practically bounding towards the lectern at the White House Rose Garden to deliver his first public remarks since Kamala Harris’s comprehensive defeat by Donald Trump in the presidential election.
“Good morning! Good morning, good morning,” the unusually energetic, soon to be 82-year-old, said to reporters, before flashing a beaming smile that went viral on social media.
“Thank you, thank you, thank you,” he went on, almost as if he himself had won the re-election he had long craved before being unceremoniously booted from the top of the ticket by party heavyweights amid poor polling back in July.
On an abstract level Biden is probably disappointed Harris lost, given her defeat will sully how history views his own presidency, long after he’s gone. Harris’s loss was a rejection of his record at least as much as positive vote for Donald Trump.
Democrats appear to have lost not only the White House, but congress too, and lost to someone they likened to Adolf Hitler.
But on a human level, who could blame Biden for betraying a little glee that his Vice President lost, not only the Electoral College but the popular vote too. Biden won almost 14.5 million votes across the nation in the party’s internal primary process earlier this year. Harris, who replaced him after his shockingly bad performance in a debate against Donald Trump, didn’t win one vote, being elevated courtesy of shady backroom deals.
And Biden won 81 million votes in 2020; Harris has amassed around 68 million.
His praise for the Vice President, a day after she conceded her loss to Trump, didn’t even get halfway to effusive, describing her as a “partner and a public servant, who ran an inspiring campaign”, albeit clearly one that was not inspiring enough.
Trump himself would often joke on the campaign trail that “sleepy Joe likes me more than Kamala”. No doubt Biden’s remarks were otherwise magnanimous “You can’t love your country only when you win. You can’t love your neighbour only when you agree,” he said, promising to ensure a “peaceful and orderly transition of power”.
“I also hope we can lay to rest the question about the integrity of the American electoral system. It is honest, it is fair, and it is transparent, and it can be trusted, win or lose.”
Yet it also highlighted how hollow was the Democratic Party’s anti-Trump rhetoric during the campaign. If Biden truly believed Trump was about to end democracy in America, suspend the constitution and become a dictator, is this how you would speak?
Indeed, the President also said that “the American experiment endures, and we’re going to be OK – but we need you to stay engaged”. Stay engaged? That doesn’t sound like the advice of a leader who fears the nation is facing an imminent existential crisis.
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