Biden misses the chance to break free: His comeback myth is crumbling

Neue Zürcher Zeitung Germany Biden misses the chance to break free: His comeback myth is crumbling Christian Weisflog, Washington • 10 hours • 4 minutes reading time On Sunday, Biden was on the campaign trail in Pennsylvania. Among other things, he attended a church service in Philadelphia. With campaign appearances and a television interview, Joe Biden wanted to silence his critics over the weekend. But he was unable to convince even close allies. On Sunday, Democratic Senator Chris Murphy said on CNN: "The president must do more." Biden should hold open question and answer sessions with voters and press conferences with journalists in order to regain the lost trust. But this must now happen quickly: "The clock is ticking." The television interview on ABC on Friday evening was already seen as a fateful hour for the American president. Biden showed improvement in his answers and demeanor compared to the miserable debate against Donald Trump. But he has lost his sense of reality, wrote Obama's former campaign strategist David Axelrod in a commentary entitled "Biden's Defiant Delusion." Based on the latest polls, the president will probably suffer a "landslide defeat" against Trump in November, warned Axelrod. If Biden does not withdraw from the race for the White House now, his age and not Trump's moral deficit will remain the big issue until November. From admired fighter to blind resister ABC presenter George Stephanopoulos confronted Biden directly with his poor poll ratings: "I have never seen a president re-elected with an approval rating of 36 percent." Biden replied: "I don't think that's my approval rating. Our polls don't show that." He is the most suitable candidate to beat Trump. Only "God Almighty" can convince him otherwise. Biden made similar comments at a campaign appearance in Wisconsin on Friday. "I'm staying in the race. I will beat Donald Trump," the president declared to cheering supporters. He had learned one thing in his long life: "If you fall down, you get back up again." Biden had to endure many setbacks in his successful career - professionally and privately. Shortly before Christmas 1972, he lost his first wife and his 13-month-old daughter in a car accident. His two sons Beau and Hunter survived. But Beau died of cancer in 2015, and Hunter struggled with drug addiction for a long time. Before Biden won the election in 2020, he failed twice in the race for the White House. Four years ago, he was also close to being eliminated in the primaries before making a comeback in South Carolina. Americans actually love stories like this. Nowhere else are outsiders who hold on to their goals and dreams against all odds as admired as in the USA. But now Biden's comeback myth is colliding with a new reality, the New York Times wrote on Sunday. The president is no longer seen as a fighter, but is accused by his critics of putting his ego above the well-being of the country: "The resilience that made Biden his trademark now appears to some as blind resistance in the face of a rising tide." Decisive week with NATO summit Stephanopoulos, the ABC presenter, also wanted to know from Biden on Friday how he would feel next January if he stayed in the race and lost to Trump. As long as he had done his best, he could live with defeat, the president replied. In doing so, Biden is denying the central message of his own election campaign. A second term for Trump would mean the end of American democracy and the free world, Biden and his party have been warning for months. That is the only reason why there is so much panic in their own ranks. More and more Democrats are convinced that the president will lose the election because even "his best" is no longer enough for a win. The number of Democratic congressmen who have publicly called on Biden to withdraw his candidacy has now risen to five. But politicians who were still publicly supporting Biden also appeared pessimistic in confidential discussions, wrote the Washington Post. According to media reports, Democratic Senator Mark Warner wants to convene a round table discussion with his fellow party members on Monday to talk about Biden's future. On Sunday, Hakeem Jeffries, the leading Democrat in the House of Representatives, organized a conference call on the president's candidacy with influential members of parliament. A handful of them are said to have spoken out in favor of the president's withdrawal.