Will the Washington Post editorial make the US president think?

From our correspondent
NEW YORK – “You haven’t aged a day.” This is how Vietnamese Secretary-General Nguyen Phu Trong praised Biden during the US President’s trip to Hanoi in recent days. “Actually, you look better than before.”

Unfortunately for Biden, not everyone at home thinks that way. Among them there David Ignatius73, is a respected and well-connected columnist for The Washington Post, who published a widely read article titled: “President Biden should not run in 2024.”.

An article that is not surprising: it merely gives voice to what has been discussed for months in the media, in Washington and – writes Ignatius – “Not just on Fox News, but at the dinner table in every home in America.” Is that It is clearly visible at the ballot boxes: Voter anxiety (even Democrats) Regarding the president’s age Who ran for a second term.

When Biden fell on a bag of sand during a ceremony at West Point or when he looked visibly exhausted at a news conference in Vietnam (a European G20 diplomat told us his fatigue was evident at the summit) the idea resurfaced, even if some criticized it. The New York Times For a headline about an octogenarian’s “quick trip” to India and Vietnam, noting that journalists were more tired than the president.

But Ignatius, as Axios points out, He’s one of the longtime columnists — along with Tom Friedman and David Brooks — that Biden likes to read.

But who knows if seeing what she’s saying to him now will make him think: They keep repeating in the White House that the president has now decided to stay in the race.

Praise for Biden Historic laws issued in his first terml The party wins the midterm elections In November, for his rule as centrist and It defended Ukraine without bringing America directly into war with RussiaThe columnist says that while the president remains in the running for a second term He risks “undoing his greatest success, which was stopping Trump.”.

The journalist, who remembers him as the “talkative friend” of Congress who met him forty years ago, notes that Biden “was never good at saying no.” GREAT PRESIDENT “FOCUS AND STRATEGY, ATOME AND OUTSIDE”.

Ignatius stated that in 2019 he was definitely the right person to win “the battle for the soul of this nation.” This time he has to say no to himself.withdrawing from the race for the presidency in 2024 due to “It would be the wisest choice for the country.”.

Ignatius explains this Biden has about a month to make that decisionOtherwise, it will be too late for potential Democrats, including the vice president Kamala Harris is less popular than him (39.5%, according to FiveThirtyEight), to test themselves in the primaries and “see if they have what it takes for president.”

Ignatius wrote of Harris: “He has many commendable qualities, but the truth is that he has failed to gain support in the country and even in his own party.” The journalist adds that, given Biden’s age, voters will focus their attention on her.

Ignatius notes this There is also another way: choosing another vice president (which others have also suggested to him in recent months), which he could include as alternatives Karen BassOr the African-American mayor of Los Angeles, or the Secretary of Commerce Gina Raymondowho were also among the names initially put forward by Biden himself for his running mate. But removing Harris may spark negative reactions among some voters.

Among the things that Biden should have said no to, according to the journalist, was choosing Harris as his deputy in the first place (“she was a friend of his beloved son Beau, who died of brain cancer), and also Nancy Pelosi’s trip to Taiwan and her son Hunter’s participation in companies in Ukraine and China.” (And the calls she made with him when he was vice president, and put him on speaker phone to impress the people he worked with.)