EDITORIAL: Biden’s decision to stand down may be too late

In the hours after Joe Biden released his letter to social media announcing he had finally accepted reality and would give up the Democratic presidential nomination, friends and allies rushed to heap praise on the 81-year-old for what they cast as an act of political selflessness.

But Mr Biden was never going to beat Donald Trump in November, even less so now after the former president’s campaign was reinvigorated by his brush with a sniper’s bullet.

The only thing Mr Biden has sacrificed is the opportunity to go down as a presidential loser, and cop all the blame for handing the world’s most powerful office to a man he says is an existential threat to democracy.

There is a strong chance a second Trump presidency will still come to pass. If it does, Mr Biden will still wear a good portion of the blame.

His tardiness in stepping aside has done serious damage. It has robbed his successor of precious campaigning time, and will weaken Mr Biden’s own legacy by inviting the same accusations of narcissism he loves to use against his opponent.

The Democratic Party’s decision to give Mr Biden a shot at a second term in the first place was a terrible miscalculation. Worse, it was a mistake that was blindingly obvious to everyone else. Mr Biden has exhibited signs of cognitive decline for some years. Polls had consistently shown that voters felt he was too old to continue on. Yet out of loyalty, fear, or something else entirely, the party convinced itself that Mr Biden was the best chance they had, and set about trying to gaslight the rest of the world into thinking this all was well with the clearly ailing President.

The weeks since Mr Biden imploded on stage during his debate against Mr Trump have been catastrophic for the Democrats as they tore themselves apart over questions about his fitness for office.

Getting themselves back on track to present a coherent message to Americans as to why they present a better option than a second Trump administration will be an enormous challenge.

Vice President Kamala Harris looks the most likely to take on that challenge as a Democratic candidate.

At 59, she has (relative) youth on her side, in comparison to the 78-year-old Mr Trump. Democrats will also hope that the opportunity to have a woman — and a black and Asian one at that — in the White House for the first time will galvanise would-be voters who were unenthused by a competition between two elderly white men. After all, American elections are won by whichever side convinces more people to take time out of their Tuesday to vote. But while Ms Harris’s race and her sex will boost her appeal with some voters, it will also open her up to feral attacks from others.

Ms Harris’s time as Mr Biden’s second-in-command may well work against her. Certainly, Mr Trump will paint her as more of the same. Although clearly an intelligent and competent woman, having been both the first black person and the first woman to serve as California’s attorney-general, she has failed to find cut-through as Vice-President.

She, and the Democrats as a whole, will need to massively up their game to have any hope of keeping Mr Trump out of the White House.

Responsibility for the editorial comment is taken by WAN Editor Christopher Dore.