ArcaMax

What a non-event! This year’s Super Tuesday was the most boring ever. Despite all the efforts of TV networks to make March 5 a night of “breaking news,” it was more exciting watching the Discovery Channel.

Forget all the hype. When it was over, Super Tuesday could be summed up in three short sentences: There were only two candidates. Both won. The primary’s over.

But if Super Tuesday provided no surprises, it should serve as a wake-up call, e specially for Democrats. And here’s the message: It’s time to stop living in a make-believe world and face reality.

For months, wherever Democratic voices were heard – in newspaper columns, on radio and TV, on Facebook, X, and Instagram, on podcasts, at bars and restaurant tables – the most common refrain was some version of this: Biden’s too old. If only he’d step down and throw the field open to younger Democrats. Where’s Michelle Obama?

Which prompted a Niagara of wild scenarios. Like: Over Christmas vacation, Jill was going to talk him out of running again. Or Biden would make a deal with Republicans whereby he’d step down and they’d drop all charges against Hunter. Or Biden would wait until summer to resign and let the convention choose the party’s nominee. Or Biden would use his State of the Union address to announce his resignation.

Guess what? Even though we might all agree it’d be better to have a younger, more attractive, more articulate candidate to lead the party, Super Tuesday made it clear: That’s not going to happen. It might have been fun to speculate for a while, but now’s the time for Democrats to get their head out of the clouds and face reality. Nobody else is going to jump in. And no, Michelle Obama’s not going to run, either.

Here it is. Deal with it: Joe Biden is going to be the Democratic nominee in 2024.

And deal with this, too: Donald Trump’s going to be the Republican nominee.

That’s the existential choice facing the American people. And it may be the most important choice we ever make, because the future of our democracy depends on it. But it should also be easy to figure out. Biden and Trump have both been president for four years. So let’s put their records side by side.

For his part, no matter how old he is, Joe Biden’s accomplished a great deal as president: leading us out of the Covid-19 pandemic; $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill; 11 million new jobs; first gun violence legislation in 30 years; more people with health insurance than ever before; relief for 40 million Americans with student debt; biggest investment ever in green energy and climate change. He’s delivered a robust economy – the strongest in the world – with the stock market at a record high, unemployment at a record low, and inflation all but disappeared.

...continued