Dear Joe,

I suppose I should call you Mr. President but we’re old political friends. We weren’t always on the same side in intra-party arguments, but I always liked and respected you. In my recent Joe Biden Deserves Better Than This post, I said that you’d do what was best for the Democratic party and country and you have. Thanks, Joe.

I really hoped that it wouldn’t come to this. When it was just the Obama podcast bros, David Axelrod, James Carville, and the media, I was in your corner. Your record as president is so good that I thought you deserved a second term. I still think that BUT when people who care about you as much as Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer, and Jamie Raskin thought it was time for you to leave the stage, you reluctantly did so.

Jamie Raskin wrote you a beautiful and loving letter over the Independence Day weekend:

Everything we believe in is on the line in the next four-and-a-half months. We have an overriding obligation to defeat the forces of resurgent monarchy and oppression. Everything else pales in comparison to this struggle.”

I echo that sentiment. I know you feel the same way.

You saved the country from a second Trump term in 2020 and ably guided us through the aftermath of the insurrection and pandemic. Then you rolled up your sleeves and accomplished great things in partnership with Leader Schumer and then Speaker Pelosi.

The danger posed to our democracy by Trump is grave. I thought you could defeat him until recently. I began to have serious doubts when your public performances became so inconsistent. Your NATO press conference was a triumph, but your speech impediment got in the way then and in later appearances. I am so sorry about this.

You’ve had a glorious career in public service capped by your magnificent presidency. You even got something done about guns, which was a minor miracle. I know how important that issue is to you.

Your legacy is strong. I’m glad you’ve passed the torch to Vice President Kamala Harris. She’s been taking the fight to the Republicans and she can and will win the election thereby perfecting your role as the man who helped bring us our first woman president. Any attempt to nominate another candidate will blow up the party and elect Donald Trump. That’s a disaster we all wish to prevent.

We have something personal in common; We both lost our first wives when we were young. Your loss was more dramatic as it was a car accident. I had to endure my wife’s two-year struggle with breast cancer. The loss is the same and it is profound. Neither of us gave up and we both remarried well: Dr. A in my case, Dr. B in yours.

I’m not a crier but I got verklempt while writing this letter. I so wanted you to carry on, but stepping aside for the good of the country becomes you. Like your late friend John McCain, you’ve always put country first.

Thanks for everything, Joe.

Love,

Adrastos

PS: I always do a musical last word in my posts. This is an old Porter-Hayes song  recorded by Sam & Dave:

Thank you, Mr. President.