By Jack Ohman Dec 23, 2024 (SFChronicle.com)
Jack Ohman/The Chronicle
President Joe Biden has had a rough few months, and he’s got about 27 days and 27 nights to go. Here’s how he can improve his legacy.
He should resign, which will make Vice President Kamala Harris the 47th president of the United States.
In case you need a reminder, that would make Harris the first female president.
Why should Biden do this?
As the Democrats sift through the radioactive wreckage of Election Night 2024, a few things stood out in the postmortems: Harris is a woman and a person of color, and they may well have been contributing factors to her loss, in addition to economic stratification.
Maybe the country just needs to have a female president for a couple of weeks. You know, try it out. Test-drive it. Kick the presidential limo tires.
Get President Harris at the lectern with the presidential seal. Sit her behind the Resolute desk. Have her wave as she takes off in Marine One. Small optics, to be sure, but for Biden to step down in favor of Harris demonstrates a far more important thing:
The Democratic Party is actually serious about the role of women and, more specifically, Black women and other women of color — upon whom they’ve relied for decades for their victory margins.
In some ways, Democrats have very much followed through on their commitments to make the United States an equal opportunity nation, and not just through token appointments. In other ways, they lost just enough Black, Latino, Asian American and other minority voters in 2024 to the Trumpublican Party (why call them Republicans at this point?).
Biden’s stepping aside for Harris would send an unmistakable signal from the Democrats: We really see you, and we’re willing to make a personal sacrifice to make a historic gesture.
Yes, it’s a gesture, but sometimes gestures add up.
Furthermore, it would go a long way to erase the temporary smudges on Biden’s record, who’s going to look like Washington, Lincoln and Jefferson after the inevitable Donald Trump implosion.
Let’s say that Jill Biden goes along with this (why should she? She’s made it clear through her devastating, cold-baby-cold snub of Vice President Harris at, of all places, the Veterans Day ceremony at the Arlington National Cemetery Amphitheater). Furthermore, she kept Biden in the race about two years longer than he should have been.
However, in our fevered fantasy, Joe makes the call and does it.
First of all, kiss all the lucrative Trump 47 merch aside (his latest hustle is his assassination attempt-themed cologne called “FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT” — so tasteful. What next? A grassy knoll energy drink?). Harris will be the 47th president, not Trump.
What can Harris do as president of the United States for about a month?
First, the symbolism and meaning will not be lost on groups slipping away, albeit glacially, from the Democratic Party.
Second, her mere presence truly sets her up as the titular head of the Democratic Party. While there is some informed speculation that Harris might run for governor of California in 2026 — the second-most important elected position in the country. A major political columnist told me a few days ago that he thinks she ultimately won’t do it: “She had Air Force Two and now she’s gonna trade it in for a helicopter?”
Maybe, maybe not. Maybe she racks up some points on Southwest instead.
A true gut check is that she may well, at the relatively tender age of 64, give a presidential run another go on her own terms in 2028.
Being a former president is a pretty good place to start for any potential presidential candidate (a shift of 120,000 votes in three states would have made this column moot), and she did perform rather well, given she had about 100 days to assemble and execute a campaign.
As president, Harris could do a lot, aside from the symbolism. Blanket pardons? Maybe. Sign some executive orders that can protect Dreamers? Why not?
Taking a whip-around world tour, visiting major industrial nations, would be useful for her, too. Go to Africa, which is slipping away to China. Go to Ukraine and stand up for NATO and a stable Europe. Go to France and not shake Macron’s hand like an MMA fighter.
Great optics, and Air Force One is decidedly photogenic. Go out joyfully. She can also articulate from the bulliest pulpit ever that women can hear “Hail to the Chief” as well as the next guy, particularly The Next Guy Himself, ol’ Number 48.
A President Harris would also be the first Democratic president from California, and that might be of value in any 2026 gubernatorial primary. That might clarify the thinking of anyone else thinking about the race.
While Gov. Gavin Newsom is obviously chewing on either a 2028 presidential bid or a career in podcasting, President Harris could be an even more amplified voice in calling out Trump’s 2025 agenda, which looks very, very grim indeed.
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Listen, folks, no malarkey, here’s the deal, not joking: President Kamala Harris would be good for this divided country for a month.
And she’ll look like she deserves the job after a month of Trump.
Jack Ohman is a Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonist and columnist who also writes at https://substack.com/@jackohman
