Bluesky

Joe Biden is currently struggling with what is surely the hardest political decision of his long career. He’s the presumptive nominee of his party, but facing a rising chorus of calls to give up his reelection bid and let a younger candidate replace him in the saddle. His dismal performance in last month’s debate, coupled with his increasingly shaky public appearances in speeches and interviews, has cemented the view that, despite the impressive achievements of his first term, Biden is simply too old to be a plausible candidate. These calls to pass the torch come not just from the media but also a raft of Democratic lawmakers, including reported private conversations with party luminaries such as former House speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer, and House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries. Lurking in the background is the Sphinx-like figure of Barack Obama, who rarely likes to show his hand in public but who has evidently made clear that his former vice president has to give up his reelection campaign.

Against this formidable phalanx of voices, Biden is also hearing the opposite advice from a smaller bevy of close advisers headed by his wife, Dr. Jill Biden, his ne’er-do-well son Hunter Biden, and longtime confidants such as Ron Klain (former White House chief of staff). This inner circle has apparently been telling Biden that calls for him to step down are unwarranted, that the polls still show it’s a close race, that as the winner of the Democratic primaries he’s the choice of rank-and-file Democrats, that calls to quit are coming from elites and the media, not voters, that he’s the Democratic candidate best posed to defeat Donald Trump, that Biden has a history of making unexpected comebacks just when he was written off by the press, and that by resigning Biden risks making his debate performance a lasting stain on his record. Variations of these arguments have been made with increasing stridency by Biden and his surrogates.

But even while he has to decide between the competing external voices of party leaders and his own inner circle, Biden is also trying to sort out an internal conflict between warring sides of his own personality.

We all have many facets, but in the current turmoil there are two especially salient Joe Bidens. The first is Democratic Party loyalist Joe Biden. This is the Joe Biden who is the ultimate party man, who has always situated himself where the median Democrat is, who has climbed the greasy pole of Democratic politics by being attentive to party functionaries and insiders, who has governed by trying to find a consensus within his party and who knows that (unlike, say, the Clintons or Obama) he has no independent base of support other than the party. That Joe Biden will listen to Pelosi, Schumer, Jeffries, and Obama. He will resign for the good of the party and the country.

But there is the other Joe Biden, what we might call Bunker Biden. This is the Biden who likes to play the stereotypical Irishman (or Plastic Paddy) with a chip on his shoulder, the Biden who has a personal mythology of being the scrappy working-class kid from Scranton whom the stuffed shirts and eggheads always looked down on, the Biden who was dissuaded (by Obama!) from running in 2016 when he could have beaten Trump, the Biden who has an elephant’s memory for all the times he’s been right and others have been wrong (as on Afghanistan) but a goldfish’s memory of all the times he was wrong and others were right (basically his entire political career pre-2008), and the Biden who really seems to think he’s the only thing keeping American foreign policy together.

Bunker Joe Biden could be heard in a recent exchange with Colorado Representative Jason Crow, a Democratic congressman who, like Biden’s late son Beau, is a recipient of the purple heart.

When Crow had the temerity to raise questions about Biden’s electability, the president went on a tirade, saying, “You saw what happened recently in terms of the meeting we had with NATO. I put NATO together.… name me a foreign leader who thinks I’m not the most effective leader in the world on foreign policy. Tell me! Tell me who the hell that is.”

Biden went on boasting by saying, “Tell me who enlarged NATO, tell me who did the Pacific basin! Tell me who did something that you’ve never done with your Bronze Star like my son—and I’m proud of your leadership, but guess what, what’s happening, we’ve got Korea and Japan working together, I put AUKUS together, anyway.”

Journalist Ben Cramer wrote about Biden’s failed 1988 run for president in the book What It Takes (1992). Writing in The New Republic, historian Alexander Stille noted that Cramer’s book

describes a whole range of Biden behavior and reflexes that we are seeing all too clearly in the current stand-off between the president and those who are trying to persuade him to drop out of the presidential race: single-minded fixation on a goal; a stubborn refusal to listen to advice or contrary evidence; a willingness to act and never to doubt or second-guess himself; a seemingly infinite belief in his ability to beat the odds, to talk anyone into anything; and a conviction of being a man destined for greatness.

It’s clear that spite acts as emotional rocket fuel for Biden. It’s a character trait that has served him well on many occasions, allowing him to pick himself up after being knocked down by life, and giving him the stamina for a long career.

But at this moment, this bunkered-down and spite-infested personality is a liability. It’s the character trait that stands in the way of Biden’s making a rational decision to put his party and country above his personal desire for vindication.

As Biden the Party Loyalist fights with Bunker Biden, the pressing question of this precarious moment in our politics is which Joe Biden will prevail.