OP-ED: Living in interesting times

By ALAN SMASON

After an assassination attempt on a former U.S. president and a well-orchestrated Republican National Convention this past week that crowned Donald Trump as the nominee of his party along with Ohio Senator J. D. Vance as his running mate, there seemed very little chance that the Democratic Party could come up with anything to take the wind out of the Republicans’ sails.

President Joe Biden. (Getty Images)

But today, without great fanfare, President Biden made the historic decision to step down as the nominee for his party, despite weeks of his insisting he was staying in the race.

With his decision and endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris, President Biden becomes the first sitting U.S. president to elect not to run for reelection since 1968 when President Lyndon Baines Johnson made a similar decision during the height of the Viet Nam War.

LBJ’s decision took place during a political campaign that split the country between those in favor of American involvement in the Southeast Asia conflict and those who opposed the military push there that ultimately led to the deaths of 50,000 American servicemen.

The next several weeks leading up to the Democratic National Convention in Chicago will find President Biden and Vice President Harris working together to lock up delegates already pledged to Biden and to have them support Harris as their presidential candidate. Ultimately, she will need to reach out to party leaders and rank and file members.

It is interesting that the last time such a decision played out – in 1968 – a Democratic National Convention was also held in Chicago. The next three weeks will prove to be new ground for the Democratic Party and Chicago will become the focus of the nation much like Milwaukee was last week.

This will certainly make for a much different race for the presidency than what had been expected earlier. A decision as to Harris’ running mate will cap the drama as we consider whether the Democrats can keep the White House and defeat former President Trump at the polls.

We do live in interesting times and politics often makes strange bedfellows.