When a President Drops Out: What Biden Can Learn from 1968 (From the Honestly Archives)

*This episode originally ran on July 4, 2024 on Honestly with Bari Weiss* 

On our nation’s 248th birthday, Joe Biden faced the wrath of a thousand pundits. The whole world watched the elected leader of the world’s oldest republic befogged, slack-jawed, and mentally vacant in a debate he had to win. A poll from CBS showed that after Biden’s infamous debate performance last week, 72 percent of registered voters believed the man lacked the cognitive ability to be president.

Even his closest friends and sycophants were pleading for the old man to hang it up. The New York Times editorial board. Former advisers to Barack Obama. Columnist and Biden’s personal friend, Tom Friedman, said he wept in a hotel room in Portugal while watching the debate. They had seen enough. 

And yet, Biden’s White House is still shrugging it off. It was just a debate, they told us. Don’t let 90 minutes define years of accomplishments. 

But it was not just a debate. It was indelible and undeniable proof that the leader of the free world lacked the stamina and acuity to do the job for four more months, let alone four more years. 

Then-president Lyndon Baines Johnson found himself in a similar position in 1968. Johnson was losing the country, and in the middle of the primary he decided to bow out. 

Eli Lake tells the story of what happened in 1968 when President Johnson decided he was not fit for reapplying for his job. He listened to his critics and backed away from the White House, allowing the Democrats an opportunity to stage an open convention to choose their next candidate for the presidency. But why did the party want him gone so badly? And how did this seismic decision work out? It’s a tale of murder, war, and riots that culminated in the most explosive convention in the history of America.

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