Joe Biden's flatterers compare him to George Washington. That's ridiculous

It was all hot air and hype. Nothing about Biden's accession to the White House resembled FDR's and the Biden presidency has had nothing like the transformative effect of Roosevelt's New Deal. Not surprisingly, the FDR comparisons dried up pretty quickly.

But now, in the wake of Biden's decision to abandon his reelection campaign, his partisans and sycophants are comparing him to an even more towering predecessor: George Washington.

Biden "gets to go out as the George Washington of his party," NPR's Mara Liasson said as she reported the news Sunday evening. The same Alter who formerly ranked Biden with FDR assured NBC that he "will be remembered as a great president" and "mentioned in the same sentence as George Washington" for "selflessly leaving power." Jon Meacham, a presidential biographer and sometime Biden speechwriter, gushed that Biden's decision to abandon his bid for a second term is "one of the most remarkable acts of leadership in our history, an act of self-sacrifice that places him in the company of George Washington." Multiple politicians, including Senators Tim Kaine of Virginia and Angus King of Maine, made similarly fawning declarations.

Have Biden's flatterers learned nothing from their recent debacle? For months they loudly insisted that the president was in fantastic shape. He was so vigorous, they claimed, that people "can't even keep up with him" — not just mentally sharp but "better than he's ever been" and any video evidence to the contrary was nothing but "cheap fakes." Then came a debate performance so ghastly that all those lies were abandoned overnight.

The president ended his campaign this week because he had no choice. It had become clear that he had no path to victory and leading Democrats made it clear that the pressure on him to bow out would keep intensifying until he did. Biden deserves full credit for facing reality and withdrawing from the race with a graceful statement. "I believe it is in the best interest of my party and the country for me to stand down," he wrote. For someone who had craved the presidency for so long, to be forced to give it up prematurely was undeniably painful. But that put Biden in company with Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon — not George Washington.

Many Americans know that the nation's first president voluntarily retired after serving two terms, though there was no two-term limit then (and wouldn't be until 1951). Washington hadn't hungered to be president in the first place. At the end of the Revolutionary War in 1783, when it was assumed the victorious general would continue in public life as the first ruler of the new nation, Washington announced that he sought no governmental authority and was retiring from the "great theatre of action." But with the ratification of the Constitution six years later, the nation needed a president — and it was universally understood that the job must go to Washington, the most admired and revered American of his day.

After serving one term, Washington was prepared to step down and asked James Madison to draft a farewell address. Madison did as he asked, though together with Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton, he implored the president to stay on. Reluctantly, Washington agreed. But he was adamant that eight years would be his limit. He was still the most highly regarded leader in America and could have had a third term for the asking. But he thought it important to set "an early example of rotation" — i.e., to turn over power peacefully to an elected successor.

In almost every important way, Washington's decision was the opposite of Biden's. Most Americans did not want Biden to run again and did not think he could handle the job. For almost the entirety of his presidency, Biden's approval rating has been underwater. In 1796, many Americans could not imagine any president ever coming up to the standard Washington had set. Who in 2024 believes that with the end of Biden's presidency America will lose — to quote King George III's description of Washington — "the greatest character of the age"?

Give Biden credit for bowing to the inevitable. But the man is no George Washington, and it is silly to claim otherwise.

Jeff Jacoby is a columnist for The Boston Globe, from which this is reprinted with permission."

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