Biden and Harris need to work on ‘correct response’

Will President Joe Biden make the right choice for America?

As I have said when asked what I think the president should do given his obvious age-related challenges that seem to have overtaken him in the past few months — I trust Joe Biden to do what he has done his entire life: make the best decision for our country.

I still believe he will make that decision, which will recognize and acknowledge that being president of the United States of America is the most difficult job on the planet. If anyone doubts that statement, just look at any of the before-and-after pictures of almost any prior president over the past 100 years.

That’s the toll of a 24/7 job in which life-and-death decisions are made daily, sometimes hourly. Where the fate of the world is laid on the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office with alarming regularity; where the health and financial well-being of millions of Americans and others are subject to presidential decisions that may be far from perfect and, therefore, perfectly awful to those who draw the short straw; and where, as commander in chief, the lives of brave men and women in uniform depend daily on the right call all the time. That toll is unmissable and undeniable.

It’s not just about youth. In fact, it is all about wisdom, experience and emotional intelligence, and the ability to apply all of it all the time to help the American people.

But, despite what the Rolling Stones famously sang, time is not on our side; time waits for no one. And this is the time to accept the undeniable.

So, back to what would come next.

By the way, there is another undeniable fact we have yet to mention. And that is a second term for Donald Trump would more than likely be the end of this democracy and the beginning of a world most of us cannot even contemplate while an inexplicable some of us bask in implausible deniability.

So a Biden decision to step aside at the top of his game and with the admiration and respect of the world — except perhaps the Russian, Iranian and North Korean parts of the world — would by necessity require the Democrats to move expeditiously toward a team that will win in 2024.

Whether most of the country likes it or not, that would appear to have Vice President Kamala Harris at the top of the ticket with a necessarily incredible vice presidential choice yet to be named.

But, before all that happens, I have a bit of advice for our vice president:

You can’t be all things to all people.

Those aren’t my sage words; those are the words of the ages. And they are true.

So when the vice president tries to placate a misguided youth movement that understandably cries when children and women and other innocent people are killed during war while at the same time it praises the murderers and kidnappers of innocent men, women and children in the most brutal and horrific ways, she is making a big leadership mistake.

No, Madame Vice President. It is not the “correct response” for those marchers to feel sorry for the death of innocents in Gaza while they are shouting murderous, antisemitic slogans, carrying antisemitic banners and screaming at the top of their lungs for the total destruction of Israelis, Jews, the state of Israel and the America in which they are marching.

No, ma’am. The correct response is to understand that war is hell and that those who continue to hold hostages and use Palestinian children as human shields are the bad guys, as are their puppet-masters in Iran. Feel badly for all of the innocents but feel nothing for the butchers who cause their deaths.

That would be closer to a correct response, and that would be closer to the kind of leadership that Americans deserve.

I don’t for a second question the vice president’s motives or her understanding of the situation in the Middle East. What I question is her commitment to —when push comes to shove — explain boldly and without equivocation the difference between right and wrong.

Biden has no problem and never has had a problem knowing right from wrong and standing up to those who try to blur the lines for political or personal reasons.

If Harris is the person who will lead the Democrats toward the White House this year, my first and most important suggestion is that she learn from Biden and understand the difference between political necessity and personal integrity.

One is acceptable some of the time. The other is required all of the time.

Brian Greenspun is editor, publisher and owner of the Sun.