perspective of Senator Jeff Merkley Jim Hightower and Jonathan Cohn

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From Senator Jeff Merkley
7/22/24

Yesterday, President Biden decided to step aside from the 2024 presidential campaign.
Let’s all give a wholehearted thank you to President Biden for everything he’s achieved so far. No president in my lifetime has done more than Joe Biden.
Under his leadership, we’ve had historic investments in American manufacturing, renewable energy, and infrastructure, strengthened our security, and repaired relationships around the world.
Throughout decades of public service, President Biden has led with humility and compassion, with a laser focus on making life better for ordinary Americans. I am grateful to have worked with him to serve the people and stand up to the powerful, and I respect his decision that positions us to protect the programs he’s championed.
This election is between democracy and autocracy. And we need the strongest Democratic candidate to take on and beat Donald Trump and his MAGA agenda. That’s why I proudly endorse Vice President Kamala Harris for president.
Kamala Harris shares my mission of taking on the powerful to deliver for the people. She will fight for reproductive rights, American jobs, and security abroad. She will champion housing, education, healthcare, and equal rights.

From Jim Hightower
On Joe, Kamala, and the Coming Fight
JUL 23

My instant feeling upon hearing that President Biden was stepping down was not political anxiety (aw jeez, another earthquake!), and certainly not any joy in seeing Joe deposed—but pure relief. Suddenly, the deck was shuffled, and now (not a moment too soon), we have a good hand, allowing us to focus squarely on Donald’s dangerous dementia, Project 2025, and the assault on America’s democracy by the combined forces of authoritarian elites and Christian nationalist theocrats.
Kamala Harris is our logical political choice to head up job number one: Discombobulate and defeat Trumpism. An accomplished woman, a woman of color, and a child of immigrants, she’s an experienced and forceful former prosecutor with the smarts to nail the convicted criminal opposing her… and us. Sure, her policies are not as progressive as I want them to be, but neither were Biden’s, and her views are something we can continue to work on. If Trump wins in November, we won’t have even a slight chance to shape the future of an America that stands for, and with, everyone.
While the urgent need in the next 104 (!) days is to focus on the November election, I can’t stress enough that we are in this for the long haul. Campaigns end, movements don’t. We must continue to invest in the local, grassroots organizing that actually bends that long arc of justice, building the capacity to have policies and people that represent the real values of America: fairness, equity and opportunity for all.

www.huffpost.com/entry/joe-biden-policy-record-legacy_n_669986b2e4b086df0a294ab3
How History Might Remember Joe Biden’s Presidency
By Jonathan Cohn