Biden should have given this speech a year ago

This is the speech President Joe Biden should have given a year ago.

In a barely 10-minute address to the nation from behind the Resolute Desk on Wednesday night, Biden put a bow on his decision to abandon his cratering re-election campaign.

Biden, still recovering from Covid, spoke haltingly and at times seemed to slur his words — sometimes repeating sentences with the words rearranged a bit. Even when he was boasting of his administration’s accomplishments, there was a mournful tenor in his voice. He looked exposed. 

But his appeals for unity amid ongoing attacks on our democracy didn’t ring hollow. He came off like a patriotic American who saw his predecessor unforgivably botch the early days of a pandemic and then try to overturn the results of a free and fair election. Biden, for all his baggage, understands the dangers on the horizon. 

Yes, he’s a career politician who ran for president three times. He’s always wanted this job and never wanted to give it up. But sitting in the Oval Office, surrounded by family and staff members, Biden didn’t look like a man defeated by an uprising within his own party. He looked like a man who finally accepted reality and who needs some rest.