Why Joe Biden won’t go

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Hello from London,

Before the serious stuff: the liveable cities index, EIU’s guide to the best (and worst) cities to live in, is published. I recommend it. 

Comedy and politics have at least one thing in common: timing really matters. By now, in the aftermath of Joe Biden’s disastrous debate performance last week, I’d hoped to be seeing and hearing plenty of evidence that leaders of the Democratic Party—and perhaps, most importantly, the First Lady, Jill Biden—were acting. But Mr Biden’s campaign has tried to save him, and has succeeded for now. In public there has been plenty of Democratic support for him to stay in the race. This is a mistake: he should announce that he is stepping down. Those around him should take his frailty seriously and say frankly that he should go. Are Democratic leaders waiting to see how opinion polls shift? Perhaps serious conversations are happening in private, without any details leaking. But I fear that, with each passing day, the Democrats are showing they are really too weak to act. 

In fact the Democrats have a deep bench of (much younger) plausible candidates to replace Mr Biden. We’ve published an explainer with short profiles of those we’d see as front-runners. My hunch is that any of them would challenge Mr Trump more effectively, now, than Mr Biden can. I’ve been imagining how a similar situation might play out if a British prime minister were evidently as frail as Mr Biden. At least in the Conservative Party, I’ve no doubt that close colleagues and allies would be lining up to force their leader to go, and quickly. Even the most revered figures—such as Margaret Thatcher, in 1990—have been forced out of office by their own colleagues, not by voters. The Democrats could benefit from similar decisiveness.

To follow our latest coverage of the race I suggest you sign up for our daily newsletter, “The US in brief”.

Incumbent elected leaders are faltering all over the place. In yesterday’s first round of voting in the French legislative elections, Marine Le Pen’s hard-right National Rally (RN) won the biggest share of votes, leaving the centrists of Emmanuel Macron, the president, trailing in third place. The second round is on Sunday: we’ll be watching to see whether the RN can secure a majority, or whether the hard left, in second place, and the centre can keep it out of office. 

And in Britain, at last, the general election is upon us. It has been a lacklustre campaign, barely enlivened by a ridiculous scandal over politicians gambling on the date of the election. The only real question, according to our forecast model and all the pollsters, is just how big a victory awaits Sir Keir Starmer and the Labour Party. We published a profile of Sir Keir last week, in case you want to get up to speed on Britain’s probable new leader. In addition, we have published a look at Rachel Reeves, who is very likely to be the next chancellor.

For some lighter relief, the latest edition of Dateline is live. I spurn any suggestion that the question on “The Godfather” is related to my recent visit to Sicily.

Thank you to those who have been writing in, including one or two who have informed me that I’m wrong about England’s looming exit from the Euros. Those correspondents insist that football is, indeed, coming home. May I respond by pointing you to our piece arguing that the modern game’s home is actually Austria. 

Finally, I asked for your views on Britain’s election. We have set out our endorsement of the Labour Party and Sir Keir, which I recommend and agree with. Overwhelmingly, whether in Britain or abroad, you came to the same conclusion. Many set out the anti-incumbent argument: that the Conservatives should be ejected, after years of misrule, with Labour as the obvious alternative. Jasper Kenter, in Aberystwyth, Wales, made the case for voting Green, because “Britain, and the world, is in spectacular denial about the severity of the threats of climate change and ecosystem collapse.” My hope, Jasper, is that Labour is serious about speeding up the shift to a low-carbon economy.

For next Sunday, when the final results of the French election are in, I’d like to hear your views on how moderate democratic parties should reduce the impact of the far right? Write to me at economisttoday@economist.com. 

Adam Roberts, digital editor

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A crushing blow for Emmanuel Macron’s centrist alliance

A dramatic new era began in France on June 30th when Marine Le Pen’s hard-right party took a massive lead in first-round voting for the lower house of parliament. Her National Rally (RN) has never been so close to governing France. Official results showed that the RN had secured 33.2% of the vote. IPSOS, a pollster, estimated that, as France now heads to a final run-off vote on July 7th, this puts it on course to win 230-280 seats in the 577-seat National Assembly, up from 88, and become easily the biggest group in parliament. A result at the upper end of that range would put the RN in touching distance of an overall majority of 289.

Why Joe Biden won’t go

President Joe Biden’s performance in his presidential debate against Donald Trump on June 27th called his continued candidacy into question. In the days since, however, the campaign has tried to save Mr Biden, and has succeeded for now. Privately, Mr Biden’s surrogates worked to quell the anxieties of donors worried about throwing good money after bad, and down-ballot candidates worried about their own political survival. Publicly, they came up with a remarkable number of explanations for the president’s display: it was just a cold, a sore throat, a single bad night, a senior moment—well, 90 senior minutes, sure, but don’t you realise that Mr Trump is an existential threat to democracy?

Why everyone should think like a lawyer

Lawyers are often seen as the most tedious of professionals. And the most derided (“What do you know when you find a lawyer up to his neck in concrete? Someone ran out of concrete”). Yet that damning reputation is undeserved: lawyers are in fact role models. The method and meticulousness entrenched in the legal style of thought has something to teach other knowledge workers and their managers.

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