Left Out    

Project coordinator: Gedalia Guttentag

The emergency rooms must be filling up with victims of whiplash — the many Americans who are following this head-spinning presidential election.

First came Donald Trump’s conviction on May 30, which made his reelection that much more of a tough sell among independents. On June 27, the narrative shifted dramatically, as Joe Biden self-combusted at the first debate, with a halting performance laying bare his decline. Cue weeks of Democratic infighting, as the media and party barons tried to force him out while Team Biden refused to let go.

Biden’s campaign was squeezed for cash and the big beasts of Democratic politics — Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer, and Barack Obama — were gearing up for a brutal eviction effort when attention suddenly swung back to Donald Trump. On July 13, an assassin came within a whisker of killing the Republican candidate. The violence had the effect of relieving pressure on the Biden campaign — but only temporarily.

Joe Biden’s retreat to recover from Covid — at the same time his opponent hit the campaign trail, immediately after surviving an attempt on his life — highlighted Biden’s fading.

Everyone could see it coming, and yet no one could be sure it would come at all. The lifelong tenacity — verging on obduracy — that had earned him the presidency prevented Biden from seeing the obvious. And so, the president’s dramatic announcement on Sunday that he was ending his run blindsided many, notably his own staffers.