Michael Goodwin: Biden defending his presidency even has the Dems wanting him to go away

Many Democrats are no doubt convinced they have suffered enough, but fate seems to believe otherwise. How else to explain Joe Biden’s decision to start making public appearances and defend his presidency? First he did a dry run with the BBC, then jumped into a warm bubble bath at “The View”– and still nearly drowned. Amidst the usual half-sentences and frozen delays came this gem about what he’s up to: “I’m trying to figure out what’s the most significant and consequential role I can play, consistent with what I’ve done in the past.” The sound you hear is 40 million Democrats smashing their heads against walls and shouting “No, no, no! You can help by going back to sleep!” But wait, there’s more: The former president said he’s writing a book. We’ve heard it all before, so here are likely chapter headings: “My son did nothing wrong.” “I beat Corn Pop, a really bad dude.” “Did you know I grew up in Scranton and we had a kitchen table?” To complete the nightmare, the TV segment featured another unwelcome reminder of the last four years: Jill Biden grabbing the microphone to defend him when the former president couldn’t defend himself. Asked about coming books that promise to reveal how aides hid his cognitive decline, she insisted the authors “didn’t see how hard Joe worked every single day.” “I mean, he’d get up, he put in a full day, and then at night he would, I’d be in bed, you know, reading my book, and he was still on the phone, reading his briefings, working with staff,” she said.“I mean, it was nonstop.” Nobody alive believes that, or another dishonest claim he offered. “The only reason I got out of the race was because I didn’t want to have a divided Democratic Party,” Biden said.“It’s a simple proposition.

I thought it was better to put the country ahead of my interest, my personal interest.” Please. The segment did succeed in one sense: It illustrated how unfit Biden w...