David Brooks to Biden: Be Post-Politics, Don’t Try to Fight an Old Battle

EXCERPT:

BROOKS: “You know, I think he’s empirically wrong about that. You know, Kamala Harris ran about as good a campaign as she could. She was saddled with the Biden legacy, an unpopular presidency. Biden would have been saddled by that legacy, in addition to his age. So, you take those two factors, it’s hard to see how he wins. But he’s a man with a — you know, he’s a proud man with a chip on his shoulder, who feels himself under attack, frankly, in the Democratic Party and the Republican Party. And so he wants to stand up for himself. I would only counsel him, as someone who’s a longtime admirer of Joe Biden, is that what we want from our presidents is not more politics. What we want from our presidents is somebody who’s post-politics, who can speak to us from a higher level, not in the partisan mud. And Jimmy Carter did that. I think George W. Bush has done that through his painting. You do a book of paintings about immigrants, you do a book about paintings about veterans, you have expressed a set of values without being political. And if I were — if Joe Biden ever called me to say what should he do with his post-presidency, which is probably not going to happen — you never know, you never know, and I would say, be post-political, rise above it and don’t get back in — don’t try to fight old battle.”

(via RealClearPolitics)