The entry below is being cross posted from Marjorie Arons Barron’s own blog.

Our phone has been ringing off the hook; our electronic mailboxes flooded. Friends, even staunch supporters of Joe Biden, have come to accept the idea that he is not well enough to serve another term. Worse, that he didn’t have the stamina even to win a second term. The stakes could not be higher. Now, the President’s announcement that he would do what seems best for the country, putting aside his own personal desires, and his embrace of Kamala Harris to be the Democratic Party’s nominee for President have breathed a whisper of optimism that Donald Trump can be defeated. As one wise person said to me, “I feel as if we’re climbing out of a hole.”

In passing the torch, finally, Biden is replicating George Washington’s magnanimous and statesmanlike behavior, putting country above self. Biden has been an extraordinary President, keeping the country together and helping to pull it out of the problems wreaked by the pandemic, creating jobs to underpin the recovery, protecting health care; capping certain drug costs and establishing the power for Medicare to negotiate with Big Pharma. He worked with Congress on a bipartisan basis to rebuild infrastructure, keep the government open, and launched the nation’s first serious commitment to fund initiatives to combat climate change. He got a modest gun safety bill through and set the groundwork for bringing manufacturing, especially of computer chips, back to the United States. He strengthened our international relations and finally got our troops out of Afghanistan, albeit with the tragic loss of 13 lives. It is arguably the most significant record of accomplishment since Lyndon Johnson. He will long be remembered for his skillful leadership, his big heart, and his humanity.

That said, his health has been on a downward trajectory, and he’s been unable to communicate effectively his achievements or articulate a compelling agenda for the future. The June 27 debate made that abundantly clear, especially if you compare that presentation to an interview he did a scant year ago on Sixty Minutes. Now it’s up to the Democratic Party to get their act together, show strength and turn their attention to differentiating themselves from Donald Trump and his goals. The contrast couldn’t be clearer.

Until this month, with most polls getting bleaker, it seemed we would be stuck with a race few wanted: between the self-referential despot Trump promises to be from Day One and Biden’s persona as a frail but dignified good man and once-effective President. Now Biden has withdrawn and endorsed Kamala Harris.

Donald Trump remains a daunting problem to be dealt with: a wildly popular convicted felon, business fraud and sexual assaulter, who has made clear the dictator he intends to be, the revenge tour he envisions for his second term, the autocratic impulse that legitimately threatens democracy. It’s all written down in the Project 2025 Playbook. Its 900 pages include (but are not limited to) a national ban on abortion, a dismembering of federal agencies, the expulsion of all illegal immigrants, and a return to America-First isolationism. He reflects the American version of a frightening and growing international pro-authoritarian zeitgeist. Trump has recently tried to gaslight his support of the Project 2025 agenda, but remember his history of outright lying about everything. (Just one example, he told evangelical supporters of extreme right-to-life positions to trust him but that he must moderate his support for a bit in order to win the general election.)

Six months ago – heck, even three months ago – I would not have been high on Kamala Harris at the top of the ticket. Since then, I have seen her come into her own. In the two years since Trump’s Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, threatening every woman (and men though they may not be as aware) in the United States, she has been on the road constantly, campaigning effectively on the issue. She has also traveled abroad, representing this country well. She has given full-throated defense of the Administration’s many accomplishments and its values for the future. Even her speaking style has become more fluid, her timing and cadence less tentative.

A wise former Republican leader whom I deeply respect helped to alleviate my earlier skepticism. He has known and watched her for nearly two decades. He told me, “She’s very bright, a pragmatic, traditional liberal, but not a ‘defund the police’ progressive.’” She’s been a district attorney, attorney general, a United States senator, and Vice President. He added that “she knows the world.” Beginning when she was district attorney in San Francisco, she has met with top government, military and foreign policy officials in and from many foreign countries. As a former prosecutor, he expects that Harris will be a terrific campaigner and formidable against Trump in the debates.

She is the logical replacement for Biden on the ticket, the legally sanctioned repository of the $91million of campaign donations already made to the Biden-Harris team. Early reports are that donors, who have been holding back during Biden’s Hamlet days, are now contributing money again.

Former Speaker Nancy Pelosi praised Biden’s decision, but she didn’t endorse Harris at this time. She has had concerns about the appearance of a Harris “coronation” and earlier had seemed to prefer an open convention. This brings its own risks. In Kamala Harris’s first public statement since Biden’s announcement, Harris said she intends to earn and win the nomination. The major outstanding question will be whether the convention delegates will get in line, especially the woke wing of the party, and, if they do not do so initially, whether the Democrats will come together by mid August and present as unified a party as Trump’s convention signaled.

I don’t have answers to these questions. Neither is there certitude about the best choice of a vice president. The next days and weeks will tell us much more. But right now I feel eternally grateful to President Biden for the difficult decision he has made, putting party and country above ego. This fulfills his intention four years ago to be a transitional figure, a bridge to the future. The grace of his message today permits us a spark of optimism we haven’t had for quite a while.