The reactions were devastating: Her Future? Is this really all about them?
In fairness, the line on the cover, which also appeared in Vogue’s submissive profile, was taken from a campaign speech about women’s empowerment.
But the statement the first lady gave to the magazine after President Biden’s disastrous debate performance was no more reassuring. She insisted that the president “will always do what is best for the country,” even as she defiantly declared that he “will not allow these 90 minutes to define the four years he is president. We will keep fighting.”
The best thing for the country would be if the Bidens did not continue this fight, at least not in the way they have done so far.
If the president decides to stay in the race, he will have to be a very different kind of candidate – and a very different kind of president. He will have to shed the protective shrink wrap that encases him and step more out from behind his teleprompter. But most of all, this moment requires complete candor about whether this 81-year-old man is fit for another four years in the world’s most grueling job.
No one knows his true condition better than his wife, who appears to be his closest confidante. But the president’s tendency to rely on his family’s advice will not help him or the nation, nor will his palace guards’ declaration that the country had experienced nothing more than a “bad night” last Thursday.
Let’s hope the conversations between the couple are more honest than the embarrassing, infantilizing performance Jill Biden gave when they appeared onstage at a post-debate viewing party. “Joe, you did so well!” Jill said. “You answered every question! You knew all the facts!” She must be suppressing the reflex that made her shove a heckler off the stage at one of her husband’s 2020 campaign events.
I admire Jill Biden and have long believed that the First Lady is the White House’s most undervalued and underutilized asset.
She is the first presidential wife to insist on pursuing her own career while living in the White House. She teaches English at a community college after mustering the courage to pursue her doctorate in education at age 55. The position offers her a connection to the real world of people struggling to get ahead in ways few in the rarefied atmosphere of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue can understand. She has also taken on the concerns of military families, including spouses frustrated by their limited career options in a life that requires an attempt at uprooting every few years.
And then there is her personal story of how she saved a family – a father and two little boys – that was shattered by the loss of a wife and mother, a young daughter and a sister.
“I never thought that at age 26 I would be asking myself, ‘How do you bring a broken family back together?'” she said in her speech at the 2020 Democratic National Convention. “But Joe always told the boys, ‘Mommy sent us Jill,’ and how could I say no to her? And so we figured it out together.”
If the president and his wife now decide together that he should stay in the race, Jill Biden must ensure that he can do his best, whatever that may be. Even if he is required to appear in unplanned situations more often, she must push back against the planners and politicians who also argue that the president should be everywhere at once. She must ensure that he gets rest when he needs it. She must take on a Nancy Reagan-like role as internal enforcer.
And when they decide the time has come to end his 50-year commitment to public service, Jill Biden will once again be called upon to show strength and resilience to help him, his party and the nation through the turmoil ahead.
Yes, “First Lady” is a title that does not come with a job description. Each had to figure it out for themselves. But few have passed such a great test as Jill Biden has now. And the line on the cover of Vogue is true. The Bidens will indeed decide their future – and that of the rest of us too.
