Chapter 30
I was conflicted. Above all, I knew the strength of Joe’s character, and I was proud of all his administration had accomplished.
I felt the people surrounding him were strong, with good judgment.
He had a young, capable vice president who could easily have taken the helm if needed. But could we get beyond this?
It had only been about three weeks since the debate, and some felt people would be willing to move past it.
Joe still thought things might turn around again and that he could win.
After all, he was the incumbent, he had accomplished so much, and there were no candidates polling better.
What made staying in impossible was that the Democratic party leaders had already decided he should no longer be the candidate.
It felt like at the first flicker of crisis, they splintered and fought and criticized one another.
Finally, it was time for Joe to decide if he was going to give in or find some way to endure.
There was no playbook for the situation he found himself in.
After Joe spoke for a while to Mike and Steve, he got Hunter on the phone.
Hunter insisted there was a pathway to victory.
He didn’t want his father to drop out. Ashley had said the same thing earlier that week, that the people she worked with kept saying to her, “Tell your dad not to let them paint him a certain way. He’s got to keep fighting. ”
From the porch, Joe called me into the conversation. Once I’d settled myself in a wicker chair, he asked what I thought.
“You have to decide this for yourself,” I said. “I cannot decide for you. I don’t want you to have my opinion. I will support whatever you choose to do.”
Had he grown too old for the job and I hadn’t noticed? I didn’t think so, but could I be objective enough to be sure? The doctors assured us that he was healthy and able.
At that point, Annie and Anthony were brought into the conversation.
Joe was clear-eyed and steady.
“All right, if we were to do this, how would we do it?” he said.
Mike was asked to go back to his hotel and write up a statement and then return a couple of hours later to talk through it.
Joe had weighed the advice of his most trusted advisors carefully. But I suspected there was one piece of information that influenced him more than the rest. Steve had told him that a group of senators was rumored to be planning to send him a letter telling him that it was time to go.
The Senate had always been the institution that he revered above all others. I always believed that his greatest love was for, in order: God, his family, and then the Senate. Getting that letter might have actually killed him; he’d have died from a broken heart.
Mike drafted the announcement. Together, he and Joe did some tinkering, and then Joe said he was going to sleep on it.