The average citizen expects that after the changing of the guard at the White House, there will eventually be a couple of “insider” books which will air some of the dirty laundry for that administration. It used to be that those books would wait a discreet length of time, similar to a time of morning before the dead, or in this case, the dethroned would not be spoken of ill. Not any longer; the exit of the Biden administration has produced a fountain of tell all books in a remarkably brief period of time.
Fight was one of the first, and the two authors, both from left of center careers tell much of the story of the palace coup which led to an election unlike any other in U.S. history. They present a well-balanced book which is both kind and cruel to various players. They give credit where credit is due, such as to Kamala Harris for her successful efforts to quickly wrap up the delegate pledges despite the lack of support from former President Obama. While much of the hierarchy of the Democratic party procrastinated, Harris was on the phone, working to secure her position as the candidate of a party shaken by the turn of events. Unfortunately, from there, here next steps were halting and ineffectual. Pelosi held the view that there were “better candidates who didn’t have Harris’s negative, but that anyone would be better for House and Senate races than Biden” according to one Pelosi insider. Obama went as far as to tell Harris that she could not defeat Trump.
The book also details the gradual slippage of support for Biden after his disastrous debate against Trump. Biden was determined to hang on, as he had been pursuing the Presidency for years and was still upset at Obama for supporting Hillary Clinton. Additionally, Biden had been unsuccessful at selling his touted economic gains, he refused to acknowledge the terrible withdrawal from Afghanistan and his open border policy were all unpopular with the majority of Americans. After the failed debate, many Democrats wondered how they could sell another four-year term of a clearly shaky Biden to the public. It was a difficult choice for Obama, Clinton, and Pelosi but in the end, they decided that Biden simply had to go; up to fifty years of friendship was not as important as the maintenance of power.
Sadder than the betrayal Biden felt as he was abandoned by his long-term friends and allies was the complete misreading of pre-election polls and its impact on Harris. Up until election night, Harris was sure she was going to be victorious and like Hillary Clinton before her, but for different reasons, her loss hit her like a hammer. Despite spending over one point five billion dollars, she had failed at the basic level of being able to communicate with the average American. Missed opportunities were often due to her inability to balance her loyalty to Biden and her need to show she was her own person. She also simply did not have the skills necessary to play in the real world of politics where she had to stand on her own before the masses.
This is one of numerous books which have and will continue to flood the market, and each one will add to the mosaic that is the story of this past election. As the Democrats had to discard friendships and loyalty, so to will each of the stories told by insiders mean that they will have crossed the Rubicon against their party. Loyalty, or at least discretion, seem to have disappeared in the scramble for a publisher and royalties. The election is not a story that has many winners.
