Each time I mention Donald Trump’s un-fitness for office in this column, I hear from readers asking me for my thoughts on Joe Biden.

I’ve ignored them until now, because those notes imply a false equivalency between Trump and Biden, and that’s ridiculous. Trump has broken laws, lied repeatedly and laid plans to tear apart the fabric of our democracy. Biden has done nothing like that.

But the obvious faltering of Biden in his advanced age has brought a new round of notes from Trump backers, accusing me of ignoring the evidence that Biden is unfit while repeatedly laying out the case against Trump. That’s a valid point.

So, I’ll give you a few thoughts. But first, my Joe Biden story.

One of the early pieces I wrote as a young journalist was about Biden. My first daily newspaper job was at the Delaware State News in Dover, where I was the lone reporter covering the southernmost of the state’s three counties. More often than not, that meant covering the renowned coast towns, like Rehoboth Beach, but on occasion, I had stories on the other side of the state.

In 1983 or 1984, a bridge controversy roiled the town of Seaford near the Maryland border. A longstanding drawbridge was in sorry shape and had to be replaced. My memory is a bit hazy, as this was more than four decades ago, but I believe it was the Army Corps of Engineers that proposed replacing it with a fixed bridge, and Seaford was furious. Townspeople there thought the fixed bridge would cripple commerce on the river there by limiting the height of ships.

The town had been complaining about the plan for months, possibly even years, and the issue was boiling over around the time Seaford became part of my beat. A town meeting was arranged, to be attended by the state’s second-term U.S. senator, Joe Biden.

I don’t think I had been to Seaford before the night of that meeting, so I did not know what to expect. I walked into a room – a school gym, I think – that was jammed with people. Unhappy people. Angry people. I talked to a few about their expectations, and while they admired Biden, they planned to give him hell.

If memory serves, Biden was late, leaving the crowd to stew. And then, in a flash, he was gliding into auditorium. Not the man you see today. A young man, filled with energy. He was 41 or so, and his hair was still dark. And his voice was booming. I think he listened to concerns from some people in the crowd for a bit, but soon, he took the microphone, and what happened next was a wonder to behold for a neophyte reporter.

He mesmerized them. I can’t remember what he said, other than to promise he would not let them down, but I remember clearly his impact on those assembled. He charmed them. He made them laugh. He rallied them. And when he was finished, they were applauding him with vigor. 

In my young life, I had never seen anyone do what he did. He owned the room with the nothing more than force of personality.

Before writing this column, I tried to find the story I wrote about the session, but the paper’s online archives don’t go back that far. I’m sort of glad, because I’m sure my story was lacking. I also tried to figure out which bridge it was. I think it was the Market Street bridge over the Nanticoke River, which appears to remain a drawbridge, which means Biden would have lived up to his word and blocked the replacement. But I left Delaware after one year, and I did not follow the story.

I did follow Biden, however. After seeing him transfix that crowd, I wanted to see how far he might go. We all know the answer today.

So, what do I think of Biden? I think he has been the kind of leader we don’t see much anymore, a principled servant who has devoted his life to his state and his country. Yes, like all of us, he has made mistakes, but you can’t honestly compare them to the ceaselessly horrifying behavior of Trump.

That said, I’m sad that Biden remains in the race. No one defeats the clock, and time has diminished Biden’s mental capacity. I watched this happen with my mom before she died in February and know things will only get worse for Biden. America can see that he is, or soon will be, unfit to be the leader of the free world.

He has devoted his lifetime to a brighter American future, and his staying in the race quite likely darkens it. I wish he would do one final, selfless act of service to his nation and walk away. With any luck, he could persuade Michelle Obama to replace him, resulting in such a landslide win that no one could begin to claim a rigged election. She would spark a turnout like we haven’t seen, and more than anything, she would give us some hope that our era of darkness is lifting. 

Biden’s remaining in the race all but guarantees a return of Trump, and I can’t believe Biden wants that to be his enduring legacy. Withdrawing would be heroic.

You asked. I’ve answered.

I'm at cquinn@cleveland.com

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