‘Perhaps you were a little hasty.’ After Biden-Trump debate, perhaps a lot of us were | Opinion

As the great Tom Waits once sang, in a tune that is all taunt, “Perhaps you were a little — hasty, hehehe.” Perhaps a lot of us were.

In that Waits and Crystal Gayle song, “You Can’t Unring a Bell,” the point is that “you can’t take back the things you said,” either in pique or panic. You can, though, and more of us should try.

As pretty much everyone has acknowledged, Joe Biden’s disastrous “debate” with Donald Trump was a collision so ugly that we actually couldn’t wait to look away.

Biden seemed to have six thoughts trying to get out of his mouth at once, and none of them made their escape unscathed. While Trump fabricated and fictionalized so prodigiously, in ways that did not even appear designed to convince anyone, that you couldn’t help but remember that snarky Mary McCarthy quote about Lillian Hellman: “Everything she writes is a lie, including ‘and’ and ‘the.’”

Within hours, The New York Times editorial board and half of the paper’s columnists called on Biden to exit the race to save our democracy. I didn’t call for that, and neither did our editorial board.

But privately, I was thinking that maybe it was time for the reading of “The Watch,” that poem they read at military retirements, for our commander-in-chief.

During the last presidential season, I saw Joe as the right person for the job when almost no one I knew thought that.

In 2019, I wrote, “My friend Walter Shapiro has written that Biden is the ‘safety school’ of Democrats — regarded fondly, but the first choice of nobody. Early admission: He’s my Harvard, OK? And I do not favor the former vice president because I think he has the best chance of winning, which may or may not be true. Instead, if the contest were tomorrow, I’d vote Biden because I think he’d do the best job.”

Under impossible circumstances, he did not let me down. In fact, I agree with Paul Krugman that he has been the best president of my adult life. He has stood watch for our democracy, and I am so grateful. Still, after that scary debate last Thursday, I thought it might be time to say, “You stand relieved. We have the watch.”

But is that right? On the one hand, I don’t think that was just “one bad night.” C’mon, no. Nor does the argument that Biden on his worst day is better than Trump on his best move me. I mean, sure, but that’s also true of my handsome and valiant grandpup Joey, and I’m not pushing his candidacy.

Here’s what does matter: Biden is a force for good, and Trump for malevolence.

I don’t know what comes now, and the truth is that no one else does, either.

Yes, there are many other talented Democrats who could run, but even now, I don’t know that a single one of them would 1) have an easier path to victory or 2) do better if elected.

This does not mean I’m in the “Joe Biden no matter what” camp, but only that maybe we all need to hang on for a minute, and see what happens before rushing to say either that it’s got to be him or cannot be.

I still say a rosary every day, which is the biggest chill pill there is, and highly recommend either that or whatever your equivalent is in the meantime. It’s OK to acknowledge that we don’t know, because we don’t.