Why aren’t you ‘doing a Biden?’ Disgruntled citizens of allied countries want leaders to step aside
Some disgruntled citizens in US allied countries are asking why their own leaders aren’t “doing a Biden’’ — and stepping aside so that someone better can take over.
President Biden, 81, made history in July by dropping his reelection bid under intense pressure, and now demands for some other world leaders to follow suit and skedaddle from office are taking hold using variations of the new catchphrase, Politico reported.
Leaders in three allied countries are all dogged by lackluster approval ratings from voters and are facing elections in the not-too-distant future: German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, 66, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, 67, and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, 52.
Earlier this month, German news outlet Der Spiegel asked, “Why isn’t Scholz doing a Biden?” while highlighting how Scholz’s coalition has been battered by regional election losses.
“The chancellor could follow the example of US President Joe Biden: Instead of clinging to power and letting himself be taken apart piece by piece in the coming months, he is clearing the way for a new political start,” the outlet wrote.
Over the summer, Canadian broadcaster CBC also pondered, “Could Trudeau go next” in the wake of Biden’s seismic decision to bow out of the 2024 US presidential race.
Trudeau has been adamant that he intends to remain at the helm of his Liberal Party.
Recently, “Japanization” author William Pesek mused that Kishida was “having a Biden moment” after he stepped down at the helm of his party, the Liberal Democratic Party.
“Biden is out, and Kishida should retire quickly and honorably, too,” a LDP official said to Japanese newspaper Asahi Shimbun.
A member of Kishida’s cabinet also suggested to the Japan Times: “We need to closely watch the impact of [Biden’s withdrawal] on the party leadership race.”
As with the US, Germany and Canada have been grappling with cost-of-living issues in the aftermath of pandemic-related inflation woes.
Japan, which over recent decades scrambled to bring about a higher rate of inflation to stimulate its sluggish economy, has finally started to see inflation nudge upward and faced blowback as a result.
Biden developed a close rapport with Trudeau, Kishida and Scholz during his first term in office. The US president has been proud of the relationships he’s forged with foreign leaders.
Last week, the outgoing president invited world leaders from the four-nation Quad alliance — the US, Japan, Australia and India — to his home in Wilmington, Del., as they traveled to the US for the United Nations General Assembly meeting in Midtown Manhattan. The Quad was initially formed to protect maritime interests among the powerhouses.
