Biden Shouldn’t Leave Race — Trump Should, Says Inquirer

People watching last Thursday’s presidential debate between Donald Trump and Joe Biden, after which calls quickly came for Joe Biden to leave the race (Getty Images)

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Joe Biden Shouldn’t Leave Race — Donald Trump Should, Says Inquirer

There has been no shortage of media outlets and other influential voices to call on President Joe Biden to leave the race for the presidency after his disastrous performance at last Thursday night’s debate with Donald Trump.

Joe Scarborough of MSNBC’s Morning Joe said that he fears that “Donald Trump will be the next president of the United States, unless things change.”

New Yorker editor David Remnick wrote that Biden remaining the Democratic choice for president “would be an act not only of self-delusion but of national endangerment.”

The editorial board of the Chicago Tribune opined that the idea of Biden serving another four years as president is “ridiculous.”

And the New York Times’s editorial board was quick to strike with this headline that pretty much said it all: “To Serve His Country, President Biden Should Leave the Race.”

But the Philadelphia Inquirer‘s editorial board took a much different approach over the weekend, playing off of the headline in the New York Times with the following: “To Serve His Country, Donald Trump Should Leave the Race.”

“President Joe Biden’s debate performance was a disaster,” the Inquirer editorial board wrote. “His disjointed responses and dazed look sparked calls for him to drop out of the presidential race. But lost in the hand wringing was Donald Trump’s usual bombastic litany of lies, hyperbole, bigotry, ignorance, and fear mongering. His performance demonstrated once again that he is a danger to democracy and unfit for office. In fact, the debate about the debate is misplaced. The only person who should withdraw from the race is Trump.”

The Inquirer piece went on to call Trump an “unserious carnival barker running for the most serious job in the world.” No mincing words over there at the Inquirer‘s offices. You can read the whole Trump takedown here.

The day before the editorial board had a chance to weigh in, Inquirer columnist Kyle Sammin ran his own opinion piece falling in line with much of the other media intelligentsia in the country, writing that Biden “should step aside for the good of the country.”

Speaking of Presidents…

Temple University has been looking for a new president since March 2023. That’s when Jason Wingard stepped down after less than two years as Temple prez over concerns about campus safety and security. Well, Temple has found its new president in well-respected Drexel University head John Fry. The news comes a little shy of Fry’s 15th anniversary at Drexel. Can he do at Temple what he’s done at Drexel, which has been nothing short of transformative? Let’s hope so.

New Tinted-Windows Ordinance Goes Into Effect

Back in May, I told you about the upcoming crackdown on illegally tinted windows in Philadelphia. That crackdown goes into effect today. Previously, police could only issue tickets for illegally tinted windows as part of a traffic stop. But now, authorities can issue such a ticket for a parked car. Windows too dark? That’ll be $100, please and thank you.

By the Numbers

$250: Maximum fine a restaurant could receive in Upper Merion Township for violating a brand new ban on plastic utensils. What we really need to worry about banning are those gross Styrofoam coffee cups that somehow still exist.

25,797: Tickets the Philadelphia Parking Authority has issued over the last 45 days for mobility-related parking violations like parking in spaces reserved for drivers with disabilities and blocking curb cuts and crosswalks. That’s thanks to a new initiative announced by the PPA in late April. Hopefully this means they’re handing out fewer tickets for inspections stickers that expired three days ago. But something tells me that’s not the case.

$212 million: Four-year deal the Sixers just struck with Paul George, who has decided to leave the Los Angeles Clippers for us. Hopefully he can help us take it all the way in the upcoming season. We haven’t won an NBA championship since the days when Frank Rizzo was running for mayor.

Local Talent

Two years ago, Overbrook High School grad Will Smith’s name was in the gutter thanks to the Oscars-slapping incident. But here it is July 2024 (Happy July!), and he’s certainly turned things around. His latest effort in the Bad Boys franchise opened in June and has grossed over $330 million worldwide thus far. Not quite Barbie numbers, but in an era when “nobody goes to the movies anymore,” nobody at the studio is complaining. And last night, he dazzled at the BET Awards, performing a just-released song (his first since 2017), surrounded by flames and backed by a gospel choir. (You can watch it here.) The song is from his upcoming album, Dance In Your Darkest Moments. It will be his first studio album in almost two decades.

Meanwhile, you can catch Smith’s former right hand man DJ Jazzy Jeff out on tour this summer with the New Kids On the Block and Paula Abdul. They all come to the Mann on August 15th.