I think the days when newspaper endorsements of political candidates impact the electorate, especially presidential candidates, are long gone. 

Most people no longer read a real newspaper the old-school way. You know, it's delivered to your home or you pick one up somewhere and read it with a cup of coffee to get the news of the day.  Everything is online and on social media. For better or worse, that is where most people turn to for news. 

When Donald Trump ran for president, he said something out loud at his rallies that conservatives had felt for a long time. The liberal bias in news coverage is real. So, when newspapers endorse Democrats it is no surprise.

But, what about when liberal newspapers turn on a Democrat president? That is noteworthy. After President Biden's disastrous debate debacle, many news outlets printed op-eds that it was time for Joe Biden to walk off into the sunset. The New York Times was the biggie. That's the one that the left treasures. 

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution may not seem like a biggie but certainly, in this election cycle, it is. The editorial board published an op-ed Saturday in which it said that in order to beat former President Trump in November, Joe Biden must leave the race. It's time to pass the torch.

Throughout the excruciating 90-minute forum Thursday night, the president failed to convey a competent and coherent vision for the future of America. He failed to outline the most fundamental aspects of his platform. He failed to take credit for the significant accomplishments of his 3½ years in office. And he failed to counter the prevarications of an opponent, who, according to CNN fact-checker Daniel Dale, lied 30 times during the course of the debate, approximately once every 90 seconds of his allotted time.

President Biden’s surrogates attempted to brush off the debate performance. Aides claimed he had a cold. Vice President Kamala Harris argued the leader of the free world should be evaluated on the totality of his presidency, not one night. Former President Barack Obama took to social media and said, “Bad debate nights happen.”

These responses are insulting to the American people.

This wasn’t a bad night; it was confirmation of the worst fears of some of Biden’s most ardent supporters — that after 36 years in the U.S. Senate, eight more as vice president and a term in the White House, age has finally caught up to him.

This moment was contemplated by Democrats and by Biden advisers when he was seeking the party’s nomination for president in 2020. There was serious and public discussion of Biden, then 77, pledging to serve only one term. That discussion acknowledged the obvious. If reelected, Biden would be 86 years old at the end of his presidency in January 2029. There is no historical precedent for this. And now there are signs of decline, which were clear Thursday.

There was a weird mention of George Washington and a nebulous connection to Biden - Washington stepped aside for the good of the country which proves there is precedent for Biden to do it. Washington wanted to avoid the perception of becoming an American dictator so with the encouragement of Alexander Hamilton and James Madison, he delivered his famous farewell address, though he never really delivered it. When he decided not to run for a third term, the address was drafted and then published a couple of months later. 

Washington and Biden are apples and oranges, in my opinion. Whatever. Biden is nowhere near the same league as Washington. He's not even better than Jimmy Carter. 

The op-ed concentrates on Trump's alleged lies - suddenly CNN's fact-checker came out of his four-year retirement during the Biden administration and claims Trump lied 30 times. That's a talking point for Biden and his campaign, too. It points to the fact that "his former vice president, chief of staff, and numerous Cabinet members have repudiated him. "While it is true that Georgia Governor left the presidential choice blank on his ballot in the primary, Kemp said he would vote for Trump in November.  

The op-ed noted that "Trump remains at the top of the Republican ticket is a testament to the deep divisions and tribalism that has come to define American politics in the 21st century." What it doesn't say is that Barack Obama and Joe Biden divided this country to an extreme level long before Trump entered national politics. 

The AJC piece admits that for Biden to be replaced with another candidate it would require a lot of bobbing and weaving with the regulations and rules of the DNC. Yet, if Biden is serious about his determination to stop Trump, the op-ed says Biden must do that.

Biden’s candidacy was grounded in his incumbency and the belief of Democratic leaders and pollsters that he stood the best chance of defeating Trump in November. That is no longer the case.

That reality may be difficult to accept for a man whose personal and political lives have been defined by resiliency, but it is the truth.

Biden deserves a better exit from public life than the one he endured when he shuffled off the stage Thursday night.

If he displays the courage and dignity that have defined his political career, he might follow in the footsteps of the nation’s first president and welcome his retirement, secure in the knowledge that he again served his country with honor.

That ending is the biggest whopper of all. Biden is not a man of integrity and has not served with honor. His time in the Senate meant he spent almost 50 years dividing America. He worked to destroy the bipartisan process of the Supreme Court justices' nominations (Robert Bork, Miguel Estrada, and Clarence Thomas, anyone?), he's racist, and he's a serial liar and plagiarist. He's the Big Guy in the Biden Crime Family. The list goes on and on. 

Whatever happened to his promise to be a transitional president - a one-term placeholder so that the Democrats could launch their next-generation leadership in 2024? He lied about that, too. He and Jilly from Philly aren't going anywhere.

Georgia is a big deal for both campaigns. Biden and Harris have made numerous trips there since they came into office. They know it is almost impossible to win in November without Georgia. The Real Clear Politics aggregate shows Trump up by 4 points in Georgia. The latest AJC poll has Trump up by 5 points. 

This op-ed is a crushing blow to Team Biden. The media is doing its best to repair the damage the debate did to Biden's campaign. Senator Raphael Warnock appeared on Meet the Press on Sunday morning. He didn't really sing the praises of Biden as much as he trashed Trump. This is the tactic used by all the Democrats who are loyally clinging to Biden and their own power. Biden doesn't have much to run on so it's all about trashing Trump.