Opinion | Treating Biden like LBJ? Project 2025, here we come!

After three years of superb governance that restored our standing in the world and gave us the best economy in decades, President Biden had a bad night at the debate. Doesn’t The Post owe its readers a sense of perspective? Instead of taking a breath, cutting him some slack for a day or so, The Post rushed like lemmings to call for him to step down. Where was commensurate coverage of his unworthy opponent? Has The Post become so inured to Donald Trump’s deranged rants and outrageous lies? Have they become so “ordinary” that The Post’s writers won’t call him out for a performance that insults the office? I guess it wasn’t “news” like Biden’s fatigue-plagued performance.

The Post’s writers might be too young to recall the last time Democrats hounded a sitting president into stepping out of the race. But they should consider how Lyndon B. Johnson’s withdrawal gave us Richard M. Nixon. Nixon was a small-time crook whose criminal activities were preschool antics compared with those of the felon who might take the presidency next. And, in those days, there were honorable, patriotic Republican lawmakers who persuaded Nixon to resign. Not one such person will represent the GOP in Congress next year.

Elections are always a choice between flawed human beings, each of whom could form a government. Biden has done that admirably. Is The Post really ready for Project 2025?

Susan Barnes, Newport, R.I.

Reading David Von Drehle’s July 1 op-ed, “For Biden, the LBJ lesson,” I was shocked Von Drehle made no comparison regarding timing. President Lyndon B. Johnson’s surprise announcement that he would not run for reelection was on March 31, 1968, giving the Democratic Party seven months’ notice. With four months till Election Day, President Biden is running for reelection, approval ratings be damned. Mr. Von Drehle: Our dude will not abide!

Nanc R. Hawkins, Arlington

Although I often disagree with Kathleen Parker on social and political issues, I have always respected her viewpoints. This changed, however, upon reading her July 7 op-ed, “How Joe Biden got trapped.” Many commentators have expressed dismay at the fact that Jill Biden appears to be enabling her husband in denying his apparent cognitive decline. Though this criticism is legitimate, Parker’s op-ed was unnecessarily mean-spirited. Her suggestion that the first lady is pushing her husband to stay in the race because she is “probably not eager to retreat to Delaware with … a stranger content to watch dust particles do the hokey pokey in a shaft of sunlight” is an insult to those experiencing declining cognition as well as to the loved ones caring for them. Is this how she would react, should she find herself in a similar situation in the future?

In his June 30 op-ed, “The nation deserves a better debate. Or does it?,” George F. Will beautifully encapsulated what I have struggled to understand about the opposing party.

By quoting Abraham Lincoln, during the first Lincoln-Douglas debate, in Ottawa, Ill., Will succeeded in turning on a lightbulb above my head.

Lincoln said of Southerners, “They are just what we would be in their situation.”

Instantly, my demonization of the other party ceased. I was able to see my party more clearly in the same light.

Thank you, Mr. Will, for restoring some sanity and humanity to these chaotic times.

Linda Trytek, Deerfield, Ill.

I question Jeffrey H. Smith’s description of the Caribbean, and possibly the entire Western Hemisphere, as “our neighborhood” in his June 28 op-ed, “Russian warships off Cuba risk 1962 all over again.” If these sovereign nations are “our neighborhood,” is Ukraine, and possibly all of Eastern Europe, Russia’s neighborhood? We can’t have it both ways.

Gabriel Sucher, Rockville

Why are restaurants so loud? In snarkier moments, I’ve conjectured that architects and restaurant owners despise those of us with hearing loss. As described by the July 2 Health & Science article “What science tells us about noisy restaurants,” hard, reverberant surfaces, often with music blaring, are just the design for making people raise their voices to be heard, which only adds to the auditory chaos in a vicious cycle of decibels.

I have fantasied an alternative: a nationwide chain of tea rooms and coffee houses to be called the Quiet Place. With carpeted floors, acoustical ceilings, covered walls and high booths, Quiet Place locations would offer people a cozy space for relaxed, intimate conversation, confidential meetings and quiet reading.

Restaurants that offered a noise-reduced experience would, judging from customer noise complaints, likely be popular, especially among the growing number of us hearing-challenged folks who struggle to isolate one voice from a cacophony.

Entrepreneurs take note: If you build it, we will come.

David G. Myers, Holland, Mich.

The article about noisy restaurants was excellent and long overdue. As the authors pointed out, the problems don’t challenge only older people like me. Tom Sietsema made a small step in 2008 when he began to publish decibel levels in his reviews. He could make a huge difference by publishing a ranking, perhaps semiannually, of restaurants by noise categories: “conversation is easy,” “must speak with a raised voice,” “extremely loud,” etc. I suspect that older adults are a disproportionate percentage of your readers, and we will especially appreciate this. Such a prominent ranking would not only please diners but also give restaurants added incentive to take steps to reduce their noise levels. They can compete on the dining experience they offer as much as the food they serve.

Mary Jo Deering, Bethesda

After reading the June 16 Travel article “The world’s coolest hotels want to tell you a story,” I was reminded of the time about 20 years ago when I met up with my best friend for cocktails at the recently opened Standard on the Sunset Strip. Dressed in our coolest club outfits, we walked in to see the beautiful people lounging in low-slung seats, sipping martinis. We stood at the end of the long black bar trying to catch the bartender’s eye. Only two other guys were at the other end of the counter, also not getting any attention. After 10 minutes of attempting to procure a drink and wondering whether we weren’t cool enough to get served, we waved a $20 bill at the gentleman behind the bar. He finally walked over and in a low voice said, “Ladies, this is the front desk. The bar is in the next room.”

Victoria Borton, Arlington

In extolling the talents of Martin Mull, the June 30 obituary “Wry comedic master was unbound by any one medium” [Metro] and Geoff Edgers’s July 1 Appreciation, “Mull’s subversive genius was pitch-perfect” [Style], left one out: his ability to handle hecklers. I saw Mull open for Fairport Convention in the late 1970s, and while most of the audience was enjoying his hilarious set, a few loudmouths began clamoring for the main act. Without missing a beat, Mull, with a gleam in his eye, and his half-angelic/half-wicked smile, began riffing on their outbursts to the thorough delight of the crowd. A casual observer could be forgiven for thinking Mull had planted them to provide grist for his jokes. Realizing they were losers in this battle of wits, the hecklers finally displayed a bit of judgment that until then had been absent: They shut up.

It’s long past time to jettison “Mark Trail.” The narratives and drawings are desultory, and the “facts” too often wrong. The June 30 strip contained two errors:

1. “The bison is the largest mammal in America by mass. Males can weigh up to 2,000 lbs. while females weigh 1,000 lbs. — larger than a car.” Actually, the average car weight in the Environmental Protection Agency’s 2023 Auto Trends Report was just over 4,000 pounds, or twice the male bison’s maximum weight. (The average subcompact weighed about 2,500 pounds; the lightest car for sale in the United States, the Mitsubishi Mirage, weighed 2,095 pounds, about equal to a bull bison.)

2. “Bison used to number in the millions in the U.S., but that was before humans hunted them to near extinction in the late 1900s.” Actually, the nadir of the bison population in the United States came in the 1880s (some sources specify 1884) — a century earlier than the late 1900s. (“The late 19th century” would have been correct.)

Cartoonist Jules Rivera or a Post editor could do some fact-checking, I suppose, but the comic strip really isn’t worth it.

I hate it when The Post gets cute with animated articles, such as July 6’s “What would happen if Russia detonated a nuclear bomb in space?” The Post could at the very least give the option of a plain text article. I get that the paper needs to engage new audiences, but keep this up and you will lose subscribers. It was a short article of little substance, and the required scrolling didn’t make it any better.

Glenn Riley, Kailua-Kona, Hawaii

The headline on the July 4 Local Living article “Why a pet’s death can hurt worse than losing a human loved one” stopped me in my tracks. Yes, we love our pets and their loss hurts our hearts. I certainly loved the little dog I had for 17 years.

But did her death in any way compare to the death of my father way too early, my mother at five months less than 100 or my husband, who was unwell but whose death still was a devastating and unexpected shock?

I wanted to empathize with the premise, and indeed I did, but my pity for people whose lives apparently haven’t held much human love or kindness certainly outweighed that emotion. I am sorry for your loss but more sorry that you have not had as comforting a human connection.

Penny Suritz, Ocean View, Del.

The article on pet loss was a valuable service to the millions of people struggling and feeling guilty about the extent of their grief over losing their pet, especially a dog or cat.

I would have liked to see a word or two about the variability in the length of time a person grieves — from a month or so to a year or so — and their readiness to acquire another dog or cat. So often, I hear people say, “I should be over it by now.” In our relationships with people — family and others — there are typically both positive and negative experiences. In the human-animal bond, it’s all positive with rare exceptions.

Sheila L. Cohen, Chevy Chase

I’m 12 years old, and I’m writing because I think it would be super awesome if The Post included European soccer scores in the Sports section.

Lots of my friends and I follow European soccer leagues and players including Cristiano Ronaldo, and a lot of kids my age are really into sports from all over the world, not just the ones here in the United States. We follow our favorite players on social media and watch highlights online. Including European soccer scores would make us want to read the newspaper more because it covers something we love and follow closely.

There are also some really great American players in European soccer leagues, among them Christian Pulisic, Weston McKennie and Giovanni Reyna, and we always want to know how they are doing. Seeing their scores and achievements in The Post would be exciting and make us feel proud of our American players.

Adding European soccer scores might also bring more people to read The Post. There are lots of people from different countries living in the United States who love European soccer. They would probably love to see their favorite teams and players covered in the newspaper. Plus, The Post might get some cool ads from soccer brands that want to reach more fans.

Finally, I think including European soccer scores would show that The Post cares about what’s popular and interesting to a lot of people. Soccer is the most popular sport in the world, and it’s getting bigger here in the United States, too. By covering it more, The Post would be keeping up with what a lot of readers, especially younger ones like me, are really into.

Peter Dziekan, Washington