Mary Lee Johnson
3 min readApr 24, 2022

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A Letter to Steve: Take Heart in the Truman-esque Legend of Joe Biden

An Open Letter to Steve Schmidt:

For my dear friend (though we’ve never met), and beloved inspirational speaker and champion of the Right (By right, I mean those who know right from wrong!)

Dear Steve Schmidt:

I had to respond after seeing your passionate and heartfelt analysis of the sad state of communications within the Democratic Party. I hear you and have been in perfect agreement with you for a long time. James Carville, another long-time expert on Democratic Party values, also agrees. The Democratic Party has often been able to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. And their messaging is absurdly and painfully non-existent. Joe Scarborough often laments the Dems will bring a pen to a knife fight. Even their DNC Chairperson, Sean Patrick Maloney, acknowledged that if wars could be won with “Power Point,” Dems would win the day!

However, Mr. Schmidt was lamenting to the point where his angst was becoming more and more obvious. I would like to try and cheer him some small bit, but not with any new knowledge on my part. But my thought is this: Listen to what James Clyburn is saying. Mr. Clyburn, as many of us know, is the font and source of wisdom in this fraught political era. By dent of his single-handedly pulling off “The Miracle of the Biden” in South Carolina, he was the major source in resurrecting an almost dead candidacy practically overnight. And with his endorsement and push to champion Joe Biden and lead him out of the wilderness. Biden then went on to defeat Bernie Sanders, right the ship of state and defeat Trump.

Clyburn was talking about Joe Biden the other day. And he likened him to another down and out President who came from behind in the famous “Dewey Defeats Truman” contest. Harry Truman was the man of the hour. He was someone who was counted out and came back to win the day. I am not someone who can predict how these things will go. But I do know this. Those who said they knew that Trump would defeat Hillary were full of bull and bravado. Why? Because he didn’t defeat her in the popular vote, but in the Electoral College! They could say it was POSSIBLE for Trump to win, but no one could have predicted the Electoral College outcome.

The point is this: Know-it-alls don’t know it all. Biden may be defeated, but don’t count him out yet. From someone who loves a good movie, and a great story line, I remember the scene in “The Verdict” where a defeated Paul Newman was so depressed that he could barely speak to his expert witness. He felt this elderly doctor didn’t really do the job for his client. And the old man said something like, “Don’t despair. People can tell when someone is telling the truth.” There is something heartening about a come from behind race where a man may think all is lost, yet still keeps going.

The Good Guy doesn’t always win, but then again, the victory is just a part of the journey. It’s knowing the difference between right and wrong that counts. If the case comes down to it again, there is an obvious choice. Trump doesn’t know the difference between right and wrong and Biden does. For those like Steve Schmidt, who may be worried that we will not find an ideal choice between good and evil, don’t despair. All is not lost-(yet!)

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Mary Lee Johnson

Author of five books, & blogger at 6 Degrees Writer…