Biden says only the Almighty can sway him. Lord, get moving.

After watching Biden’s Friday interview with George Stephanopoulos, however, in which the president managed to nudge the needle further yet in the wrong direction, E.J. says the friendly pundits and politicians who have been sugarcoating the situation “out of esteem for Biden … can’t do so any longer.”

Biden is defiant, and Dana Milbank writes that the determination is admirable in its way; his administration’s record of accomplishments is genuinely impressive, so it’s fair to be frustrated that the race is stuck on Biden’s mental acuity. But how can it not be, Dana writes, when the president is “unwilling even to acknowledge the obvious truth that he has lost a step over the past 3½ years”?

If he is so keen on countering that conclusion, Biden ought to jump at the chance to publicly take a cognitive assessment. Yet he refuses even that! His unconvincing excuses for not taking the test (or furnishing any other medical information) tell us plenty on their own, Ruth Marcus writes.

In fact, Biden has said the only entity who can get him out of the race is God Almighty, so Danielle Allen is taking things up with the big man Himself: “We ask that you speak, Lord, to tell our president that the time has come to rest.”

Unfortunately, Democrats don’t have the luxury of waiting for divine intervention. This will be a decisive week in this fight, and they need to get moving now.

There’s still plenty of talk swirling about Vice President Harris’s possible elevation and all that entails; Karen Tumulty writes that Harris has kept her footing in this storm and that the public would be unwise to underestimate her again. Were she to run, Karen writes, “I’d bet she would be harder to caricature, less easy to demonize than Republicans believe.”

But before any of that happens, Jen Rubin has a six-point plan for what Democrats need to do immediately. About half of those points boil down one way or another to what Jen calls “unflinching candor.”

For Democrats (or non-Trump Republicans), is there any room for optimism?

A lot of Americans looked to this weekend’s election returns in France as proof that the left and center can triumph over the fascist far-right even against long odds. If France can do it, the line went, then so can the United States.

But about that optimism — Lee Hockstader writes of the surprise French results, “If any so-called victory ever looked Pyrrhic, this is the one.” He goes on to explain why.

Chaser: Erik Wemple watched the New York Times get skewered for long “overindulging” in coverage of Biden’s age — only to then get lumped into accusations of a media-wide failure on the issue. How can both be true?

From Marc Thiessen’s game plan for how Trump could give NATO “a MAGA makeover” for new global threats.

During Biden’s presidency, NATO allies started spending an additional $380 billion or so on top of the initial 2016-2020 boost. Though Trump is perhaps better known for threatening to leave NATO entirely, Marc attributes the increase to pledges the countries made to Trump. (The war in Ukraine might also have something to do with it.)

All the same, Marc lays out a strategy for securing this new money and extracting even more of it, then for what to do with it. He envisions shifting U.S. troops in Germany eastward to Poland and the Baltics, further arming Ukraine, and globalizing NATO to include Pacific allies (right now, Hawaii is not even covered under Article 5 — eek!).

Are these latter elements really MAGA? Marc thinks so; for more backup, revisit his essay arguing that the movement’s reputation for isolationism is mostly a myth.

Chaser: Trump is pushing a vague, anodyne GOP platform, but the real agenda — his so-called Project 2025 — is a dangerous, extreme vision, the Editorial Board warns.

Less politics

“If you’re not living on the edge, you’re taking up too much room.”

I was charmed by this turn of phrase, one of David Bonior’s favorite expressions. The 79-year-old’s latest way of living on the edge requires a light résumé update: “former Democratic House whip, current piano student.”

Bonior shares the challenges and satisfaction of picking up a new skill late in life, plus a video of his rendition of “Ol’ Man River.” It’s slow — meditative, maybe. But isn’t that the point at that stage of life? Step away from all the politics, settle into the music and take a moment of rest.

Smartest, fastest

• Postmaster General Louis DeJoy presents the evidence that he is turning around the country’s Postal Service, which is slowly climbing out of the red.
• This Supreme Court term bolstered the presidency and clobbered regulators, Ruth Marcus writes in a wrap-up, with caution scarce to be seen.
• Medicare’s crazy payment system is creating monopolies in health care, professor Marty Makary writes.

It’s a goodbye. It’s a haiku. It’s … The Bye-Ku.

Working ’til the end —

Arpeggiated aging

Skips past the best bits

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Have your own newsy haiku? Email it to me, along with any questions/comments/ambiguities. See you tomorrow!