It’s time for Joe Biden to gracefully bow out of the 2020 presidential race. I was a supporter of Joe for President in 2008 until he dropped out. So I am clearly not anti-Biden. But things are different this time.

I don’t subscribe to the conspiracy theory that Vice President Biden used his office to cover up corrupt behavior of his son. I also doubt that his son was in fact involved in any corrupt behavior in his position on the board of Burisma, the Ukrainian energy company.

However, I have no doubt that Hunter Biden got his position because of his father being Vice President.  I am also certain the company used Hunter Biden to enhance its credibility as a legitimate business by exploiting that father/son relationship. And that, whether corrupt or not, is an optical problem both Joe Biden and his son should have recognized and avoided.

Hunter Biden has taken full responsibility for their error of judgement but that is not enough. You can’t “un-ring a bell” so to speak. Regardless of lack of any evidence of wrongdoing the Republicans and Trump will continue to exploit that optical misstep. It will distract the Biden campaign in particular and disrupt the Democratic presidential candidate selection process in general.

Joe:   Do the right thing for your country and withdraw from the race.