It has the same vibe as not speaking ill of the dead. Immediately upon Joe Biden’s announcement that he was withdrawing his candidacy for president, gushing praise was ubiquitous.

Slate legal writer Mark Joseph Stern posted on X that he was “feeling overwhelmed with gratitude toward Joe Biden for making this sacrifice.”

“An actual hero,” wrote New York Times columnist Ezra Klein.

Biden “has placed the national interest above his own pride and ambition,” wrote the Times editorial board.

In a Times editorial of his own, presidential historian and Biden adviser Jon Meacham was most fawning of all, calling Biden’s decision “one of the most remarkable acts of leadership in our history” and comparing the current president to George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and Franklin Roosevelt.

“President Biden has decided that this campaign is not about him but about us,” Meacham later told MSNBC’s Katy Tur. “I think the country should take a moment and realize the magnitude of the decision,” that Biden “put the life of the nation above his own political individual ambition.”

Granted, Biden’s withdrawal was historic. Then again, so was his run for a second term at 81 years of age. Biden didn’t have to withdraw, but after it became obvious during the debate that he suffered from cognitive decline already, and he wasn’t going to get any younger during another four year term, the dominoes started to fall.

Not only were the polls turning sour, but donations were drying up as well. Along with Democratic lawmakers calling on Biden to drop out, liberal celebrity megadonors like George Clooney, Damon Lindelof, and Abigail Disney publicly called for the president to step aside and threatened to suspend all donations unless he did. (All three are apparently back onboard since Biden dropped out.) Indeed, after Biden’s debate performance, a number of wealthy Democratic donors stopped giving unless he exited the race.

What seems to have gotten lost amidst the fawning praise is that while Biden’s aging might have been concealed from the public, the people who had access to unvarnished Biden knew. His advisers knew. His family knew. At least some in the media knew. His vice president knew. And yet, they chose to hide it from the voters because it was more important to beat Trump than to elect a president capable of doing the job.

By capable, this isn’t about whether you supported Biden’s policies or not, In a democracy, people will be elected with whom you disagree because others voted for him or her. It might suck, but you are only entitled to a vote, not to a win. But the normal aging process took its toll on Biden, and the presidency is not a job that can be done only when the person in office is feeling up to it, clear enough in his thinking to make sounds decisions and awake as demanded.

The problem is Biden and those around him knew this (as we get old, we become painfully aware that we’re not what we used to be) and yet persisted in his run. They knew this and concealed it from the public. They were selling a lie because they believed it served a higher cause, beating Trump.

As has become painfully apparent over the past couple days following Biden’s withdrawal, his having remained in the race long past his expiration date has had consequences. Completely foreseeable consequences. These consequences didn’t just happen, but were caused to happen by Biden’s seeking a second term and remaining in the race after it should have been clear to anyone who gave a damn about America that he was no longer up to the job.

Biden could have refused to withdraw, persisting in the charade that winning the primaries without challenge and under false pretenses somehow empowered him to be the Democratic standard bearer, assuming he could hold a standard. The primary system presumes that a deceptive candidate will be vetted and lose, thus producing the best candidate (of the bunch, at least). This presumption may have a few fatal flaws, as recent elections have shown.

But Biden did, eventually, withdraw after a full court press by pretty much everyone other than Jill and Hunter. Still he made the right decision. But had he made that decision before the primaries, or even during the primaries, he would have enabled the Democrats to field a vigorous challenge, vet its choices not only for the purpose of beating Trump, but for the purpose of running a candidate who would be a good president, rather than the last-minute replacement.

It may be that Kamala Harris would have won the nomination had Biden decided to stick with his tacit promise of being a transitional president and not seeking a second term. Or perhaps other candidates would emerge who would have been preferred by the majority of Democratic primary voters, if they had been given the choice. If Harris, then so be it. But Biden’s decision precluded that from happening.

If, instead, Biden had announced in early 2023 that he would not run for reelection—months after Trump announced his own reelection bid and Republican challengers had started to enter the race—then Democrats would have had an extra year to vet their own candidates.

But Biden did not do that. Rather, he clung desperately to power for as long as possible, as aging politicians are wont to do.

It was better that Biden withdrew when he did than continue the charade that would have ultimately fooled no one. But it would have been braver if he had never run for a second term at all. Perhaps Biden is owed some appreciation for dropping out at all, but doing so only after it’s become clear that he’s doomed is less than heroic. Save sainthood for those who deserve it. Biden is only an old man politician who tried to cling to power despite knowing his sun was setting.

After all, they don’t give medals for clinging desperately to power until the donations dry up.