Joe Biden’s problem was that his rhetoric never matched reality.

The same is true of the Democratic Party.

Which is why they tell you that the border is secure, crime is down, and the economy is just fine while the reality is just the opposite.

Which is also why in speech after speech praising the outgoing president for his accomplishments at the Democratic National Convention, reality set in and they kicked him to the curb.

The rhetoric had him heading to Mount Rushmore to join such great presidents as Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, and Teddy Roosevelt. The reality is that Biden’s bust was busted.

The fact is Biden was so bad — and so obviously out of it — that they had to dump him. Otherwise, with him on the ballot he would take other Democrats down with him.

With him heading the ticket, the Democrats would have lost the presidency as well as any chance to control the House or the Senate.  With Kamala Harris they have a chance.

So, goodbye, Joe, and don’t let the door hit you on the way out.

Biden, despite his feebleness, must be livid. It is one thing for the voters to throw out an incumbent president running for reelection as they did George H.W. Bush in 1992.

It is another when your friends, or former friends — like Nancy Pelosi, Barack Obama and Chuck Schumer and not the voters — stage a de facto coup to force you to abandon your candidacy all together.

And they did not even present Biden with a Rolex or a set of Callaway XR golf clubs.

Had Joe Biden, the fighter and the defender of democracy, had any fight left in him he would have told his friends what they could do with their figurative Rolex and clubs.

“I’m running gain,” he could have said, “and let the voters decide.”

Instead, after a political career of 50 years, he was retired like a whipped mule.

And to add insult to insult, Biden did not even get to speak on Monday night during prime time television but began his meandering speech after 11.30 p.m. eastern time and was still talking after midnight when everybody had gone to bed. Then he left town for another vacation.

Sadder still was Biden’s reference to the possible cease fire in Gaza along with the release of the hostages held by Hamas, which include five Americans.

“We’ll keep working to bring the hostages home and end the war in Gaza and bring peace and security to the Middle East,” he said, even as he was unable to bring peace and security to his own country.

“Those folks down the street have a point,” Biden said of the pro Hamas, anti-Israel demonstrators outside the convention hall. “A lot of innocent people are being killed on both sides.”

While Biden’s rhetoric morally equated the Hamas terrorists with the Israeli democracy, the reality was that pro-Hamas demonstrators outside the United Center convention hall, were chanting “Biden, Biden, you can’t hide, we charge you with genocide.”

And as Biden spoke news broke that the Israeli military recovered the bodies of six hostages taken during Hamas’ Oct. 7 terror attack on Israel that killed 1,200 Israeli men, women and children and precipitated the war in the first place.

All six were kidnapped alive and died, or were killed, in Hamas’ custody.

Hamas is still believed to hold around 110 hostages captured during the Oct. 7 attack, if they are still alive.

Among them are Americans, but you hardly hear any talk about them. Biden did not talk about them.

Frequent flyer Antony Blinken, Biden’s Secretary of State, has visited the region nine times since the war broke out and has returned empty handed.

Maybe it is time for his Rolex and set of Callaways. Maybe it’s time for reality over rhetoric.

When the dust settles in Chicago, ask yourself this: who better to end the war in Gaza and rescue the five Americans, Donald Trump or Kamala Harris?

Peter Lucas is a veteran political reporter. Email him at: peter. lucas@bostonherald .com