Quick Take: Biden in Decline
The President's personal tragedy endangers America
Note: I wrote and published this short article nearly two years ago. Last night, my take on Joe Biden’s accelerating mental decline was resoundingly vindicated. If I could see it from the roof of Schloß Gregg in northwest Indiana, the people around Biden must surely have seen it too. But they made a conscious decision to gaslight the rest of us with happy talk about the President’s vim, vigor, energy and sharpness. And they had plenty of help from the pundit/journalist wing of the Democratic Party. Despicable people, the lot of them.
Writing in USA Today, Jill Lawrence deplores President Biden’s stunning mental lapse: his shoutout to a member of Congress who died two months ago. But then she goes on to lipstick the pig:
Yet there’s another way to look at this: Biden was trying to credit the late Indiana Republican Rep. Jackie Walorski—a lawmaker who voted on Jan. 6, 2021, to object to his presidential victories in Arizona and Pennsylvania and who this March labeled his agenda “radical & reckless”—for her good work on nutrition and hunger.
Well, no. The only way to look at this is with the realization that the President of the United States is losing it. When Representative Walorski was killed along with three staffers in a horrific traffic accident, the White House put out the usual statement concerning thoughts, prayers, and condolences. Two months later, there was Joe Biden, talking about her as if she were still alive.
It was a frightening moment.
We’ve had impaired presidents before: Woodrow Wilson’s stroke, FDR’s polio and last illness, JFK’s multiple health issues. By the end of his second term, it was evident that Ronald Reagan had lost a step or two. But it’s worse now. Halfway through his first term, Joe Biden is in obvious mental decline.
One way or another, it happens to us all. I’m seventy-three, and my mind isn’t as sharp as it used to be. Occasionally I find myself at a loss for the right word, or unable to recall a name, or not remembering where I left my cell phone. Old age, as Charles De Gaulle remarked of Marshal Petain, is a shipwreck. But if we’re lucky, Old Mr. Death won’t deprive us of our mind and memories before he carries us off. Joe Biden should be so lucky, but alas he’s not. And that matters, because he’s the President of the United States. His personal tragedy poses a danger to the country.
The time has come to ask who’s really running things at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. I imply no sinister conspiracy; it’s understandable that Biden’s staff and cabinet are doing what they can to relieve the President of as much mental stress as possible. But formally, constitutionally, their power is derivative. The President may delegate responsibility, but he can’t give it away. Everything that happens in the executive branch of our government—the good, the bad, the ugly—goes back to him.
Biden’s disability wouldn’t matter so much if we were living back in the Nineties, at the so-called end of history. But look at the world today. A major war rages in Europe, the first such sanguinary conflict since 1945. The United States and our NATO allies have rallied to the support of Ukraine, and the tide appears to have turned against the aggressor, Russia. That country’s despot, the odious V. Putin, has responded with a litany of nuclear threats. He may be bluffing, but perhaps not. Suppose for a moment that Putin does resort to the use of tactical nuclear weapons in a desperate, last-ditch attempt to beat down Ukrainian resistance.
What then?
No president since John F. Kennedy has had to reckon seriously with the possibility of nuclear war. He and his administration successfully weathered the Cuban Missile Crisis, but it was a close call. Now here we are again—this time with a commander-in-chief who bit by bit is losing his mind. And it’s not fanciful to think that at a moment of intense crisis, Biden could suffer a complete breakdown.
True, a constitutional remedy is available: the Twenty-Fifth Amendment, which provides for the removal, temporary or permanent, of a president with mental or physical disabilities. But would the people around Biden ever resort to such drastic action? No, it’s far more likely that they’ll just carry on, covering for their guy, hoping that whatever happens, they’ll muddle through somehow.
Otto von Bismarck once quipped that “God has a special providence for fools, drunkards, and the United States of America.” Let’s hope he was right. With Joe Biden in the White House at this moment—God help us.
The Vice Presidential debate will be fascinating. If Trump picks Vance, Rubio or Ramaswamy his selection will wipe the floor with Kamala Harris. If Trump picks either Carson or Burgum, he will have selected a less talented debater who is still likely to prevail in a debate with the Vice President.
Personally, if I was Trump, my Vice Presidential pick would be Glen Youngkin. The Virginia Governor is likable while Trump is not. The Virginia Governor is a moderate who could attract Nikki Haley/Chris Christie voters. Most importantly, if current polls are to be believed, Virginia might be in play and the selection of Youngkin could be determinative. If Biden loses Virginia, it’s game set and match.
Trump does not get enough credit for being a brilliant politician. He realized that the key to a GOP victory was addressing the concerns of working class voters who have been abandoned by both political parties. He also realized that he could attract a reasonably substantial minority of Black and Latino voters.
Most importantly, Trump realized that accepting an invitation to debate Biden was a smart move despite the fact it was broadcast on CNN, a network that despises him and despite the fact that the moderators had made their disdain for him absolutely plain. He didn’t let the fact that there was no audience deter him and he wasn’t deterred by the fact that the venue was in Atlanta, a thoroughly Democratic city. Trump wasn’t dissuaded by the fact that the moderators could cut off the candidate’s microphones at will.
Few Presidential candidates would have accepted a debate under those terms and, at the very least, most would have taken weeks to study the terms. Trump, on the other hand, accepted the terms almost immediately. It’s hard to imagine a more brilliant political move.
Joe Biden’s debate performance turns out to be the perfect metaphor for globalism, neoconservatism and liberal internationalism. Biden has passed his use-by date. The same thing is obviously true about globalism.
I was wondering – who benefits from Biden to continue staying in the race?