President Biden, to put it mildly, has not had a good week. First, he had the disastrous debate performance in which he displayed his cognitive impairments before the entire world. Few people bought his feeble, outlandish, inane excuses of a cold or jet lag. Then, he tried to blame his debate preparers. That didn’t work either. Finally, yesterday, July 5, he tried one of his favorite tactics, a soft prerecorded interview with a friendly journalist, in this case, George Stephanopoulos. That performance also failed to repair the damage. In the view of many, it exacerbated it.
Stephanopoulos was unable or unwilling to pin Biden down with respect to his current state of impaired cognition. He failed to follow up when Biden refused to commit to a cognitive test or even an independent medical exam and whether the results would be released. Instead, Biden doubled down asserting “I’m the nominee and I’m running and [I’m] going to win again. … I will beat him [Trump] in 2020.” Hey, Joe it’s 2024.
The post-interview opinions were predictably negative. As one sample, commentator Jonathan Karl, speaking on ABC, opined that ” ‘nothing’ about it had calmed the nerves of his [supporters] and it even raised new concerns.” Indeed, a trio of polls released July 3 – NY Times/Siena, CNN and WSJ – reported Trump had widened his lead nationally to six points. As I write this, updated state-by-state polls have not been released, but the last pre-debate polls showed Trump ahead in states with over 300 electoral votes. Only 270 are needed to win.
Currently, the Dems are in disarray. For various reasons, they are terrified at the prospect of Donald Trump returning to the White House. What Biden really needs to do to assure his donors, his supporters, the American voters, and our allies, many of which are in a full panic today, is what he is loath to do and probably incapable of doing. That is, address the public, speak extemporaneously, live and without note cards, and then answer any and all questions. He needs to give a speech akin to then-Senator Richard Nixon’s famous “Checkers Speech” in 1952. In a nutshell, Nixon was in danger of being removed from the Republican ticket. The speech was successful and saved his career.
Biden’s critics are “coming out of the woodwork.” Criticisms and calls for him to quit are widespread, both covertly and overtly. Some examples:
- According to multiple reports he often forgets the names and faces of some family members, longtime friends, supporters and colleagues.
- His group of trusted advisors has shrunken to just a few family members such as Jill and Hunter, who have their own agendas. Jill, in turn, is heavily influenced by longtime advisor and self-described “work husband,” Anthony Bernal and longtime confident, Mike Donilon.
- He is prone to lashing out at staff members if they disagree with him or present negative information.
- According to the NY Post his staff is “leaking like a faucet.”
- Biden’s support within the Dem Party is melting away like a summer snow. A plethora of long-time supporters, allies and media personnel who had been consistently protecting him are now advocating his resignation either as the nominee or as president. I have no respect or sympathy for these duplicitous people. To me they are “rats deserting a sinking ship.” Many, if not most, of them have been cognizant of Joe’s declining cognitive abilities as far back as 2020, and they kept silent putting their own self-interest above that of the American people.
- Various media sources are reporting that “over a dozen” Dem members of Congress are advocating that he resign immediately so that VP Kamala Harris can accept the Party’s nomination and run as an incumbent. It has been reported that some of them are covertly circulating a letter calling for him to quit.
- Republican Senator J. D., Vance commented that many Dems are “obsessed” with replacing Biden on the ticket. Vance went further, adding “if he’s unfit to run for president he certainly isn’t fit to be president.”
- Long-time Dem strategist James Carville has taken the very radical step of urging donors to refrain from contributing further to any Dems who support Biden. He stated, “seventy-two percent of [the] people want something different – why not give it to them.”
- Even Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN’s top medical correspondent and a longtime Biden excuser, is now urging him to accede to a “detailed cognitive and neurological exam” and release the results to the public.
The problem with Biden resigning is that Kamala Harris would become president, and as I have discussed in previous blogs that would be worse. Her approval ratings are no better than Biden’s. In my opinion, she is the “Queen of Malaprops.” She has uttered more of them than Yogi Berra whose were at least entertaining and had an element of truth and (twisted) logic. Also, Berra was just a regular guy, not VP. Harris’ are just plain inane. Some samples:
- “So, Ukraine is a country in Europe. It exists next to another country called Russia. Russia is a bigger country. Russia is a powerful country. Russia decided to invade a smaller country called Ukraine. So, basically, that’s wrong.”
- “We invested an additional $12 billion into community banks, because we know community banks are in the community, and understand the needs and desires of that community as well as the talent and capacity of community.”
- So, during Women’s History Month we celebrate and we honor the women who made history throughout history.”
- “It is time to do what we have been doing. And that time is every day.”
- On why she hadn’t been to the southern border despite the fact that Biden had assigned her the task of “fixing” it, “I haven’t been to Europe.”
The foregoing are just a few samples, but it does make one wonder how she managed to rise to the office of VP (except we do know how). Also, she has an odd habit of punctuating a statement by cackling, which is very unnerving.
The Dems are in a messy situation, and there seems to be no acceptable way out of it. As the expression goes, “they are being hoisted on their own petard.” They’ve been committed to a cognitively-challenged Joe Biden because they judged he will defeat Trump in 2024 as he did in 2020. Even worse, they endorsed the selection of Harris as VP to placate the radical left wing of the Party, even though there were many better qualified candidates, because she is a Black female. She was not qualified then; and she is not qualified now. So, if they were to succeed in forcing Biden out there remains the problem of with whom to replace him. As I stated above, Harris is not qualified, and as I have opined in previous blogs each of the other possibilities has his or her own plusses and minuses. Moreover, I doubt that any of them could win either.
Normally, the VP would be the logical replacement choice. After all, according to the constitution that is the sole purpose of the position. Also, she has a chunk of supporters within the Party. But because of her record as VP her approval ratings are generally as low as Joe’s. On the other hand, if they bypass her in favor of someone else, they will likely alienate the far-left wing of the Party, including many women and Blacks.
CONCLUSION
In summary, Biden’s campaign is falling apart. His supporters are panicking and running for cover. His donors feel betrayed and angry and are reassessing their support. Down-ballot Dems, who fear a GOP landslide and a return of Trump to the White House, are fearing for their political lives. They foresee that Biden’s coattails are morphing into anchors. They are overtly calling for Biden to quit, while covertly plotting to replace him. Our allies are concerned. Our enemies are jubilant.
It figures to be riotous Dem convention. I anticipate to a return of the “smoke filled room” of yesteryear.
We Built It Blog by Larry Jacob 