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Whither Biden and the Democrats?
What are these people going to do?
Forget the Vice President’s peculiar peccadilloes vis a vis touching and sniffing and (allegedly) forcing himself on women. There’s an easy way around that: the Democratic press can simply ignore it, knowing full well that the Republicans have a glass houses problem when it comes to sexual misadventure and so can’t throw many stones.
The real problem is that Mr. Biden is pretty clearly mentally incompetent; not merely to be a good President, he’s always been that, but even to successfully compete for the office.
I think it is extraordinarily doubtful that this man, who now seems unable to utter a diagrammable sentence of more than three words with or without a teleprompter, can take part in any debate that doesn’t immediately make his growing mental disability obvious even to his supporters. The current epidemic provides him a convenient excuse to hide from the cameras, but that can’t last indefinitely. When he eventually surfaces, the contrast in energy, coherence, and focus between him and President Trump will be glaringly evident.
It seems to me that long before November one of two things has to happen: either Vice President Biden must be gently escorted from the stage, probably with a modest acknowledgment on his part that his failing health leaves him no longer up to the task or he has to strategically choose a running mate with the explicit understanding that the running mate, and not Joe Biden, will be the de facto President.
I don’t know if that last is possible, politically speaking. But I don’t think this is something the Democrats can do with a knowing wink; I think they have to make it very clear that the ticket on the ballot is printed upside-down, and that Biden will relinquish the top position as soon as practical once assuming office. Because if that isn’t widely understood and acknowledged, the charge that the Democrats are knowingly running a mental incompetent for the highest office will stick, and that’s not a good look.
It seems likely to me that Biden will step down before November, probably well before. That brings up the Bernie problem: if he’s still sorta kinda in the running, how bad will the collateral damage be if someone other than everyone’s favorite unreconstructed communist gets the nod?
My own thinking is that someone perceived as popular and charismatic and suitably identitarian will be pulled in, Michelle Obama being the obvious and extraordinarily unpleasant pick. That’s my personal nightmare scenario, that we’ll get an awful person with high name recognition but an essentially opaque past, who will then enjoy a campaign season honeymoon and hagiography that will last as long as the press can sustain it, while the Republican opposition is savaged with ever more unhinged ferocity by a deeply and now openly corrupt press.
Not that I’ve called an election right in the last ten years, of course.
Published in Elections
I disagree. Let’s compare Biden two other candidates, Trump and Reagan, both of whom have and had clear cognitive decline.
Trump cannot control himself to not utter inanities like musing about the use is a disinfectant inside the body. Trump cannot keep himself from attacking any Republican who is not servile to him. Trump muffed, repeatedly, Charlottesville, and only spoke respectfully on the second day in what looked like a hostage video. Trump has never come clean about his birtherism. Trump demands the adoration of everyone and that everyone cover for him as he babbles about crowd size, and the unfairness of the press. Trump has run off the adults who sought to provide wise counsel to him, from Jim Mattis to John Kelly. Even Trump’s first Secretary of State was compelled to exclaim that Trump was a “effing” moron. At this point Trump is surrounded only by sycophants, who are at best the “C” Team, given that members of the “A” and “B” teams won’t work for Trump, or have been fired by him. If you contrast Trump of today to Trump of 2000, the cognitive decline is obvious on its face.
Now Reagan. Reagan wore his slow decline well. He had an excellent support staff, who helped Reagan stay on message. Where Trump rules by vendetta, Reagan lead by inclusion, and a positive approach to others. Trump has had a Democratic House for two years and refuses to talk to the Speaker of the House; Reagan had a Democratic House for all eight years and was able to get the 1981 tax cuts, and the 1986 budget reform through that Democratic House. Even with the Democratic House, Reagan won the Cold War without firing a shot. Reagan confessed that he did not remember authorizing the Iran-Contra fiasco, and did not force Republicans to walk the plank for him as Trump did about his July 25, 2019 “perfect” call. Reagan kept his decency to the end, despite his cognitive decline. Trump has become more and more monomaniacal as he continues to decline.
They will get strong pushback on that from Biden, who likely knows where some bodies are buried. He has also received endorsements, however lukewarm, from people who would have to reverse themselves. There may be a route there with the Tara Reade accusations, but I don’t think that’s enough yet.
This is just a litany of things that you’ve said here scores of times, not a sign of “cognitive decline.” The cognitive decline part just harkens back to the good ol’ days where you played the dementia card (not your finest moment).
Still, I understand that represents your views and is important in justifying support for a pro-abortion, liberal Democrat like Biden.
I am on the record of saying that Justices Thomas and Kavanaugh should not have been disqualified by allegations. Biden should not be disqualified either.
Based on what we know now, I agree.
By allegations, no.
Thank you to both of you for not jumping on Biden about this issue.
Really, the focus right now by a majority of people on the right is more on the double-standard of the media and Democrats in how they handled Christine Ford’s allegations, and those of other women in the Kavanaugh hearings, versus how they’re handling the Tara Reade allegations right now. That’s why Friday morning’s interview by Mika Brzezinski was such a surprise, both to conservatives and to Joseph R. Biden (and why Mika is getting such angry push-back and is having to defend herself on Twitter for treating wacky-but-lovable Uncle Joe like a Republican politician):
Let’s stop right there.
That wasn’t an “utter inanity.” There’s nothing inane about speculating about the internal administration of either ultraviolet light or disinfectants.
I agree entirely. If Biden is proved to be a rapist, as alleged, then that’s another matter. But, as I mentioned above, I don’t expect that to happen.
That’s why I focused on his growing mental incompetence. I believe that that also should not be disqualifying: if a party wishes to run a man experiencing what appears to be the rapid onset of senility, it has every right to do so. Proper mental function is not a Constitutional requirement of the job.
But it’s going to be embarrassing to put forth a candidate who forgets his words, gets lost in thought, and trails off unintelligibly. The campaign trail is pretty grueling, and it’s going to be difficult for the campaign to make sure that his almost daily senior moments aren’t recorded and shared with the world.
President Trump is a sloppy speaker, but he’s also a fairly talented extemporaneous entertainer who can go on for an hour or more. The contrast with Vice President Biden, who appears fragile and in need of constant managing, will be stark and hard for the press to hide.
Biden is the “generic Democrat” that polls always use. If he remains the candidate he will refuse to debate Trump. He will under tremendous pressure to choose a woman VP. Who ? Michelle has it too good. I don’t see her giving up that house and those millions. Tank Abrams ? She would be the clown show candidate but has the right ethnicity.
In my opinion, the election will be determined by the virus story. The Democrats and Media (plus China, of course) will be in 24/7 attack mode about any signs of a “second wave” no matter how small. It is critical for them to kill the economy until the election. The Russians were too cautious to cooperate with Teddy Kennedy in trying to take down Reagan but China is riding high and its investment in senior Democrat politicians, like Feinstein, Pelosi and Biden, among others, may have made them overconfident. The Tim Cooks and Bill Gates and Mike Bloombergs are all on board with China vs Trump. A lot of firepower siding with China.
The key is “short periods of time”. The debates with President Trump (if they take place) will not be the debates with eleventy six or how many people on the stage. It will just be two and there is no way that Biden can hold up for ninety minutes without his dementia showing.
Or Trump pointing our his dementia..
I don’t think he can avoid debating, but couldn’t agree more with the “generic Democrat” comment. He’s essentially a placeholder for those who always vote Democratic and those who can’t abide Trump. In football terms, the Dems will “game manage” his candidacy with play-calling that takes few chances, and hope Democratic turnout plus Trump enmity carries the day, with a female VP thrown in.
The problem for them at the moment is the world is mad at China — the Europeans, the Africans, other Asian nations all have various complaints about Xi and his government’s actions, aside from simply being the source of the COVID outbreaks. That makes it tougher to frame this as a “Trump vs. World Opinion” situation, and where the irony is that for people like the Cooks, the Gateses and the Bloombergs, who have spent decades, including during the Bush and Reagan administrations, arguing for the more enlightened, sophisticated views of the Europeans, to justify their support for China here, they may have to tell people to pay no attention to what Europe (or most other places in the world) are saying, just believe us.
“[R]apid onset of senility” I am not a medical doctor or a psychologist. Are you?
“[D]ementia” I am not a medical doctor or psychologist. Are you?
No. I’m just a reasonably bright and observant person. Is “you aren’t a doctor” really the hook you want to hang a defense of Biden’s mental competence on?
Is it? Biden did fine all through out the primary process. Everyone predicting his demise because of his gaffs and in ability to string three sentences together that make for a complete paragraph. I think it is clear by now that the American people (whoever the heck they actually are) don’t actually pay attention to what any politician says. At least not close enough to be bothered by lack of syntax, clarity, or logic. I mean look at Trump… he basically blathers most of his thoughts in an incoherent jumble of words, with about half the words being repeated over and over again.
If Biden were up against a normal fully functioning Republican adult (like Pence) I’d say he had problems. But with Trump it is all a wash, and for the most part Biden’s issues are less than Trump’s. I mean he only has one woman accusing him of sexual assult and harassment, Trump has a dozen, and a video tape of him claiming to grab women by the “pussy”. Biden sounds slow and addled, Trump sounds confused and repetitive, but Biden hasn’t suggest injecting people with bleach to cure the virus. Biden is old, Trump is old and fat. Biden has cheap hair plugs, Trump has his ridiculous comb-over. This election will come down to who is hated more, Trump or Biden. And I think over all Trump is more hated, what I don’t know is how that will break down in the electoral college. I know I for one hate Trump more than Biden, but I don’t vote in a state that is liable to swing. Illinois will be safely blue for Biden this year. So maybe I’ll vote for Amash.
Here’s why I think you’re mistaken.
In the primaries Biden was the least interesting person on stage, under little pressure to say anything coherent.
In the campaign he will be the center of attention, and I think that Biden will quickly be seen as mentally feeble, a man who can’t safely be turned loose in front of a microphone for more than a few minutes. His speech is the verbal equivalent of Secretary Clinton’s stumbling and falling: it conveys the sense that he’s damaged, and that his handlers are trying to hide that truth from the electorate.
Trump says all sorts of things, and often inappropriate or incorrect thing. But he doesn’t come across as feeble or mentally impaired, mostly just petty, inappropriate, and prone to wild hyperbole. I don’t think anyone believes that Trump has handlers to avoid people seeing the real Trump. (A quip of Lincoln’s regarding being two-faced come to mind: if it were possible to avoid seeing the real Trump, we wouldn’t be seeing what we’re seeing.)
By the way, Trump didn’t “suggest injecting people with bleach to cure the virus.” That’s just something people say to demonstrate that television news has made them stupid.
I hate to say this but everything is going Bidens’ way. He doesn’t have to campaign every day and expose his diminished mental capacity. If there ever was a time to have a scandal now’s the time. In the case of Biden the less exposure the better. Whoever is handling him is doing a smart job by only putting out there a couple times a week under very controlled circumstances. I’m sure they’ll maintain that strategy. I’d bet Biden will have to be a corpse before they force him out.
This seems like a rather ironic response considering some of things you’ve said about Trump’s mental acuity going back years. In fact, I seem to remember others saying something similar to you.
See my comment above.
Sadly only allowed to like this comment once.
Yes, it really is. Harding brought us out of Wilson’s depression when the numbers looked worse than they would ten years later when Hoover turned a recession into a depression and FDR made it great.
But I will jump on the MSM for their radically different treatment of Biden (kid gloves) vs. Kavanaugh (off with his head!).
The problem with Biden is his prior documented and on-camera behavior supports the allegation, or at least lends credence to it . . .
That’s the big issue, the blatant bias of the Fourth Estate. Biden will, I suspect, be little more than a ludicrous footnote in history, an avuncular, crooked, and mediocre man pushed by circumstance into — and then out of — a position far beyond his capabilities.
The press corruption is another matter. That’s serious.
I thought it was interesting today in the aftermath of the Mika-Biden interview that CNN has been scrambling to figure out what to do next, with Dana Bash attacking MSNBC as the ‘house organ’ of the Democratic Party, as if the interview didn’t happen, while Jake Tapper basically did an “Oh yeah? What about all of Trump’s women!” as a way to downplay the fact that Mika performed journalism, while CNN’s apparently asked Joe about three dozen questions since Reade’s allegation came out, none of them about those allegations.
It was as though MSNBC broke some sort of blood oath by not covering up for Biden, and therein lies the problem with the current state of journalism — too many outlets have decided to only target their news toward niche readers and viewers, mainly urban upper-middle class progressives. When one outlet gets out of line, it leaves the readers and viewers of that outlet, including other news outlets, angry and confused The Narrative’s being broken.
I think that’s the special problem presented by Biden. With Obama, it was easy to ignore the problematic characters in his past, the racists and terrorists and anti-Semitic Islamist creeps. It was easy to ignore his dodgy personal history, his sealed records, his socialist party associations. Obama certainly wasn’t going to bring any of it up so, if the press didn’t, most people would never hear about it.
But hiding the decline with Biden is going to be hard, because it’s right there, every day.
MSNBC treating Biden like a Republican facing scrutiny caught CNN off-guard, because they want to pretend to be the ‘moderate’ news channel between Fox and MSNBC, but were thinking this was going to be a group effort to, at the very least, drag Joe past the convention, where a suitable VP could be nominate and, if needed, take his place before November without having to deal with the angry Sanders brigade claiming Bernie’s next in line for the nomination.
It makes it a lot harder to keep up the veneer of objectivity if the news channel that since at least around 2003 has made no pretenses to not be leaning towards the Democrats is tougher on the party’s nominee than you’ve been over the last five weeks. CNN’s options here (and those of some of the other media outlets) are to either start questioning Biden’s story more, or try and change the subject to some new outrage — real or imagined — that Trump’s done, or start doing COVID-19 body counts in states relaxing their restrictions, in hopes of getting the audiences all worked up over that, instead of Joe’s sex abuse allegations.
I don’t see that Biden did at all well in the primary process. He neither said, nor did, anything of note. He offered no workable plans or proposals of note. He drew tiny audiences.
Biden did well in the primary election results based on name recognition, and not being a communist. As the choice was pretty much evenly split between Vice President Biden, a communist, and 27 people who are not Biden.