I used to think that Democrats trotting Joe Biden out in 2020 to run for an office he couldn't possibly manage was elder abuse. We were right. Yet, it's become a two-pronged assault on this poor man. He was thrust into the office of the presidency and failed miserably at it. He's slow, old, and too stupid to do the job. And now, everyone slaps him on the other side of his face with his age. Well, Democrats are doing that ahead of their disastrous 2022 midterm year. Can Biden run again? Should he run again?
There is a growing chorus of those who want to flip the page, and now ex-Clinton cabinet secretaries are coming with their knives out for Joe.
They can't defend him anymore. Maybe that's the cause for the 180-degree turn in coverage. We've gone from 'give the man a break' to 'get the hell out, geezer.' The New York Times has been brutal regarding the president's age, noting that his recent Middle East trip was supposed to happen months ago. It got pushed to the backburner since schedulers knew the travel would exhaust the Delaware liberal.
At pressers, Biden seems aloof. After he takes his pre-screened questions from reporters, it looks like he's spent mentally. The frailty exhibited is not lost on our enemies either. Russia invaded Ukraine because they knew Joe Biden wouldn't do much. China is belligerent because they see a White House caked in weakness. To add to that narrative, we have former Clinton Treasury Secretary Robert Reich, who penned a merciless column about how Joe Biden is too old to run again.
He's also in his 70s and knows the office stress is probably killing Joe. He recounted stories of Bill Clinton bragging of only running on four hours' sleep, who was in his 40s, and even slick Willy “dozed” off during cabinet meetings. Does Biden do the same (via The Guardian):
I speak with some authority. I’m now a spritely 76 — light years younger than our president. I feel fit, I swing dance and salsa, and can do 20 pushups in a row. Yet I confess to a certain loss of, shall we say, fizz.
Joe Biden could easily make it until 86, when he’d conclude his second term. After all, it’s now thought a bit disappointing if a person dies before 85. Three score and ten is the lifespan set out in the Bible. Modern technology and Big Pharma add at least a decade and a half. “After 80, it’s gravy,” my father used to say.
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It’s not death that’s the worrying thing about a second Biden term. It’s the dwindling capacities that go with aging.
When I get together with old friends, our first ritual is an “organ recital” — how’s your back? heart? hip? eyesight? hearing? prostate? hemorrhoids? The recital can run (and ruin) an entire lunch.
The question my friends and I jokingly (and brutishly) asked one other in college — “getting much?” — now refers not to sex but to sleep. I don’t know anyone over 75 who sleeps through the night.
When he was president, Bill Clinton prided himself on getting only about four hours. But he was in his forties then. (I also recall cabinet meetings where he dozed off.) How does Biden manage?
My memory for names is horrible. I once asked Ted Kennedy how he recalled names and he advised that if a man is over 50, just ask “how’s the back?” and he’ll think you know him.
I often can’t remember where I put my wallet and keys. Certain proper nouns have disappeared altogether. Even when rediscovered, they have a diabolical way of disappearing again.
Biden’s secret service detail can worry about his wallet, and he’s got a teleprompter for wayward nouns, but I’m sure he’s experiencing some diminution in the memory department.
Everyone sees the iceberg ahead. November is going to be a bloodbath for Democrats. The liberal agenda is over. The GOP will be in charge of the House, and Joe will have to deal with diminishing returns on the legislative front while dealing with the tantrums and whining from a Democratic Party who got rolled because they back action items that aren’t for average voters. Wasted opportunities and hesitation can mark Democrats’ two years of unified government, and a gross inability to focus. Those are characteristics applicable to the Biden White House. The Biden team promised the adults were back in charge after 2020. We got the senior citizen sunset cruise instead. When the 2022 killing fields are over for Democrats, expect the chorus for Biden not to run to become a loud war cry from the Left.