(July 10) Democratic leaders have given President Joe Biden enough time and behind-the-scenes space to withdraw from his reelection campaign. By now, they are proving cowardly through their failure to demand publicly that Biden step aside.
Count former Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton foremost among these gutless wonders. Especially Obama.
First, let’s understand what is at stake. This isn’t just about winning an election. This is about four more years of keeping in the most powerful office in the free world a man who already is barely competent for the job and slipping steadily. This is a perilous world with multiple, dangerous malefactors. The lives and liberty of some 330 million people, not to mention literally billions worldwide, depend on a steady hand in the Oval Office.
It is stupendously irresponsible for one of the two major U.S. political parties to ask the public to put someone as befuddled as Biden in power until he is 86 years old. Perhaps some 86-year-olds could do the job, but Biden is already a particularly old 81. Remember that it was more than 36 years ago that he suffered a double brain aneurysm that nearly killed him. Even compared to other octogenarians, surely Biden’s brain is more likely to be damaged, and his mind less likely to be sharp. From what he shows in public, it appears to be so.
None of this is Biden’s fault. This isn’t a matter of character but of physical and cognitive realities. The key consideration, though, is not what this means for Biden. The key is what it means for the free world.
That’s why those with the ability to push Biden from the race are ethically obligated to do so. And nobody is better positioned to do so than Obama, especially if he is joined, as he should be, by Clinton and other top officials such as House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries. (Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, showing craven instincts, did just the opposite on July 9, publicly pledging fealty to Biden.)…. [The full column is at this link.]
