A sympathetic column, Sir, and I accept that you feel that sympathy and, further, that you have great empathy for the man.
My problem, as is pretty much the same for most folks, is that I simply do not think that anyone that old should be elected for a four year term for that particular position. Of course, you will point out that the Trumpster is 78 and to that I point to the first sentence in this paragraph.
I am 73 and (thankfully) retired. I can speak personally to my physical decline. Oh, I am not (to my knowledge) suffering from anything in particular except, well, I'm 73 and I sure as Hell wouldn't run for such a stressful office, knowing that I would have to be on the absolute top of my game for four years. Nope, no way.
The truth is, as I put in day by day, week by week, I do see little signs of my physical deterioration. Yup, honesty is Hell! I can absolutely foresee that there will be a time (hopefully quite a while) and I will need to surrender the car keys. Damn!
So, yes, I also have sympathy and empathy for Biden but, quite honestly, this is on him and his family. He simply shouldn't have put his name forward for another term.
As for the other guy? Well, again, see the first sentence in my second paragraph.
Thanks for this, Ken - I agree with you completely. My position has long been that Biden's decline seems physical and not cognitive to me - he has a speech disorder that worsens when he gets tired, and he's tired more often at 81 than he was at 41, which makes sense. I appreciate that both Paul's column and your comment are kind about that.
It's not realistic for someone in their eighties to serve as president while running a strenuous and competitive campaign to be re-elected as president.
George, I am not quite as charitable as you about Biden's cognitive decline. Quite frankly, I am worried that he still has his finger (metaphorically, one hopes) on the nuclear trigger for another eight months.
Clearly, he has physical limitations but his apparent confusion at the debate MAY have been only a physical manifestation but it certainly had the appearance of confusion and mental decline. To blame that on being tired, as he tried to do, is absolutely foolish as no Commander in Chief can say to any putative enemy, "Hey guys, can we do this tomorrow? I need to take a nap right now?" The point being that a physical decline is almost as serious as a mental decline.
And, I repeat my previous point that both those guys are/were too old.
Ken, I think we're basically agreed here. The *perception* of cognitive decline in a president is, itself, disqualifying, regardless of what's really going on. A physical decline is serious.
I would guide you both to the google "Shrinking Trump" which should lead you to the blog run by neurologists/psychiatrists and their medical guests who are willing to bend the "Goldwater Rule" and evaluate them from their public utterances.
One guest had carefully listened to every public word from both men, going back over 20 years, and summed it up with:
"Biden's brain is aging; Trump's is dementing".
Every brain loses thinking and speaking speed with age, then there's the physical fatigue issues. But nothing in Biden's performance suggests that he is less able to name all G20 members, in at least rough descending order of economic size, than he was 20 years ago, or tell you the cities where Russia has it's largest submarine bases, (or which Congress members owe him the most favours).
On the Trump side, you will learn more than you wanted to know about "phonemic paraphasias" versus "semantic paraphasias" that have been rising in number for years. Let's just say they aren't surprised when he goes on about shark batteries and Robert E. Lee's Irish accent, me boys.
I will look that up, Roy. I tend to reject the possibility that Trump might be cognitively declining, in that I don't think there's any room for decline from zero, but neurologists know more than I do.
We in Canada are blessed to have a journalist such as Paul Wells.
His analysis of the career of Joe Biden is refreshing and so well crafted that it shows up a lot of other views as being murky and not quite having the crystal clarity of Paul’s work.
I felt a great sense of relief and optimism tonight. Kamala Harris will make a great president. She is a highly accomplished person. She can focus on campaigning while Biden concentrates on the daily grind of being POTUS. People can be critical of Joe Biden, but he had to do the actual, high stress job of being president while simultaneously campaigning against DT, a person who has no responsibilities at all. I'm 77 and cannot fathom how Biden did it. His job would have killed a younger man. Three cheers for Joe.
Seasoned former Attorney General and US Senator, and Vice President.
Is your point that this, and all it implies, is not enough?
In Canada, to contrast, apparently it's sufficient to elect someone to head a government merely on the basis of their "accomplishing" being elected as MP, with no professional career outside of politics, or prior responsibility of note in government.
Maybe if we had a career politician leading this country that actually knows how parliament works and is aware of the ethics rules we wouldn’t be in the mess we are in. I want leaders who can speak clearly to the people and focus on the core responsibilities of government and be fiscally responsible. I want a leader who thinks about monetary policy. Oh and your last comment about no professional career outside of politics or prior responsibility of note in government includes our current prime minister.
I have said this to other people who have made the same observation as you about Trudeau's lack of career--he has two degrees and he was a teacher. As I suggested to these other people, and as someone who worked as support staff in schools for 26 years and observed how hard teacher's work (yes, even in the drama department), I think suggesting that being a teacher is not a career is insulting to all teachers.
My understanding is that the prime minister was an actual teacher of academic subjects - that he, not to put too fine a point on it, was licensed to practice and did practice the profession of teaching - and that three-quarters of the "part-time drama teacher" sobriquet is simply a lie that somebody made up and that the Liberals never bothered to counter.
Could I put out a plea that people NOT do questions like that as a rhetorical device for arguing? It's easy to just look up answers, not ask your fellow commentators to do 30 seconds of research for you as a way of being challenging.
I respect your opinion however my opinion is quite different. She is a fool. I've watched her for quite some time and although I would love to see a woman president (or prime minister for that matter) what really matters to me is what they stand for, their abilities under pressure and their values. She fails big time, for me, on all those.
There is a human dimension element in this story that many of us can understand and relate to through our own interactions with elderly people. Of course Biden wanted to continue on, not because of hubris or selfishness but because his mental and physical decline interfered with understanding how much of his performance and success is now attributed to others assisting (or covering tracks). Blokes like me see this as high stakes “independent living” for the aged. Being POTUS is a breeze if handlers make sure that the heavy end of the work is done in the morning and nothing scheduled after 8:00 pm. Heck, who doesn’t do that with older people? Teleprompter cheat notes is no different than writing out questions for Granny to ask her doctor. We are all up to our ears in these situations sooner or later.
The debate was the end of the line as everyone, including the general public caught the President in an unguarded situation that exposed his frailties. The enablers should have had the courage to step in a year ago and orchestrate a soft and dignified landing for Biden and his family. As Sarah Evans sings “you can’t fence time” and now the Democrats are almost out of time to field a competitive name on the Presidential ticket.
Well said. That too is my concern, that Biden's advisers were and are not principled enough to do what is best for their country. Then we are left wondering where else they were and are wrong.
Biden’s decline is a complicated version of “power of attorney”. In normal circumstances, POTUS has a large staff of lawyers and advisors who analyze information and make recommendations but the buck stops with the President. Today, Biden is left holding the bag whether he remembers having the final say or not.
True, and how those lawyers and advisors present their analysis and recommendations can greatly sway the decision-maker especially one with a feeble mind.
And the people in the bubble have an inherent conflict of interest in ensuring the boss continues, as their own employment, power, and prestige are linked to their role in the bubble.
Sure. Of course, first we have to have five years of obfuscation and denial, and insistence that he is "sharp as a tack" and "runs rings around younger staffers." After the media has carried water and covered for Biden, they have to do the same for the Donald before we talk about leveling the playing field.
Oh, by the way - Kamala Harris can't string two coherent words together except by accident. I note that the great cover-up has already begun.
I was hardly giving Biden a pass here. He shouldn’t have been running. The media disproportionately fawns over Democrats. Any Democrat. But Trump has piled on Biden’s mental acuity all along so the Schadenfreude will be all the younger candidates that will legitimately pile on Trump when he goes full out mental walk about. And he will.
For sure Biden was already too elderly in mind and body to run for President in the 2020 election, let alone running for a second term in 2024, but why oh why did his family and advisers not give consideration to the fact that Biden's decline was becoming too obvious to lead anyone, let alone the United States of America. Everyone around the President was in complete denial refusing to accept that the Emperor had no clothes.
Now here they are one month away from the Democratic Convention and four months from the national election, and the entire American Primary process has been for naught. The Democrats are now left scrambling looking for a viable candidate to take on the elderly carnival barker who appears to be gaining ground every day.
President Biden himself acknowledged if he paced himself and did not take on too many tasks, he could cope with being President. That he and his advisers could not get themselves to recognize the Presidency of the United States is a 24/7 job, is extremely concerning. That these same individuals now promote Kamala Harris, whose only attributes are that she is female and bi-racial, as a possible successor is again troubling.
In the end, it is the ineptitude of Biden's advisers which are most concerning. If they got this oh so wrong, what else are they getting wrong?
From what I’ve read (And no. Not on Facebook or the like) the money would be at her disposal with some restrictions and returned to donors if neither ran as in non transferable to other candidates.
What you suggest is one of the scenarios. Another is that the money was for the “Biden/Harris ticket”, and does not flow to Harris automatically. I probably should have said “read and heard” (and, no, none of it from Facebook - although some news is no better). I’ve switched from CNN to FOX to MSNBC and a few other U.S. channels, plus NP and Globe and Mail articles. I’m still not sure just what happens to the money.
"He managed to get elected president and has been a consequential one."
Agreed. But my assessment is that the massive consequences of his presidency were almost entirely negative. This is relatively easy to gauge, because we can compare the Biden and Trump presidencies. Everyone knows the topics, so I won't recite them again. But many Americans are making the comparison, and concluding in Trump's favor.
These banal assertions of false consensus are indeed amazing! How else could he feel free to skip even articulating the arguments before confirming their self-evidence. My doubts raised by this paucity of good faith elaboration are assuage by his extreme confidence.
Your usual sensible assessment - well perhaps I shouldn't say 'usual' as your sensible assessments stand out as unusual in the ruin of the news business.
"What It Takes" is my favourite book and should be required reading for everybody with any interest in politics.
In the primary debates in 2015, legendary tough guy Chris Christie called Trump by that devastating sobriquet, "Mr. Trump". In 2016, Hillary Clinton spent her whole debate with Trump saying, "Okay, this guy admits he's not very nice and that that's how he became a billionaire business genius, but hold on to your hats, because do I have some news for you: he's not very nice!" In 2020, Biden suggested that Trump "shut up, man", and called him "Donald", which is an unheard-of breach of decorum when a non-president is addressing a president. That is to say, Biden always had a level of chutzpah that normal politicians do not. He pitched himself as the nice, normal guy who could make things nice and normal again, and compared to Trump, he was...but compared to a Dick Gephardt, he always had trace amounts of Trumpishness in him.
Over the past month, we've seen Biden stubbornly ignore advice from his aides and say, "To hell with you, I'm great, I've beat the odds before, you'll see." Millions of people have responded by saying, "This is proof that he's senile," or else, "Oh, no! He's acting like Trump!" And...nope. For the past month, he's been acting like Joe Biden.
One thing RBC covers at the end of the book, which I have not seen anyone else mention, is that Biden had a major brain aneurysm that nearly killed him just after the '88 campaign. They say the presidency ages you ten years for every one, and by all accounts, he took the vice-presidency very seriously too - it was more stressful on his brain and body than my job is on mine. So even if someone doesn't think he's had a cognitive decline, there's an argument that he's functionally a hundred and forty years old.
My impression of the guy was he didn’t broadcast his wins sufficiently. Having said that, I’m appalled that something as important as the leadership of a great country now needs a carnie mentality to impress the public. Do you think future presidents (not to mention Prime Ministers) should hire marketers? Ugh.
And yes, as a Canadian I care. Sadly our fortunes are tied up with the US. Trump strikes me as having a mafia Don ethos. He works on a quid-pro-quo mentality, along with a retinue of fixers, shyster lawyers, enforcers, and promises of revenge on anyone who he imagines has thwarted or embarrassed him. I can’t imagine how either JT or PP would deal with this narcissistic boss-man.
If Kamala could reassure the populace that she’s going to strike a balance between social justice and hard nosed practicality, she would bring in a lot of voters who don’t like “woke”. Seriously hoping she understands that.
You are right about Trump, but in fairness, we deserve what we are about to to get. We are in the wrong with regards to NATO and we are unapologetic about it. We are the ones with supply management which angers all of our trading partners. We can’t even eliminate provincial trading barriers which costs us billions per year because of small special interest groups.
Two major Federal parties plays footsies with Khalistan separatists which angers one of the rising world powers for the next 50 years to try and get a few seats in Parliament. Don’t we remember how we felt when De Gaulle made his famous proclamation?
We are an unserious country who seems unwilling/unconcerned about potentially being excluded from the very likely coming overhaul of NATO and trade. And no, state governors are not coming to our rescue.
An underrated obstacle to women's success in politics is that it's much harder to find a husband who is all in on your career the way someone like Jill Biden is on Joe's.
A sympathetic column, Sir, and I accept that you feel that sympathy and, further, that you have great empathy for the man.
My problem, as is pretty much the same for most folks, is that I simply do not think that anyone that old should be elected for a four year term for that particular position. Of course, you will point out that the Trumpster is 78 and to that I point to the first sentence in this paragraph.
I am 73 and (thankfully) retired. I can speak personally to my physical decline. Oh, I am not (to my knowledge) suffering from anything in particular except, well, I'm 73 and I sure as Hell wouldn't run for such a stressful office, knowing that I would have to be on the absolute top of my game for four years. Nope, no way.
The truth is, as I put in day by day, week by week, I do see little signs of my physical deterioration. Yup, honesty is Hell! I can absolutely foresee that there will be a time (hopefully quite a while) and I will need to surrender the car keys. Damn!
So, yes, I also have sympathy and empathy for Biden but, quite honestly, this is on him and his family. He simply shouldn't have put his name forward for another term.
As for the other guy? Well, again, see the first sentence in my second paragraph.
Thanks for this, Ken - I agree with you completely. My position has long been that Biden's decline seems physical and not cognitive to me - he has a speech disorder that worsens when he gets tired, and he's tired more often at 81 than he was at 41, which makes sense. I appreciate that both Paul's column and your comment are kind about that.
It's not realistic for someone in their eighties to serve as president while running a strenuous and competitive campaign to be re-elected as president.
George, I am not quite as charitable as you about Biden's cognitive decline. Quite frankly, I am worried that he still has his finger (metaphorically, one hopes) on the nuclear trigger for another eight months.
Clearly, he has physical limitations but his apparent confusion at the debate MAY have been only a physical manifestation but it certainly had the appearance of confusion and mental decline. To blame that on being tired, as he tried to do, is absolutely foolish as no Commander in Chief can say to any putative enemy, "Hey guys, can we do this tomorrow? I need to take a nap right now?" The point being that a physical decline is almost as serious as a mental decline.
And, I repeat my previous point that both those guys are/were too old.
Ken, I think we're basically agreed here. The *perception* of cognitive decline in a president is, itself, disqualifying, regardless of what's really going on. A physical decline is serious.
I would guide you both to the google "Shrinking Trump" which should lead you to the blog run by neurologists/psychiatrists and their medical guests who are willing to bend the "Goldwater Rule" and evaluate them from their public utterances.
One guest had carefully listened to every public word from both men, going back over 20 years, and summed it up with:
"Biden's brain is aging; Trump's is dementing".
Every brain loses thinking and speaking speed with age, then there's the physical fatigue issues. But nothing in Biden's performance suggests that he is less able to name all G20 members, in at least rough descending order of economic size, than he was 20 years ago, or tell you the cities where Russia has it's largest submarine bases, (or which Congress members owe him the most favours).
On the Trump side, you will learn more than you wanted to know about "phonemic paraphasias" versus "semantic paraphasias" that have been rising in number for years. Let's just say they aren't surprised when he goes on about shark batteries and Robert E. Lee's Irish accent, me boys.
I will look that up, Roy. I tend to reject the possibility that Trump might be cognitively declining, in that I don't think there's any room for decline from zero, but neurologists know more than I do.
Good piece, Paul. Empathetic and realistic, with some good background.
We in Canada are blessed to have a journalist such as Paul Wells.
His analysis of the career of Joe Biden is refreshing and so well crafted that it shows up a lot of other views as being murky and not quite having the crystal clarity of Paul’s work.
Thanks for this.
I felt a great sense of relief and optimism tonight. Kamala Harris will make a great president. She is a highly accomplished person. She can focus on campaigning while Biden concentrates on the daily grind of being POTUS. People can be critical of Joe Biden, but he had to do the actual, high stress job of being president while simultaneously campaigning against DT, a person who has no responsibilities at all. I'm 77 and cannot fathom how Biden did it. His job would have killed a younger man. Three cheers for Joe.
"She is a highly accomplished person."
Please name her accomplishments.
Seasoned former Attorney General and US Senator, and Vice President.
Is your point that this, and all it implies, is not enough?
In Canada, to contrast, apparently it's sufficient to elect someone to head a government merely on the basis of their "accomplishing" being elected as MP, with no professional career outside of politics, or prior responsibility of note in government.
Maybe if we had a career politician leading this country that actually knows how parliament works and is aware of the ethics rules we wouldn’t be in the mess we are in. I want leaders who can speak clearly to the people and focus on the core responsibilities of government and be fiscally responsible. I want a leader who thinks about monetary policy. Oh and your last comment about no professional career outside of politics or prior responsibility of note in government includes our current prime minister.
I have said this to other people who have made the same observation as you about Trudeau's lack of career--he has two degrees and he was a teacher. As I suggested to these other people, and as someone who worked as support staff in schools for 26 years and observed how hard teacher's work (yes, even in the drama department), I think suggesting that being a teacher is not a career is insulting to all teachers.
I have the greatest respect for teachers who commit to the career however I believe he dabbled in teaching.
My understanding is that the prime minister was an actual teacher of academic subjects - that he, not to put too fine a point on it, was licensed to practice and did practice the profession of teaching - and that three-quarters of the "part-time drama teacher" sobriquet is simply a lie that somebody made up and that the Liberals never bothered to counter.
she's been a trainwreck in all of those posts.
CBS news compiled that list yesterday:
https://www.cbsnews.com/sacramento/news/what-to-know-about-kamala-harris-record-as-california-attorney-general/
...primarily in four legal areas, though the multi-billion-dollar lawsuit against banks that screwed homeowners, was the big one. "Going after sex predators" and "Prosecuting fake scam colleges" were the ones used to great amusement in 2019 advertising: https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2024/07/21/flashback_2019_kamala_harris_as_the_anti-trump_in_primary_campaign_ad.html
Could I put out a plea that people NOT do questions like that as a rhetorical device for arguing? It's easy to just look up answers, not ask your fellow commentators to do 30 seconds of research for you as a way of being challenging.
I respect your opinion however my opinion is quite different. She is a fool. I've watched her for quite some time and although I would love to see a woman president (or prime minister for that matter) what really matters to me is what they stand for, their abilities under pressure and their values. She fails big time, for me, on all those.
for you ...? How so? Can you enlighten us ?
There is a human dimension element in this story that many of us can understand and relate to through our own interactions with elderly people. Of course Biden wanted to continue on, not because of hubris or selfishness but because his mental and physical decline interfered with understanding how much of his performance and success is now attributed to others assisting (or covering tracks). Blokes like me see this as high stakes “independent living” for the aged. Being POTUS is a breeze if handlers make sure that the heavy end of the work is done in the morning and nothing scheduled after 8:00 pm. Heck, who doesn’t do that with older people? Teleprompter cheat notes is no different than writing out questions for Granny to ask her doctor. We are all up to our ears in these situations sooner or later.
The debate was the end of the line as everyone, including the general public caught the President in an unguarded situation that exposed his frailties. The enablers should have had the courage to step in a year ago and orchestrate a soft and dignified landing for Biden and his family. As Sarah Evans sings “you can’t fence time” and now the Democrats are almost out of time to field a competitive name on the Presidential ticket.
Well said. That too is my concern, that Biden's advisers were and are not principled enough to do what is best for their country. Then we are left wondering where else they were and are wrong.
Biden’s decline is a complicated version of “power of attorney”. In normal circumstances, POTUS has a large staff of lawyers and advisors who analyze information and make recommendations but the buck stops with the President. Today, Biden is left holding the bag whether he remembers having the final say or not.
True, and how those lawyers and advisors present their analysis and recommendations can greatly sway the decision-maker especially one with a feeble mind.
Leaders seem to end up in bubbles.
And the people in the bubble have an inherent conflict of interest in ensuring the boss continues, as their own employment, power, and prestige are linked to their role in the bubble.
It is a challenge all leaders seem to face…
Hopefully now we can have equal treatment for Trump so he can have his rambling word salads endlessly scrutinized. Schadenfreude.
Sure. Of course, first we have to have five years of obfuscation and denial, and insistence that he is "sharp as a tack" and "runs rings around younger staffers." After the media has carried water and covered for Biden, they have to do the same for the Donald before we talk about leveling the playing field.
Oh, by the way - Kamala Harris can't string two coherent words together except by accident. I note that the great cover-up has already begun.
Let’s compare your accomplishments in life with hers
When Harris starts asking herself out loud , whether it is better to be eaten by sharks or electrocuted, then I will agree with you. Not before.
I was hardly giving Biden a pass here. He shouldn’t have been running. The media disproportionately fawns over Democrats. Any Democrat. But Trump has piled on Biden’s mental acuity all along so the Schadenfreude will be all the younger candidates that will legitimately pile on Trump when he goes full out mental walk about. And he will.
"I was hardly giving Biden a pass here...."
It seems to me that you were - absolutely (and unconditionally). My apologies if that wasn't the case.
oh puhlease
For sure Biden was already too elderly in mind and body to run for President in the 2020 election, let alone running for a second term in 2024, but why oh why did his family and advisers not give consideration to the fact that Biden's decline was becoming too obvious to lead anyone, let alone the United States of America. Everyone around the President was in complete denial refusing to accept that the Emperor had no clothes.
Now here they are one month away from the Democratic Convention and four months from the national election, and the entire American Primary process has been for naught. The Democrats are now left scrambling looking for a viable candidate to take on the elderly carnival barker who appears to be gaining ground every day.
President Biden himself acknowledged if he paced himself and did not take on too many tasks, he could cope with being President. That he and his advisers could not get themselves to recognize the Presidency of the United States is a 24/7 job, is extremely concerning. That these same individuals now promote Kamala Harris, whose only attributes are that she is female and bi-racial, as a possible successor is again troubling.
In the end, it is the ineptitude of Biden's advisers which are most concerning. If they got this oh so wrong, what else are they getting wrong?
You forgot the biggest of Kamala Harris’ attributes. The war chest of $ that stay with the Harris part of the Biden Harris campaign fund.
Are you sure? I have read conflicting accounts of what happens to it. One such account is that the money is returned to the donors.
From what I’ve read (And no. Not on Facebook or the like) the money would be at her disposal with some restrictions and returned to donors if neither ran as in non transferable to other candidates.
What you suggest is one of the scenarios. Another is that the money was for the “Biden/Harris ticket”, and does not flow to Harris automatically. I probably should have said “read and heard” (and, no, none of it from Facebook - although some news is no better). I’ve switched from CNN to FOX to MSNBC and a few other U.S. channels, plus NP and Globe and Mail articles. I’m still not sure just what happens to the money.
Phillips OBrien’s Substack has historically been accurate. Also in the NP but can’t recall the author.
Thank you.
Good point, especially because money talks!
"He managed to get elected president and has been a consequential one."
Agreed. But my assessment is that the massive consequences of his presidency were almost entirely negative. This is relatively easy to gauge, because we can compare the Biden and Trump presidencies. Everyone knows the topics, so I won't recite them again. But many Americans are making the comparison, and concluding in Trump's favor.
>"Everyone knows the topics, so I won't recite them again."
Easy, everybody. What they say when they can't talk about:
- The far-and-away #1 position in the G7 indicators (Canada, #2, but distantly);
- The stock market;
- The average wage level;
- The expansion and regained-unity of NATO;
- Lack of medical insurance dropped from 22% to 10% of the population.
...Likely all the environmental and climate programs would be filed under "negative progress", so I'll skip them.
Your comparative assessment of the two presidencies is truly amazing, sir.
These banal assertions of false consensus are indeed amazing! How else could he feel free to skip even articulating the arguments before confirming their self-evidence. My doubts raised by this paucity of good faith elaboration are assuage by his extreme confidence.
We know for sure that Mr. Trump is the "greatest president in history... no, even longer than that!", because he has told us so. Again and again.
Your usual sensible assessment - well perhaps I shouldn't say 'usual' as your sensible assessments stand out as unusual in the ruin of the news business.
"What It Takes" is my favourite book and should be required reading for everybody with any interest in politics.
In the primary debates in 2015, legendary tough guy Chris Christie called Trump by that devastating sobriquet, "Mr. Trump". In 2016, Hillary Clinton spent her whole debate with Trump saying, "Okay, this guy admits he's not very nice and that that's how he became a billionaire business genius, but hold on to your hats, because do I have some news for you: he's not very nice!" In 2020, Biden suggested that Trump "shut up, man", and called him "Donald", which is an unheard-of breach of decorum when a non-president is addressing a president. That is to say, Biden always had a level of chutzpah that normal politicians do not. He pitched himself as the nice, normal guy who could make things nice and normal again, and compared to Trump, he was...but compared to a Dick Gephardt, he always had trace amounts of Trumpishness in him.
Over the past month, we've seen Biden stubbornly ignore advice from his aides and say, "To hell with you, I'm great, I've beat the odds before, you'll see." Millions of people have responded by saying, "This is proof that he's senile," or else, "Oh, no! He's acting like Trump!" And...nope. For the past month, he's been acting like Joe Biden.
One thing RBC covers at the end of the book, which I have not seen anyone else mention, is that Biden had a major brain aneurysm that nearly killed him just after the '88 campaign. They say the presidency ages you ten years for every one, and by all accounts, he took the vice-presidency very seriously too - it was more stressful on his brain and body than my job is on mine. So even if someone doesn't think he's had a cognitive decline, there's an argument that he's functionally a hundred and forty years old.
Joe Biden did the right thing by resigning. He is a tough cookie who made decisive decisions. I liked that about him. Too bad it has to end this way.
My impression of the guy was he didn’t broadcast his wins sufficiently. Having said that, I’m appalled that something as important as the leadership of a great country now needs a carnie mentality to impress the public. Do you think future presidents (not to mention Prime Ministers) should hire marketers? Ugh.
And yes, as a Canadian I care. Sadly our fortunes are tied up with the US. Trump strikes me as having a mafia Don ethos. He works on a quid-pro-quo mentality, along with a retinue of fixers, shyster lawyers, enforcers, and promises of revenge on anyone who he imagines has thwarted or embarrassed him. I can’t imagine how either JT or PP would deal with this narcissistic boss-man.
If Kamala could reassure the populace that she’s going to strike a balance between social justice and hard nosed practicality, she would bring in a lot of voters who don’t like “woke”. Seriously hoping she understands that.
You are right about Trump, but in fairness, we deserve what we are about to to get. We are in the wrong with regards to NATO and we are unapologetic about it. We are the ones with supply management which angers all of our trading partners. We can’t even eliminate provincial trading barriers which costs us billions per year because of small special interest groups.
Two major Federal parties plays footsies with Khalistan separatists which angers one of the rising world powers for the next 50 years to try and get a few seats in Parliament. Don’t we remember how we felt when De Gaulle made his famous proclamation?
We are an unserious country who seems unwilling/unconcerned about potentially being excluded from the very likely coming overhaul of NATO and trade. And no, state governors are not coming to our rescue.
100%
Very good Paul
An underrated obstacle to women's success in politics is that it's much harder to find a husband who is all in on your career the way someone like Jill Biden is on Joe's.
Sadly understandable but true. There’s no laudable role-model for that the way there is for the supportive woman behind great men.
We might have something close to it in Doug Emhoff (Mr. Kamala Harris), who had a career of his own but is very publicly supportive of his wife.
Appreciated this quick take that has marinated for decades.