The debate has shaken America. People were stunned from the moment Joe Biden opened mouth and his voice was raspy and halting. We all know he struggled through and looked like a confused old man. He was perfect prey for one of the all time political bullies. Biden couldn’t come back fast and clearly enough. The lies and delusions that Trump spewed out were as troubling as Biden’s performance. Trump told a bizarre story of doctors putting a nine month fetus “aside” during an abortion. He said fifty-one experts thought Roe v. Wade should be overturned. On immigration, he said immigrants are coming in illegally and taking jobs from black people which black leaders, of course, took as racist. Biden or the moderators didn’t challenge him on any of these ridiculous claims as he painted this dark picture of America. It reminded me of the “America Carnage” inaugural speech in 2016.
Biden prepared for a week and he looked like someone pushed on stage and said do the best you can. He confirmed the widespread belief he is too old to serve another four years in the most difficult job in the world. He has had one of the most successful four years of any president. Did he make mistakes, sure. But people closest to him say he is mentally sharp and asks challenging questions. The day after the debate at a rally he sounded much stronger and admitted he doesn’t debate as well as he used to, but won’t be deterred. We also know what four years of Trump was like. Completely missing the danger of Covid. Talk of injecting disinfectant and saying Covid would go away when the weather got warmer. Hundreds of thousands died. The danger of that happening again should terrify us all and threatens the future of democracy. A fundamental question is how did we get to that terrible ninety minutes on that bare stage where there was no place to hide?
After eight years as Vice President,Biden should have been the choice for the Democratic nomination in 2016. Two things happened that changed history. Biden son, Beau, died of brain cancer in May, 2015. He had been the Attorney General of Delaware. Served a tour in Iraq. He was looking ahead to a bright political future. It’s believed his exposure to burn pits in Iraq caused his cancer. Biden was devastated. As anyone can understand, he was overwhelmed with grief. He had also lost his first wife and daughter in a terrible car accident when he was first elected to the senate in the early seventies. His sons Beau and Hunter survived. He decide he wasn’t ready to run for president. I believe if he ran in 2016, he would have defeated Trump and would be finishing up his second term now. President Obama then supported Hillary Clinton for the nomination, saying it was her turn.
The Republicans were desperate. There was almost a dozen candidates in 2016. Then Trump came down the escalator. He gave one of the most deranged speeches in the lobby of Trump Tower including how immigrants were coming into the country raping and murdering women. Most Republican politicians said this guy is crazy. People like Senator Lindsay Graham said he should never be president. Trump bullied his way through debates. Belittling opponents and getting the support of the white middle class and poor who felt they were being left out by political elites. Trump took over the Republican Party. The party was afraid of him and they fell into line. Many thought Hillary would win. But she was a candidate with too much baggage. While she won the popular vote, she lost were it counted in the Electoral College. We know what the next four years were like. The Republican Party became a personality cult. Even Lindsay Graham was playing golf with Trump.
2020 comes. Biden decides to run and wins. Trump gets even crazier. We all know what happened. But, both parties now had a huge problem. For the Republicans, Trump wouldn’t go away and still controlled the party. Biden was only three years older than Trump. But appeared much older. When he decide to run for a second term, none of trusted advisors or Democratic heavyweights tried to discourage him. They were afraid to challenge him and didn’t accept the obvious reality that he would be eighty-two at the start of a second term. It should have made clear to him he was a transitional president for four years to clean up the Trump mess. They would be grooming someone to run in 2024. They didn’t do it. They tried to hide Biden’s condition with very controlled public appearances, and very few interviews or news conferences.
The parties allowed those two old men on that stage. One a deranged ego manic who lives in an alternate reality where only he is right. The other is a decent man who served his country well for fifty years, but is past his time. They have us hostage. This talk of getting Biden to step away for someone else at this stage is unrealistic. His advisors and family have put him in the awful position of going out as a confused old man and possibly losing to the man he saved us from four years ago. We have allowed our political leaders to lose control. We were shocked by what happened. I’d love to know what political leaders around the world thought. This is the best the country the world counts on has to offer?
Eighty-one year old Bob Woodward of the Washington Post one of the greatest political and investigative reporters of our time called the debate a “political hydrogen bomb.” True to his instincts he went on to say, “I think the answer here is reporting, in seeking very aggressively, an explanation-what happened here?” He said we need to find out now not in years when books are written about what happened. We’ve given two men a chance to lead us into the future. Trump is the most dangerous man to run for president. We let him in once. It can’t happen again. We must rally around Biden. He is the only choice for the future.
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