Biden? Trump? The Biden Watch.

I have lots to do (even if I am retired), and yet I keep reading articles about Joe Biden.  Is he leaving?  Is he staying?  How bad did he do today?  What’s going to happen?

To me, it’s obvious Joe Biden cannot be President for “four more years”.  I’m not even sure he should be President for six more months, but we can probably get through that.  Four more years?  Of course not.  Even if the debate was a bad night and even if Joe Biden was never all that articulate, he is on a downhill slide.  Even if he hasn’t gone down very far, it’s not going to get better.  And the concern is that it will be like what Ernest Hemingway said about going bankrupt: “Gradually and then suddenly.” 

Joe Biden needs to go.  I understand why his son may want him to stay.  I understand why his aides may want him to stay (they, too, would get four more years).  I am not sure why his wife apparently wants him to stay, but that is for somebody else to figure out.  (I have wanted Cubs players to stay even when they were past it.  Joe Maddon, on the other hand, wrote on his scorecard every day an abbreviation that reminded him: “Don’t fall in love with players”.  And Joe Maddon managed the Cubs to their first World Series victory in 108 years.)

What is perhaps most interesting is why more Democratic leaders haven’t called for Biden to leave (unless they are still working on it behind the scenes and haven’t gotten it fully organized yet).  Democrats complain about Republican leaders in Washington going along with Trump.  I understand the point, but the other side is that a lot of Republican voters really like Donald Trump.  (I don’t; they do.)  So, if Republican politicians want to stay in office (for whatever reason), they need to do what a majority of Republican voters want.  And, unfortunately, that is apparently Donald Trump.

I find it hard to believe that Democratic voters feel the same way about Joe Biden.  Maybe some do, but I don’t think Joe Biden has the kind of appeal in the Democratic Party that Donald Trump has in the Republican Party.  It seems to me that what appeals to Democrats is what Biden (and the Democratic Party) has done, not who he is and how he acts.

I realize it is late, but waiting is only going to make it worse.  I’m not supporting Trump.  I never have; I never will.  He hasn’t got the character, the temperament, or the knowledge to be President.¹  But Joe Biden is losing whatever he has.  He’s not going to make four more years.  Staff and aides can do a lot, but they can’t lead.  If Biden is still on the ballot on November 5, I fear for America – and for the world.
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¹ And Trump could easily start to lose it in the next four years, too, though in his case, he might be better if he loses it.
UPDATE (7/10/24 12:05 pm): Corrected an omission in the fourth paragraph: added "like" before "Donald Trump".