Joe Biden #4 gave a historic performance in the presidential debate that even The Economist describes as “an unmitigated disaster”:
The mission for Joe Biden in the presidential debate held in Atlanta on June 27th was clear: to prove his critics wrong, by showing that he was mentally fit and thereby reverse the polling deficit that makes Donald Trump the favourite to win the American election in 2024. Unfortunately, his performance was an unmitigated disaster—perhaps the worst of any presidential candidate in modern history. The president, who is 81 (and would be 86 by the end of a second term in office), stammered indecipherably, struggled to complete his lines of attack and proved his doubters completely correct. Although Mr Trump was in his typical form—meandering, mendacious, vindictive—he somehow appeared the more coherent and lucid of the pair. Mr Biden’s decision to seek re-election rather than standing aside for a younger standard-bearer now looks like a reckless endangerment of the democracy he claims to want to protect.
Merely quoting Mr Biden’s rhetorical bumblings do not do them justice, but they do give a sense of the shambles. Consider one of his lines at the very start of the debate, the first indicator that the president was in poor form: “Making sure that we continue to strengthen our health-care system, making sure that we’re able to make every single, solitary person eligible for what I’ve been able to do with the…uh, covid…excuse me, dealing with everyone we had to do with… look, if we finally beat Medicare…” The moderator interrupted before further damage could be done, one of several coups de grâce graciously administered.
I don’t see how the Democrats can seriously expect to field any of their five Joe Bidens as a candidate, although at least it would purport to demonstrate how many people will vote for a Democrat under any circumstance. That, of course, assumes that the elections are real, which we know they are not.
So, the point of showing that Biden is incapacitated, and permitting the media to trumpet his incapacity now that the primaries are over is to put someone else in the office. Whether that is Trump or not remains to be seen.
Of the various replacement candidates on offer, I think RFK is the most credible suggestion, Michelle Obama the least. I also think that Newsome was the original plan, but that is less viable since California has been imploding faster than anticipated.
The lesson is this: once you take the ticket, no matter how high you rise, you will eventually be thrown from the high horse.