Biden Withdraws!

Today (Sunday 7-21-2024) there was the sudden (but not unexpected) announcement that Joe Biden is withdrawing from the 2024 election race,  instead endorsing Kamala Harris as his preferred successor.  And we are seeing the usual BS from the GOP opposition,  up to and including a ridiculous demand from the Speaker of the House that President Biden immediately resign from office,  on the “theory” that if he cannot run for another term,  he cannot continue to serve. 

These are not any sort of “loyal opposition”,  they are people who demonstrably prioritize party advantage far above the good of the country,  in what I consider to be violation of their oaths of office.  And that oath-breaking needs to be criminalized!

I disagree with the obsessive coverage of Biden’s rapidly-advancing infirmities by the mainstream media!  They have been influencing most democrat voters and the big donors,  by convincing them Biden is unfit,  through sheer repetition (a propaganda thing used by the Bolsheviks in Russia,  the Fascists in Italy,  and the Nazis in Germany).  That is NOT the job of the American “fourth estate”!

I will say that the internet,  which is totally unpoliced for truth,  is actually far worse about lying than the mainstream media (with the long-known exception of Fox “News”). Your on-line echo chambers are lying to you,  very egregiously,  for nothing but profit!

We have had presidents with physical infirmities before,  most notably Franklin Roosevelt,  who actually died from his,  not very long after being re-elected for his fourth term.  It is the mental infirmities that we really need to worry about,  and we have seen that before,  too,  most notably with Ronald Reagan slowly succumbing to dementia in his second term,  and also with Woodrow Wilson’s sudden stroke.

I see no need for Biden to do anything but faithfully serve out his term.  If he becomes unable to serve before Jan. 20,  2025,  there is the 25^th amendment and a very capable Vice President Kamala Harris to step in and take power,  in a now well-defined and legal manner. 

As for Kamala Harris becoming the new Democratic nominee for the 2024 election,  I have no problem with that at all!  She is very capable,  well-versed in what has been going on,  and at age 59,  she is young enough to serve well for many years to come.  I think the Democratic Party would be utter fools not to nominate her almost immediately by some sort of acclamation.

To make Harris more credible to more American voters than former President Trump,  I think she should come up with a VP pick very soon;  possibly Michigan Governor Whitmer,  or any of a handful of others.  I also think she should retain Biden,  and former President Obama,  as some sort of special advisers,  outside the usual appointed or elected roles.  Age and infirmities would not matter in that kind of special role. 

More importantly,  she has to make the case that former President Trump is also too old to serve another term,  besides him being a threat to our democracy! 

He also stumbled during the June debate,  just not as obviously as President Biden stumbled.  This has been ignored by the mainstream media in their obsessive coverage of Biden’s stumbles,  but the evidence is there for all to see,  if they but look!  Where he lost his train of thought and repeated what he said seconds before,  indicates the mental infirmity stumbles as different from the other numerous deliberate acts of not answering a single question put to him,  even repeatedly.

As for the threat to democracy that former President Trump poses,  there is the Jan. 6 insurrection,  which he did nothing about for hours,  and then ineffectually,  when he finally did act.  Plus,  there are the remarks about “dictator on day one”,  and the “Project 2025” blueprint for imposing a dictatorship in the US,  which he falsely denies having anything to do with.  Plus his predilection to leave or disable NATO (also a matter of public record),  at a time when we are in a proxy war with Russia,  with Ukraine as our proxy.  That predilection is tantamount to treason in a time of war!

And then there is the chronic lying.  It is a matter of the public record that nearly every claim ever made by former President Trump was a lie,  even before his election in 2016!  If nearly everything said is false,  then how can a citizen track what the administration has really done?  Biden and Harris demonstrably do not suffer from that fault!

If Vice President Harris does indeed become our next President,  I strongly recommend to her that she award the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Joe Biden as soon as possible!  This would be for his exemplary service to the country over his entire long career in public service,  and the many good things he did for the country as its President.