Don't Embarrass Joe Biden
And the Upcoming Visit by Bibi Netanyahu
A couple of snippets from Reuters captures the weirdness of this American moment. The first involves President Joe Biden and his status as a candidate for 2024:
Some officials think it’s only a matter of time before Joe Biden takes himself out of the race, though nobody can say how the party’s presidential-nomination process will unfold if he drops out. Reports say he’s taking seriously calls within the party to quit because of concerns about his cognitive ability, his age and his health. Fundraisers are on hold and July donations plummeted, sources say.
That last part is likely to be fatal. It’s money that talks in American politics, and if Biden can’t raise any, and he’s hurting the bottom line at the DNC, they’ll find a way to get rid of him.
Remarkably, I keep reading articles about how Democrats shouldn’t do anything to embarrass Biden. As if personal embarrassment is the leading issue here. The leading issue is whether Biden is physically and mentally fit to be president this very moment. Is anyone confident that Biden could handle a crisis akin to the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962? Does he have the physical stamina and mental acumen to make critical decisions under extreme pressure? It doesn’t appear so. Isn’t this issue a lot more important than Biden’s feelings?
The second snippet involves Israel’s destruction of Gaza, a topic which has become far less salient lately in U.S. corporate media. Here’s the update from Reuters:
Israel’s aerial and tank shelling of central Gaza intensified while fighting raged in Rafah. Israel’s military is set to issue call-up notices to 1,000 members of the ultra-Orthodox community after the Supreme Court ended their longstanding exemption for Jewish seminary students from service. Netanyahu will address the U.S. Congress next week and might meet President Biden.
I’d set the over/under on Congressional ovations for Bibi Netanyahu at 50; standing ovations at 25.
There are few things more appalling than inviting Netanyahu to address Congress while Israel prosecutes a genocide in Gaza with American-made weaponry. It tells you everything you need to know about the “rules-based order” promoted by U.S. leaders.
With Biden in free-fall and Kamala Harris still not ready for primetime, perhaps the Democrats can draft Bibi Netanyahu to run against Donald Trump.* No man seems to unite Congress in rapturous applause like Bibi. Bibi would certainly revive DNC fundraising as well. Stranger things have happened …
*Yes, I know Bibi can’t run to be POTUS. Why should he bother, when he’s already dictating U.S. policy in the Middle East?
Someone close to Biden should tell him he's already announced he will not be running again and has already resigned. Then give him a set of golf clubs and tell him he has a tee time in 15 minutes.
As said in Alice (in Wonderland) said, "curiouser and curiouser".
I had heard no comment in the MSM (to be expected) - but reports that "Iran was plotting to kill Trump" were not tied to Netanyahu's forthcoming visit and address to his serfs in Congress. We are to believe that unnamed sources just found this, and it won't come up in Netanyahu's speech?
Much has been made that Harris would be a weak but still stronger candidate than Biden.
Maybe. But the Democrats problems are only going to get worse no matter how this plays out:
1. If Biden is too weak and cognitively impaired to be a candidate, how can he be allowed to remain the sitting US President for another six months with all the crises that exist?
2. If Biden remains in office through the election, then Kamala Harris has to run on his record and defend the actions of an administration to which she belonged. The ghost of Hubert Humphrey will arise.
3. Democrats for months and years, and some to present, told the public that Biden is fit as a fiddle and more energetic and focused than ever. But now, they're admitting they've known -some for years, that he was in cognitive decline and advancing senility. Why would anyone believe anything they say?