Hiding Biden’s decline
I find it hard to believe that a lot of people were actually fooled during the 2020 campaign into thinking that Joe Biden was not sliding towards dementia. But apparently they were. I suppose it could be the result of a combination of wishful thinking, desire to get rid of Trump and the paucity of alternatives, and a resultant lack of close attention to Biden’s actual few and far-between appearances. Another factor may have been nostalgia for the Obama years (I find that inexplicable, too, but I do believe it occurred).
Now a lot of those people are catching onto Joe’s awfulness, because there’s only so much you can hide even from those who would like it to be otherwise.
What were the operatives behind Biden’s candidacy thinking would happen, once he was elected? Perhaps they thought his unraveling would proceed at a more stately pace. Perhaps they thought external events would go better, and so people wouldn’t care that much about the condition of Biden himself. Perhaps those operatives thought they’d be able to commit fraud in the next election, and the next, and so it wouldn’t matter. Perhaps they thought that once Biden undid – by executive order, if need be – Trump’s changes, that would accomplish many of their goals. Perhaps they thought that Congress would be able to pass HR1 (remember that?) in order to change all state voting laws in their favor. Perhaps they thought Puerto Rico and DC would become states, giving Democrats a permanent majority.
And perhaps they thought that, if all else failed, they could remove Biden for health reasons and Kamala Harris would become president.
They didn’t bargain on Manchin and Sinema obstructing their plans – so far, anyway. But what they especially didn’t bargain for (IMHO) was that Harris would be perceived as so repellent so quickly by so many people.
That’s the main bind they’re in right now. They can’t go with the “replace Joe with Kamala” plan because the public might perceive the cure as worse than the disease.
A typical first response to a loved one’s dementia is denial. That only works for so long.
What were the operatives behind Biden’s candidacy thinking would happen, once he was elected? –neo
You go to war with the Biden you have, not the Biden you might want or wish to have at a later time.
As Donald Rumsfeld might have said…
Once the operatives realized during the primaries that Kamala Harris was simply dire and that Bernie was poised to win, I don’t think they had a choice if they wanted a realistic chance to defeat Trump. That was paramount.
I doubt they had high hopes for Biden. They probably figured they could muddle through. I’ll bet they didn’t think it would go this badly.
Nonetheless, they are arguably better off than they would be had Trump won another term — given their priorities.
Though if things continue to slide — fingers crossed! — Democrats might become so toxic that they will wish Biden hadn’t won.
I originally predicted he would be gone by Oct this year. So they would not lose the midterm
I was wrong. I didnt not expect the open warfare between Harris and Biden that has been blocking this.
Now it is even more worrying. Simply because I think the desperation on the D end starts up soon. Although if the polls show them there is no way to claw back their losses in the midterms. They may just keep the charade up until afterwards
We always heard how Trump “violated norms”. Yet it was mostly him being impolite. This group simply chucked the “norms” completely
I think it’s important to remember that just because we focus on bizarre things Joe Biden says and does, that doesn’t mean he has dementia or is sliding to it. (After all he has been saying and doing bizarre things for a very long time.)
A very good reminder from an Alzheimer’s charity:
“…regardless of how you feel about a public figure, mixing the medical with the political is a bad idea. In fact, nobody should have their mental health diagnosed from a distance. Here’s why…”
https://www.alzheimers.org.uk/blog/donald-trump-joe-biden-dementia
The media did this for years with Trump. I think they’ve forgotten about it now. And we all discounted what they were saying. Below see a sample from 5 minutes of Google. I think we’d be smart not to do this ourselves.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2019/04/09/does-donald-trump-have-dementia-we-need-know-psychologist-column/3404007002/
https://www.statnews.com/2017/05/23/donald-trump-speaking-style-interviews/
https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2021/02/donald-trump-suffering-dementia-white-house/
https://nymag.com/tags/does-trump-have-dementia/
https://qz.com/1355725/omarosas-book-unhinged-suggests-trump-has-dementia-or-alzheimers-disease/
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-fallible-mind/202010/we-are-entitled-ask-president-trump-his-brain-scan
Mythx: “We always heard how Trump ‘violated norms’. Yet it was mostly him being impolite.”
And I think the impoliteness was usually (always?) in response to prior nastiness directed at him. Unlike Repubs in general (and the feckless GW Bush in particular), Trump didn’t simply ignore it or grin and bear it. People aren’t used to Repubs fighting back. I think DeSantis is showing good signs in this arena.
I thought that Biden would be gone by July and Harris would be Pres. So I am getting out of the guessing game. Keeping my head down everywhere.
See this:
https://youtu.be/efW0hclklYg?t=737
In this clip, Tucker Carlson puts on his human-understanding cap, and tries to explain why a mentally declining Biden was considered a safe and comforting choice by some people in the last election. What does that say about those people? Is it exculpatory?
No it is not. We have spoken before about the idea, even contested by some conservatives here [I am not a conservative] that for a person to be ascribed any moral worth or standing or respect as a citizen of a republic, he must have an understanding of the founding principles and precepts of the polity, and of what his cast vote conveys in relation to them.
It is their duty, on my view: There is NO excuse for someone of sound enough mind and body to vote or to be extended the franchise to vote, not to know and to be aware of these critical and essential matters.
Then, there is the other view, the “human, all too human” view, and “we are all top to bottom just peasant ass-sniffers doing our daily best to scratch our daily itches and enjoy the warmth of the herd”. That view holds that to demand as the price of admission to the franchise, that the “pack animal” (as one commenter described the fundamental anthropology) be more, be rational, be informed, be responsible, is unrealistic.
Well, maybe, given large portions of our current population it is, in practice. And perhaps in potential as well.
But if that is so, then to hell with those particular portions of our current population, and let them fully reap what they have negligently sown, as they fraudulently pretended to be fit for freedom and for citizenship and consideration as moral fellows, in a constitutional polity, while knowing full well, that they were not.
For they, more than the lunatics they enabled, have brought by their very enabling of the lunatics, this hellish situation upon us now.
Their dishabille failure to meet even the lowest bar and standard of due diligence required of free men and women, marks them as unfit to enjoy the freedoms which others at great personal sacrifice, handed to them.
When liberal grannie after having been hoist on the petard of her own smug negligence comes shamelessly crawling and croaking to you, for warmth, and for a cup of water as the nation collapses around our ears, what will you do?
If they follow the way written out in a 1975 story “Sierra Maestra” then they’ll have Harris resign. Her replacement will be someone who could never be elected to the office but could get Congressional approval. Like the name being tossed out lately, Michelle O. Then Biden resigns and the replacement steps into an office they could never have gotten through an election.
That was the process that got Ford in and a couple of women who couldn’t shoot very well almost gave us Nelson Rockefeller as president but we and Ford dodged that.
Today’s rumor in the vast right wing conspiracy is that house staffers are researching how the house confirms replacement VP’s. (Happened only twice). Get a replacement less repellant than Harris, then Joe’s gone. The rumor mill was also suggesting Mrs Barry Dunham as the replacement. In any event, it almost certainly would have to be a she and not a whitey.
@ Paul Nachman I was constantly surprised at the vitriol being hurled at Trump time after time during his Presidency, and in nearly every case the rhetoric was an order of magnitude more unhinged and un-tethered to reason, when compared to Trump’s. Trump had a tendency to skewer people with embarrassing, immature nicknames and seemingly outrageous accusations which had a disturbing tendency to be revealed as accurate at later dates. His attackers were just crazy mean, unimaginative, and usually off-base – severing heads and so forth. I wonder if they were triggered by Trump’s willingness to expose them before the story played out.
But the funny thing is, where commentators once were eager to pig-pile on Trump’s public statements and observations as the worst thing ever said by literally Hitler, now when it’s pointed out that Biden has said or done something even more egregious, sometimes indicative of senility, the press just shrugs its shoulders and spreads its hands: “Yeah, Trump did the same thing, no big deal”. Apparently the craziness and hysterical reactions are reserved for certain public figures.
Get a replacement less repellant than Harris, then Joe’s gone. The rumor mill was also suggesting Mrs Barry Dunham as the replacement. I
1. How are they planning to extort a letter of resignation from KH?
2. How are they planning to gin up an interest in holding political office on the part of Mooch?
A typical first response to a loved one’s dementia is denial.
It’s perfectly normal to have memory problems as you age, so, no people do not assume memory problems mean dementia.
I need to research under what conditions, if any, the Speaker of the House becomes President if both the President and the Vice President are impeached and removed from office one-two.
What strange and remote set of circumstances might enable such a thing?
Nothing I can honestly envision, even in the unlikely event of a Republican tidal wave giving them strong control of the House, and sweeping every Democrat Senate seat up for midterm election. That would give Republicans still less than a 2/3 majority in the Senate.
Any idle and unmoored daydream featuring a scenario of this kind would then probably also require the additional context of a national catastrophe unprecedented in our history, as its driving engine
And given the size and loyalty of the Democrat Party client class, it is unlikely on my view, that the members of it could be persuaded by any means whatsoever, including the preservation of the existence of the republic and avoiding social war, to risk voting away their party politics supplied rice bowls and entitlements.
But supposing that both the President and the Vice could be removed from office, and that before the Vice was impeached and removed the House or Senate refused to confirm a new nominated Vice on majority vote
…. then?
In that case I think that the Constitution gets ignored, the SC folds on the matter of a new VP needing to be confirmed by Congress, and the Republic and rule of law is officially over in the name of “preserving society”, before a Republican Speaker of the House ever is allowed to take office as acting President.
I don’t see a Parliamentary way out of this disaster in the Executive. It is shit at the top, shit in the middle, and shit all down the chain.
I hope someone else, does see a way out of this.
Remember when Obama used to give Biden some “jobs” and then we would never hear anything about the results. I remember the “war on cancer”, but I forget what the other jobs were. But, I was not impressed and figured that Obama was trying to get Biden out of the way.
However, Pence was given the Covid 19 task force management. Whatever one may think of his performance, it was very obvious that he was very active in dealing with that task.
So, when Harris was given the border management task, she probably viewed it as being a no-win situation based on what the Ds really want to have happen at the border. As a result, she has done nothing and is perceived by many being incompetent. Add the laughter and other mannerisms and she becomes very unlikable.
The Ds have a big problem and unfortunately, we are the ones who will suffer the most.
Art Deco,
“1. How are they planning to extort a letter of resignation from KH?”
They’ll simply make her an offer she can’t refuse…
They’ll tell her that she can do it the easy way or the hard way. But one way or another, she’s going to leave.
“2. How are they planning to gin up an interest in holding political office on the part of Mooch?”
Mooch has the requisite adulation and name recognition. But has no executive experience or political resume. So arguably, while the interest would be there, the qualifications are utterly lacking. That makes Senate approval problematic.
IMO, it’s a given that Harris’ replacement would have to be a woman.
There’s only one woman democrat with the requisite name recognition, political resume and party backing…
Hillary Rodham Clinton.
Not to get all Godwiny, but how did the German people of the early 1930s look at Adolf Hitler and think “Yeah! That guy looks like the perfect leader for a Master Race!”
We might wish there was a rational, reasonable explanation for it but there’s not. A large portion of the American public was consumed by clinical hysteria over Donald Trump and because that portion included most of our political, cultural, and media elites, most of those who weren’t hysterical felt obliged to either pretend or stay silent. That sort of societal mania isn’t uncommon. It usually looks ridiculous in hindsight and it’s often followed by some sort of serious crisis or collapse.
Mike
I find it hard to believe that a lot of people were actually fooled during the 2020 campaign into thinking that Joe Biden was not sliding towards dementia. But apparently they were.
They were not fooled. They knew but didn’t care, just as they knew in 2008 that Obama was an empty suit. They just wanted someone in there who would have people behind him appointing leftists in the cabinet and Supreme Court and making radical social policy.
“They didn’t bargain on Manchin and Sinema obstructing their plans”
I read today that Manchin is renouncing obstruction and will allow Spendapalooza to go forward.
My free floating ruminations of the scenario addressed above, may not have been explicit enough – though it was mentioned – that the dual impeachments, or the resignation and impeachment and removal I mooted, were under conditions of a complete Republican sweep of the midterms.
Something along the line of
– Biden resigns
– Harris ascends
-The Republican controlled House refuses to confirm a replacement V.P
– Harris is removed from office …
And ….?
Even assuming the Democrats suffering an election rout, and Republicans gaining a strong majority in the Senate, I can see no conditions under which even the most “moderate” of the Dem’s would vote in required numbers for conviction even if Harris were clearly proven a criminal and traitor; if, a Republican would become President.
Even under conditions of a national collapse.
I think it has unfortunately come to that.
However … what if Harris were not impeached and removed, but no V.P. were ever confirmed?
Leave the office vacant, Bribem resigns, hello Madam “I want to rule the world” President Pelosi. No confirmation required.
Liz (8:04 pm) wrote, “So, when Harris was given the border management task, she probably viewed it as being a no-win situation based on what the Ds really want to have happen at the border. As a result, she has done nothing and is perceived by many being incompetent.”
Liz is coming closest to a point I’ve been making, largely to myself, for months.
No, Harris has *not* been incompetent in doing her assigned job to fix the border situation. Her (wink, wink) “job” is to keep the border open and to keep the flow flowing, thereby infusing USA with more and more invaders*, virtually all of whom will vote Democrat [but-but-but they’re not citizens, they don’t get to vote! — does anyone really realistically fancy that that matters?]. And she has been succeeding admirably.
* don’t call them immigrants or refugees: those enter legally; these are invaders
Not only does essential orientation in the polity of USA history and its Constitution (including the Bill of Rights) get thrown under the bus, but well, they’re already doing that throughout our K-12 “education” system and beyond. Many-to-most things that once were meaningful no longer are. Welcome to 21st century USA.
As you do not quote, there is no specific evidence that you’re referring to my ruminations.
But if someone were, they should note that:
The two scenarios stipulate at the very least, a Republican controlled House after the Mid-Terms
I want to know what options the public has, when it’s clear something like his decline is evident, and those in control refuse to have him produce any kind of cognitive assessment that would blatantly have him removed from office.
Yeah, that puts Kamel-Alley in, but we can deal with her by other means, once she is.
DNW,
I was offering my own opinion that Noxious Nan has a short path to the throne that doesn’t require the blessings of the College of Cardinals if she can get the Princess Royal out of the way (to mix a few metaphors).
“President shall nominate…” When? Twenty-four hours? Twenty-four days? Twenty-four months?
“… majority vote of both Houses of Congress…” scheduled for the second Tuesday after never.
I also see no reason that Biden-Harris can’t be impeached and removed as a team. Harris was not elected separately from Biden and massive fraud is good enough to remove them both.
Thrillers are written about this stuff.
Biden’s puppet masters are not going to allow him to be impeached. Biden will be ‘encouraged’ to resign first. If he refuses, the 25th amendment can be invoked.
A President Harris can be controlled. She might even be ‘persuaded’ to nominate Hillary as VP.
If Harris is forced out prior to Biden’s departure, Hillary still seems like Harris’ most likely replacement. Her age and health being the only barriers. Not that she’ll accept those as valid disqualifications.
As I began thinking through this it became obvious that although – as I initially stated – there would likely never be enough votes to remove Joe Biden from office no matter what trauma he inflicted on the country, there was another potential card in Republican hands.
IF, they were to gain a strong and disciplined – or even disciplined and united – majority in the House after the midterm elections, then, if and or/when Biden self-destructed or stroked out, the Republicans would be in the position of holding the confirmation hammer for the V.P. nominee as President and Moron in Chief Harris sought to appoint a Vice President.
Now, the roll-over on their belly and wriggle Republicans of the GOPe are unlikely to do this. But, there seems to me to be no constitutional issue with their withholding consent.
Apart of course from the threat to this strategy posed by privileged masochist Republicans willing – panting even – to sacrifice the lives of the actual people of this republic on the altar of an imaginary and long dead political comity, and seduced by visions of their names in the histories describing the Imperial phase of the United States, there is another factor which I mentioned: The Supreme Court.
Most of these institution dwellers are less concerned with preserving the constitutional republic than they with preserving a bureaucratic shell which they can inhabit, profit from, and pass off as the legitimate political expression of some mythological “society”. Their feedbags, and those of their similarly ensconced relatives and social peers, depend on it. Just as Angelo Codevilla described so clearly.
If then, the Harris Administration went on to extra-legally install a so-called vice president, then I think that the S.C. would roll over on the question, just as Roberts infamously did on Obamacare.
“What then is left to preserve?”, is an open question.
My guess is that if my non-confirmation idea has any parliamentary merit, it will be brought up by Dems as a scare tactic before the midterms – warning people that Dem control of the Congress is critical to the transformation of America once beloved old Joe meets the Grim Reaper in the course of time, dies, descends into Hell, and on the third day remains there forever more.
The next months will tell.
Interesting ideas from DNW et al.
But I suspect the preferred response from the population is to roll with the punches, wait until the next election ( 2 or 4 years away) and then vote for “change”. The lack of outrage over the detention and/or lack of bail of the 1/6 detainees; and the ability to smoother the Russia-gate and 2020 election questions suggest people don’t want to rock the boat unless or until there are major pocketbook issues and/or a violent response to other’s violence becomes necessary. Even the disgrace of “retreating” from Afghanistan is being ignored, although we acknowledge the executive has more room to maneuver in foreign policy.
We tend to put too much emphasis on the office of the President, apparently seeking the fast response “king” our modern times seem to desire [or perhaps our own Emperor Xi?]. But the Congress is where major policy changes have to occur under our constitutional republic; or a convention of the states. Not withstanding Bush’s comment about the president being the “decider”, the president is really only a “proposer” of law and policy initiatives, which he can help or hinder, but not actually create long term on his own terms unaided. The the flaws of the Congress reflect the flaws in our own stars and the TWANLOC of our relatives, friends, neighbors, and fellow citizens.
We need to put more focus on obtaining statesmen/women in those legislative offices/positions and possibly a few relevant constitutional amendments, too. Before we can make America great again, we need to ensure America is still or becomes virtuous again.
Selective reform of the civil service for accountability more closely matching the private sector, and voiding the roles of public sector unions would also go a long way to voiding the “deep state”. [Trump started some of that but way too late in his 1st term.] Somewhere I also read about the idea of moving some of the executive branch bureaucracy over to the legislative branch would also add to improved accountability for the regs and rules they promulgate, rather than delegating such control to the (less accountable) executive.
We are a long way from an 1820 country minus slavery, and we may never be able to return to that level of personal liberty, but nothing meaningful will occur absent a responsible Congress. They are also the only ones who can impeach irresponsible federal judges. [And now it is already a new day EST – so we can hope.]
A comment I posted on the Rittenhouse thread, led to another on the Times thread, and that led to an article of relevance here:
https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2020/08/president_trump_wittily_shuts_down_a_snarky_reporter.html
I’ll only excerpt the Biden part, but the entire thing, being by Andrea Widburg, is worth a read.
Here’s a more recent post by Widburg, which suggests that Biden may be senile but is still able to do incalculable damage as the front for his actual handlers — three guesses who handles them, and the first two don’t count.
https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2021/11/something_very_peculiar_is_happening_with_our_strategic_petroleum_reserve.html
She details all the things the Brandon Administration has done to tank America’s energy supply.
Companion piece to the above – unanticipated consequences, or the plan’s desired result?
https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2021/11/wont_life_be_so_pristine_and_wonderful_with_net_zero_landfills_will_thrive.html
And so forth – it’s quite a long list of negative consequences.
Journalists are too busy chasing Pulitzer Prizes for Fake News.
DNW —
A little research on the 25th and the Presidential Succession Act of 1947 clarifies some things for me.
Specifically, the only time anybody can actually become the President is the VP, and only if the office of the President is vacant (dead, resigned, or impeached/convicted, but not including unable or incapacitated).
Anybody else in the succession merely “acts as” President without actually becoming the President.
So:
1. Harris resigns
2. Biden nominates her replacement
3. Congress dithers
4. Biden drops dead
5. Nancy Pelosi resigns as Speaker (required) and becomes Acting President
And then I think if then
6. Congress confirms Biden’s nominee
7. That nominee becomes VP
8. The office of the President is vacant (remember, Nancy is only “Acting” President)
9. So that nominee ascends to President (and Nancy does not resume her Speakership)
10. The VP slot is vacant
11. New President nominates a VP, and we’re off again
Except section (c)(1) of the Act specifies that the Acting President shall continue in that office until the next regular election, so maybe:
7. That nominee becomes VP
8. And stays that way serving under Acting President Pelosi until 2024
Although I would argue that a Constitutional Amendment supercedes an Act of Congress, especially when the Amendment was added after the Act, so clause 1 of the 25th would apply and my first scenario would be operative.
Sure, Bryan.
Except for the fact that I twice stipulated that the non-impeachment scenario is contingent upon the Republicans taking at least the House.
That potentiality changes everything and makes a game of musical chairs with no one but corrupt Demonicrats participating, into something more hopeful.
Obviously the point is that in such a case Pelosi is no longer Speaker.
Therefore whoever it may be that becomes acting president as Speaker in those parliamentary maneuver circumstances it would not be Pelosi.
DNW —
Sure, that modifies the political calculus, but not the succession mechanism.
Everybody uses the lazy description of “and then X becomes President” when that isn’t true at all, except in the singular case of a sitting VP ascending to a vacant Presidency.
I’ll say it again:
There’s no such thing as POTUS Joseph Biden.
There is no such thing as VPOTUS Kamala Harris.
There is only the Democratic Party Politburo propped up by the US alphabet agencies—in particular the DOJ—and, for some reason, the top echelons of the military; and supported resoundingly by the corrupt media churning out its 24/7 echo chamber.
There is, in other words, only “Biden”.
File under: Build Big Brother!
They’ll simply make her an offer
Britain waves hands.
o arguably, while the interest would be there,
You made no argument.
One can almost feel sorry for her.
She’s VPOTUS but she’s doing absolutely nothing. (Actually, she’s doing less than nothing.)
She’s frustrated. She’s wondering why they chose her to be VPOTUS if they didn’t want her to do anything. (She obviously wasn’t listening to the reasons why she was selected; those who WERE listening know exactly WHY she was chosen.)
Willie Brown tried to warn her, but why should SHE listen to HIM. After all, she’s been selected to be the candidate for VPOTUS! Which means she has all these terrific qualities—and she does, she really does (just ask her.)…
So she’s mega-frustrated and she’s going to show them what a frustrated, super-intelligent, super ambitious woman can do. Yes she will.
And they are terrified. They are terrified that she’ll actually do it—i.e., try to do it.
Whereas they need her exactly where she is now (just like they need Joe Biden to be exactly where he is now). And there she is…threatening to go rogue.
She sure had better cooperate. For the team. For the Transformed USA (TUSA). For the arc of history….
They will warn her she really doesn’t have any options here. She had better play the game the way it was meant to be played.
She really has no choice.
And so she’s trapped.
One can almost feel sorry for her. Almost.
Barry Meislin @ 8:44;
If Kamala Harris wanted to be more active, she could.
Really now, who would stop her from visiting the border or becoming involved in causes that she believes she could contribute to.
After all, she is not incarcerated wearing leg and wrist shackles.
She can go against the wishes of her “advisors,” and do what she believes she must do.
But she does not.
The bottom line is she is a moron, she is just plain stupid.
She believes in nothing other than advancing her own image. She is an empty suit.
She is a person of zero accomplishment, having slept her way to the top and by virtue of her gender and skin color, she was selected to be VP.
A VP, if the VP chooses, can be like being 15th in line to the British throne; you are royalty by birth, but you are so far removed from the “inner circle” or having any real responsibility you can enjoy the benefits of a royal title and have zero responsibilities.
Or you can make yourself generally useful and use your title to do good or be productive.
Kamala has never made herself useful; that is who she is. She is an archetype political parasite who never in her adult life had a job that was not funded by the taxpayers.
And the beauty of a public “service” job is that you can rise all the way to the top of the heap without having accomplished one F’n thing.
Think Joke Bidet.
And speaking of Joke Bidet; how anyone could have voted for an individual having a 1000% record over 45 years in politics having accomplished ZERO totally escapes me.
You can hate Trump, fine.
After his first term on office, it was real easy to see that the average American citizen was better off, as was the US economy. You saw that he actually accomplished things that benefited the USA.
But, half of the electorate decided a man with an an amyloid plaque laden brain and a perfect record of zero accomplishment should receive their vote.
Truly unbelievable.