I wanted to write this morning about President Biden’s effort last night in his ABC interview to assure Americans that he was cognitively and physically capable of being President of the United States, winning the November election, preserving our democracy, governing for four more arduous years, and saving the world from another Donald Trump presidency.
Despite the opportunity, President Biden’s ABC interview failed to convince me of his fitness for the presidency.
This failure will only fuel the growing movement to replace him, which will continue to gain momentum and support.
The stakes are too high, yet President Biden never acknowledged the potential consequences for the rest of us if he fails to win in November.
He was better prepared and more articulate than during his chilling disintegration during the debate.
However, the interview also exposed a different side of the President. He seemed almost desperate, resorting to typical and slick political tactics and deceiving himself and the public. His failure to prioritize the country’s interests over his own was a disappointing revelation.
He couldn’t remember if he even went back to look at his mental collapse during the debate: “I don’t think so,” he said when asked. Didn’t he know? He keeps pretending the problem was insufficient sleep, jet lag, working too hard, or the old favorite Trump target, the media.
I can’t blame him for not watching the debate tapes, but it was perhaps the most revealing interview moment so far.
There was also his very telling statement about what the election is really about for him should he lose: “I’ll feel as long as I gave it my all and I did the “goodest” job as I know I can do, that’s what this is about.”
Really? The “best” job? Even Donald Trump pretends his movement is for the good of the country, not just his ego.
We know by now that Trump is lying, but I thought – and so did many others – that Biden was a different kind of politician. I can’t say I’m a fan of either man, but I always saw Biden as a decent and honest leader. I don’t see that Biden now.
I didn’t think his solution to this crisis would be to emulate Trump rather than defeat him. Many people had hoped, even prayed, for a different approach, a different kind of leadership.
Politically speaking, the election is now not about his ego or even Trump’s.
It has come down to the core—will our democracy as we know it survive? Can God or his allies push Biden out? Consider what a gift it might be to the country if Biden quit the race and agreed to work hard to support his replacement. That would be a legacy of grace and patriotism, not denial and narcissism.
If you listen to or think about what people are saying, that’s what the election is about.
Biden did a bob and weave that reminded me of Muhammad Ali, the great boxer whose famous style was to move quickly up and down and from side to side to avoid hitting or being hit by something. It worked for Ali, who could move like a ballet dancer, but it isn’t and can’t work for President Biden, who moves, sounds, and thinks like a significantly older person.
He speaks so rapidly it sounds like he is scrambling to remember something and has only a few seconds to say it. His frantic campaigning has left him hoarse and difficult to understand. He seems to have no idea of what aging means.
Aging is not a political choice or matter of debate. It makes its own decisions in its own good time.
Biden also opened a window into his psyche last night by invoking God, something desperate politicians often do as they fight for their lives. When you hear a politician invoke God, run for the exits, the end is near.
The president’s most quoted line in the interview was: “Only the Lord Almighty” can drive him from the race. Is this decision really up to God and not Joe Biden?
If you believe in God, it seems to me, then one of God’s most potent and profound decisions was to create human beings who age, decline in mental and physical power, and inevitably die. God does not traditionally choose political candidates or manage debates, as I understand it, and in invoking him, Biden shows the shallowness of his much-evoked spirituality.
Perhaps he’s learning from his opponent. Trump has pulled off one of the most incredible hat tricks in all of politics, persuading millions of people who claim to be Christians that lying, being unfaithful, being a crook, and being a sexual predator are all signs that God sent him down to lead us.
Biden’s linking with God might be a more ingenious idea than it appears to be.
This isn’t a choice. It’s called life. In its own way, it is a sacred element of humanity. Religious and spiritual people accept it. To deny it seems a rejection of God, not an affirmation.
We are the only animals who know we will age and die. The only choice we have is how we will do it. That is grace.
That’s the real issue for President Biden, not his ducking and hiding behind an Army of protectors, handlers, and PR flacks.
I’m not sure if there is a God; it’s above my pay scale, but if there is, I am sure that he will not keep Biden from aging or from the universal decline of his cognitive and physical functions, already well underway.
I kept thinking about the same thing repeatedly as I listened to the interview and then listened to it again. Biden lied, evaded, denied, and dismissed. I dream of something different.
He did not persuade me that he understood the apparent role of aging in his life. Aging is not something to be denied, especially for the leader of the Free World. It can not be dismissed or ducked.
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The drama of being human is being born, being strong, getting older, losing skills and energy, getting sick, and then dying, hopefully with grace.
Firing people because of their age is generally illegal, but numerous exceptions to the law exist. Biden cannot be fired from the federal government because of his age, but voters can decide if he is fit for the presidency or if his age is a factor.
As someone approaching his 77th birthday, I was sorry to watch Biden stuck in the aging trap of only being able to look back, not forward.
My life is fuller and happier than ever, but I have no delusions about my future. I can only do a few of the things I did even a year or so ago. I prefer to do the many things I can do in the “best” possible way. I am much closer to the end than the beginning; time has a different meaning.
The President showed no grace or humility in this interview or in his response to the tremendous damage caused by the debate. He doesn’t seem to grasp how afraid people are of his actions.
Over and over again, he repeated, mainly in a rapid-fire mumble, that the debate failure “was my fault, only me.” But Mr. President, that is the problem.
The debate was the beginning of this crisis, not the end.
I can speak only for myself.
I would never stand up in front of other humans and say the only measure of my capabilities is whether I do the “goodest” I can. It’s so much more complicated. (ABC later said the witches ideas not bestest Biden comment was mumbled to me)
I can only do things well if I accept the reality of my life and do not deny it, dismiss it, or lie about it. Doing good is fine, but it often asks us to think of others more than ourselves.
Watching Biden in his interview, I saw a rapidly aging man whose only plan was to brag about his past accomplishments.
The problem is that this plan differs from most Americans are worried about. People, even his many admirers, are apprehensive about the future, and Biden has nothing to say about that. The issue is the future, not the past. His debate performance scared the wits out of his followers, and anyone who feels democracy is worth saving.
Donald Trump has promised to be a dictator from his first day in office.
This is not politics as usual.
Watching Biden’s carefully produced and choreographed appearances has been painful these past few days. His aides are afraid to let him even try to be spontaneous or, God forbid, honest. His plea has no meaning.
He’s been all over the White House, Camp David, and presidential planes while much of America, both sides, cries out for change. We are once again being offered the same old thing—lies and a protected life within a cool of heavily guarded and programmed denial. It’s just more propaganda.
It won’t work because it can’t work. Biden is no longer the inspiration he is trying to be.
He is not the solution.
He has become the problem.
The Democratic Party is at a crossroads, and so is the country.
If they can’t muster the stranger or patriotism to force Joe Biden to step aside, God or no God, our democracy and the people in it will pay a dear price for the President’s inability to see the truth about himself. And to take our democracy down with his ego lies and denial.
Do we have two political parties that can’t challenge a leader they don’t want and that nobody else wants?
Yes, it’s hard to imagine how we got into this mess with two ancient, declining candidates running who seem to care only about themselves. But here we are.
