Days after what may go down as one of the most disastrous presidential debates in American history, President Joe Biden is reportedly convening with his family to discuss his strategy going forward. According to these news reports—most of them based on sources who would not reveal their names—Biden’s family is adamant that he stay in the race and are furious with the president’s staff, blaming them for Biden’s debate performance (and also for the fact that he was not wearing enough bronzer).
It’s infuriating reporting: a president making a potentially nation-changing decision on the advice of people who all have personal, professional, and/or financial interests in him staying in power; members of his team not only playing the blame game but zooming in on largely irrelevant details while missing the obvious, massive, glaring problem in front of them. It’s as if they’re looking at a guy who needs his gangrenous leg amputated and observing only that he could use a pedicure.
There is, in fact, much to blame on Biden’s staff and his inner circle, but virtually none of it has to do with the debate—except maybe for the decision to put him up on that stage in the first place. Perhaps Biden really did just have a terribly off night. But the man is in his 80s, and this is far from the first time he has publicly struggled with what appears to be age-related cognition issues. Members of his team are adamant about denying that this is the reality, and while they could be right that his cognitive issues are not as bad as they seemed at the debate, that doesn’t change what an American voting public witnessed (or believes it witnessed) with its own eyes.
Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement AdvertisementJoe Biden was old when he ran for president. He and his team should have spent the past four years road testing surrogates and grooming potential successors. Instead, they’ve sidelined their vice president and failed to place the spotlight on any of the Democratic Party’s many bright, shining potential stars. Now the very predictable has happened: The oldest-ever American president is showing his age, voters are reasonably wondering whether he will be up to the extremely demanding tasks of governing until he’s 86—86!—and there is no obvious Plan B.
Under normal circumstances, Plan B would be the vice president, and a small handful of commentators are already voicing support for Kamala Harris at the top of the ticket. The reasons are obvious enough: She is the vice president, after all; she is by most accounts a perfectly competent if not particularly........