It’s ‘Dr. Jill Biden’
It is a good thing that aging Joe Biden is married to a doctor.
You never know when the wobbly 78-year-old presidentelect will stumble over a sentence or a stair.
So, it’s a good thing that Dr. Jill Biden is around when he coughs his way through a speech or forgets where he is.
Reading about the flap over Jill Biden’s doctoral standing reminded me of a crowded flight I was on from Rome to Tirana several years ago. During midflight over the Adriatic one of the worried flight attendants came down the aisle and said, “We have a medical emergency. Is there a doctor on board?”
Like out of a movie, a young Italian passenger arose and said, “Sono un dottore. I’m a doctor.”
The flight attendant ushered the doctor to the rear of the plane where a woman appeared to be in a stressful condition. The doctor attended to her until the plane landed when she was then taken away in an ambulance. Meanwhile, passengers thanked the doctor for his service. It was a nice ending.
That got me thinking what would have happened had Dr. Jill Biden been on that flight. Would she have responded?
Perhaps she would have, not as a physician, of course, which she is not, but as a person concerned with a fellow human being in need
While Jill Biden is a doctor and is addressed that way — giving the impression to some that she is medical doctor — her doctorate is in higher education, not medicine.
Which is nothing to sneeze at. Jill Biden, 69, holds a doctoral degree in education from the University of Delaware, topping off a master’s degree from
Villanova University.
While working toward her doctorate she taught adolescents with emotional disabilities at a psychiatric hospital, taught at a community college and was professor of English at Northern Virginia Community College.
The flap over Jill Biden’s title broke out after the Wall Street Journal published a snarky oped column by veteran writer Robert Epstein mocking
Biden’s use of the prefix “Dr.” before her name.
Epstein, a former lecturer at Northwestern University, who does not hold a doctor’s degree, wrote that the name “Dr. Jill Biden sounds and feels fraudulent, not to say a touch comic.”
Hardly had the piece run than Epstein had his head handed to him. The Biden media machine, which includes the main-stream press, went on a rampage, accusing Epstein and the paper of sexism, misogamy, chauvinism and everything else. Talk about overkill
Michelle Obama came to Biden’s defense, calling Jill Biden “brilliant” and “a terrific role model.” Hillary Clinton tweeted out, “Her name is Dr. Jill Biden. Get used to it.”
Jill Biden in response said: ”One of the things I am most proud about is my doctorate. I mean, I really worked so hard for it.”
Northwestern University quickly distanced itself from Epstein, saying it disagreed with his “misogynistic” views. The university’s English Department also took a shot at Epstein for his “unmerited aspersion on Dr. Jill Biden’s rightful public claiming of her doctoral credentials and expertise.”
Critics and commentators demanded retractions, reprimands and resignations. It’s a wonder no one called for a firing squad. Talk about overkill.
Many of these same commentators had no problem in mocking outgoing first lady Melania Trump over her accent — even though she is fluent in several languages — while now coming to the defense of incoming First Lady Jill Biden.
While Epstein may have had a point in the misleading use of the title “Dr.,” it was lost in his mockery. He opened his piece by referring to Jill Biden as “kiddo.” That alone among progressives in this politically correct era calls for the death penalty.
Many people, however, do think Dr. Jill Biden is a physician. Sometimes, standing together with Joe the two do give off a physician/patient look.
Even before the flap began, Whoopie Goldberg, in one of her inane comments on “The View,” said Jill Biden was “an amazing doctor” who Joe Biden should appoint surgeon general.
Epstein tried to write a smart and amusing piece at Jill Biden’s expense, but it came out unfair and unfunny.
Hardly any WSJ contributor, including Epstein would have had the temerity to criticize a man like, for instance, Dr. Martin Luther King, for identifying as “Dr. King,” even though he was not a physician, but a theologian with a doctor’s degree in philosophy.