Democrat doomsday scenario
President Biden's health can't be easily dismissed
Some falls are funny and some are alarming. The tumble by 80-yearold President Biden on the stage in Colorado falls into the alarming category.
As you’ve probably seen, Biden tripped over a sandbag and fell head first onto the stage at the Air Force Academy after speaking, drawing audible gasps from the audience. Looking dazed and confused, the commander-in-chief pointed at the sandbag, as if it had jumped out in front of him.
The media coverage of the incident was almost apologetic, as if covering for the president. The media pool report described Biden as looking “spry” after the fall. The headline in the Reuters story was, “Biden trips and falls during graduation ceremony, recovers quickly.” White House officials called him “totally fine.”
A number of media had to go back to 1975 to talk about a fall then-President Gerald Ford took, as if to somehow imply this was common.
But it wasn’t. If your 80-year-old father fell like that, you wouldn’t be quite so dismissive. You’d be naturally quite concerned about his future well-being. But instead of showing compassion toward Biden, or any elderly man, the media was in denial.
If it was Putin or another world leader who fell, the coverage would not be so dismissive. What if Trump had taken the tumble? How would the press have reported that?
Trump didn’t even fall — he just walked slowly down a ramp and was endlessly mocked for that.
The media of course went to Trump immediately after Biden’s fall on Thursday, no doubt hoping he would ungraciously slam his successor. But even Trump wouldn’t oblige.
The former president said, “He actually fell down? Well, I hope he wasn’t hurt.”
This was Biden’s third public fall in the last year, including falling off a bicycle last summer. And that doesn’t include near falls or falls we don’t see. It’s a pattern. Biden actuallly also bumped his head on the helicopter door after falling on Thursday.
You’re not just seeing a man who is clumsy. And that’s a problem.
Yet Democratic Party leaders are so desperate to cling to power, they would rather look the other way than get Biden help.
But they won’t be able to ignore it much longer, if Biden continues to fall, or shake hands with invisible people, or babble incoherently.
Could we be seeing a doomsday scenario when party leaders step in to pick the nominee themselves? Under that scenario, Biden would coast through the primaries with only token opposition, but before or just after he accepted the nomination would bow out, citing health and safety concerns.
Under party rules, the DNC leaders would then come together to coronate a new nominee to get him or her on the November ballot. That way, the nominee, say Hillary Clinton, would be spared the rigors of a primary process.
While it’s never happened before with a presidential nominee, it has with a vice presidential nominee. In 1972, Democratic leaders picked Sargent Shriver as the VP nominee after George McGovern’s first choice, Sen. Thomas Eagleton, had to drop out.
Biden would be 85 if he finished a second term. It’s clear the demands of the job are taking a physical and mental toll on him. He can’t even complete ceremonial assignments like the graduation at the Air Force Academy. And it will only get worse as Biden ages.
It’s time party leaders and the media faced that reality, rather than ignore it.