grinninfoole

Joe Biden's terrible showing in the debate with Donald Trump on June 27th has gotten me thinking about what we expect, what we should expect, from the president of the United States.  Like many decent and/or sane people, I'm alarmed by Mr. Trump returning to the White House; however, I also think that it helps to stay focused on the specific issue at hand, and not the multitude of terrible futures that could unfold.

In this case, let's get down the prosaic bottom line of this, and every other, election: it's a job interview. We have done a national search, gone through a number of debates, primaries, and other winnowing processes and wound up with two final candidates. We may not like either of them, but the simple truth is that it's too late to start over from scratch and the presidency is too important a position to leave vacant, so we're stuck with an unavoidable binary choice.

So, how do we pick between them?  Or, for those of us who aren't fools or fascists, how do we stomach the idea of voting for a doddering old man whose feebleness and confusion were plain for all to see?

As I see it, there are two things to consider here: the extent of President Biden's debility and actual requirements of the office of the president.

Dreadful as he was last Thursday, the President was lively, focused, and engaged back on March 7th when he gave the State of the Union address. Moreover, he was back in the same feisty form the day following the debate at a rally in North Carolina. It seems, then, that Pres. Biden isn't completely decrepit; indeed, he seems to be capable of functioning at the same level he's displayed throughout his first term, during which he he passed groundbreaking climate change legislation, cut unemployment in half, reduced the federal deficit, reduced child poverty and student debt, and rallied NATO to oppose the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Altogether, I think Pres. Biden is still quite capable, but with some obvious limitations. Like many people his age, he 'sundowns' later in the day, but if he limits the hours he works, he's still 'got it'.

Which brings us to the second issue: can a president who works 9-5, but only 9-5, do the job? Broadly speaking, presidents do a few things: oversee the day to day workings of the 438 federal agencies; sign or veto new laws; meet with foreign leaders and direct our relations with other countries; propose annual budgets and other policies to Congress; and marshal our national resources in emergencies. 

That's a lot, obviously, but every president has literally thousands of subordinates from interns and file clerks to ambassadors and cabinet secretaries to help. Surely, if FDR could lead the country through World War 2 with his impairments, Joe Biden can manage with his, too. But what about the dreaded 3 AM phone call, bringing news of some terrible crisis? We don't want the guy we saw the other night handling that, right?

No. Of course we don't.  But that weak old man doesn't have to; Vice President Harris is alive, well, and only 56. President Biden could simply give standing orders that he's not to be disturbed between, say 10 PM and 6 AM, and an emergency that requires a snap presidential decision is thereby delegated the VP.  (You know, the woman we elected to succeed him if he dies or otherwise can't do the job?) He can take up the reins again the morning.

You may not, gentle reader, like the notion of Ms. Harris stepping up like that, but you have been living with the reality of her in such a role for nearly four years now, and all that time she's been learning how to be president from Mr. Biden, so she's better prepared for the job than almost anyone else on earth.

So, in sum, with some obvious caveats, I think Joe Biden is still capable of handling the job of President of the United States, and if he takes steps to address the physical challenges of his advancing years, people can vote for him with something resembling a clear conscience.


*=Even in his failures, like the Israeli invasion of Gaza, we're still better off with him than Mr. Trump, alas.