The Wall Street Journal editorial board pulled no punches in their response to reports that President Joe Biden will announce his bid for reelection next week: He should not run.
The editors write that electing a man who is in “obvious decline” would be “an historic mistake” and a “risky act that borders on selfish.”
They rightly note:
[P]eople age at different rates, but the risk of an accelerated decline for Mr. Biden is considerable.”
It’s impossible to know Mr. Biden’s real physical and mental state because the White House goes to great lengths to hide it. But his decline is clear to anyone who isn’t willfully blind. He rarely holds a press conference, and his words are as scripted as possible to avoid embarrassing stumbles that he nonetheless continues to make.
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But the best reason not to run is for the patriotic good of the country. The world is growing more dangerous by the week, and the U.S. faces more formidable adversaries than any time since the height of the Cold War. It will take more than a figurehead President to confront and counter them. In 2008 Hillary Clinton ran an ad saying that she was prepared to take a 3 a.m. phone call in a crisis. Could an 84-year-old Joe Biden take a 3 p.m. call?
Enemies size up leaders as much as they do nations when they make their calculations to seize territory or seek other strategic advantage. There is a strong case to believe that Vladimir Putin decided to invade Ukraine in part because he judged that Mr. Biden lacked the determination to resist after his retreat from Afghanistan. Xi Jinping will not shrink from exploiting Mr. Biden out of Chinese respect for his elders.
Their assessment is, of course, correct. From the moment President Joe Biden launched his campaign in April 2019, it was apparent he lacked the cognitive capacity he’d possessed throughout his long political career. Yes, he was well-known for making colossal gaffes, but he’d always been able to speak to people extemporaneously and fluidly.
In the two years he’d been out of the spotlight, his ability to communicate had diminished noticeably. He had begun to lose his train of thought and to stumble over and even slur his words. It wasn’t his age. We all know 90-year-olds who are as sharp as tacks.
The conservative media noticed the change immediately. The legacy media, of course, said questions about Biden’s health were just a right-wing media conspiracy theory. They were willing to admit that Biden’s verbal struggles were a sign of his deteriorating cognitive health.
Instead of being concerned that the next leader of the free world might be slipping into dementia, they focused only on the hope that he could defeat that tyrant, then-President Donald Trump.
The foreign media, particularly the Australians, recognized what was happening.
In the clip below, Sky News Australia host Cory Bernardi told viewers, “Never before has the leader of the free world been so cognitively compromised. It is clear, to me at the least, that U.S. President Joe Biden is struggling with dementia and is clearly not up to the task he has been sworn in to do.”
And that was two years ago. His condition has continued to deteriorate and will surely decline further over the next 18 months. A presidential debate in October 2024 would be painful to watch. Democrats will likely find a way to avoid such a humiliating spectacle.
Additionally, the editors point to the ongoing Hunter Biden investigation and the House Republican’s investigations into the Biden family’s alleged influence peddling business which is starting to bear fruit.
On Monday, House Oversight Committee chair James Comer (R-KY) announced that the number of Biden family members who benefited from financially from the family’s overseas business dealings has grown to nine.
We also learned this week that the infamous letter signed by 51 prominent former intelligence community leaders ahead of the 2020 presidential election was instigated by then-Biden campaign advisor and current Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
Moreover, a credible IRS whistleblower claims to have evidence that Hunter Biden has received “preferential treatment” from DOJ prosecutors involved in the case. He also alleges that a senior Biden administration official, confirmed by the Washington Examiner to be Attorney General Merrick Garland, lied to Congress about Delaware U.S. Attorney David Weiss’ investigation of Hunter Biden.
Biden is also facing a special counsel investigation over his mishandling of classified documents.
How much more will come to light in the next 18 months?
There are so many reasons why this man should call it a day. As insane as it is that the Democrats would nominate Biden for a second term, the fact that he stands a good chance of being reelected by the American people is even more insane.
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