#WTH Our failing president

What we know about both Biden and Trump

Here’s a thing about Washington: People in DC know everything. That doesn’t mean that everyone knows everything; what I mean is that there are no secrets. They may be secret from you, but that’s not the point. I said this a few years ago to a reporter friend, and he asked, like what? I mentioned a European ambassador (married) and his affair with a major network reporter (married). The reporter scoffed, and insisted that he wasn’t aware. He texted me a few hours later to say I was right, everyone else in the newsroom knew.

Ditto the former cabinet official who was so paranoid he used to search his staff’s desks at night. The senator who really, really enjoys a good party. The other senator who used to throw files at her staff. I could go on here, but you take my point. And to get to the actual point, everyone in DC knows that Joe Biden is a fabulist, has limited principles, doesn’t do his homework, and is losing his grip. Which brings me to today’s major Wall Street Journal piece about how Joe Biden is losing his grip.

Like many of you, I read the incredibly well-sourced article in the WSJ, and the articles about the article about Biden’s mental deterioration. (I also dutifully reminded you of my own article about Biden’s mental deterioration.) As usual, the political combatants ranged themselves in their respective corners, with many on the Right insisting that Biden is gaga (clearly not completely) and conversely, on the Left insisting that he is strong, vigorous, and sharp as ever. (Yeah, no.)

This is where I come back to what we know. You see, we know Biden is a terrible president. His approval ratings make clear that even outside Washington DC, Americans are well aware of Uncle Joe’s manifest and substantive failings. We know Biden is losing his grip. We see it. And to all of those partisans in the article who mouthed versions of “Biden is ‘incredibly strong, forceful and decisive’” (that’s House D leader Hakeem Jeffries), c’mon. We know you’re lying.

Sure, we also know Donald Trump is a sleazeball who boinked a porn actress while his wife was looking after their newborn. And January 6, the classified documents, and the Georgia election interference. And that Trump is mercurial — his second term policies may have no relationship whatsoever to his first term, or to Republican principles, whatever they are. We know that Trump also has enablers who insist that everything he does is “perfect.”

So if we know everything we need to know, how are we to decide on November 5th? We must look at trends, and those are truly worrying.

If Biden is reelected, he will from day one be a lame duck, not simply impotent vis a vis a likely Republican Senate, but impotent vis a vis the staff in his own administration. He will not be the doyen of the Democratic Party in 2028. He will be dead, or as good as. That means Kamala Harris, about whom I have nothing useful to add. (We know about her too.) But more importantly, Biden’s not being all there will mean that the entire Executive Branch — concerned with their futures, their mark on America, and their impact on the direction of the Democratic Party — will have virtually free rein over the actions of “the president.”

On the Trump side, there’s not much to reassure either. Many have reviewed Trump's likely second-term aversion to the “adults in the room,” all of whom have penned their share of kiss and tells about the former president’s capriciousness. Trump loves sycophants, and he’s not likely to shy away from them to impress anyone in round two. That could mean any number of things, but one can imagine some troubling scenarios ahead.

So where does that leave us?

Choosing between a man on his way to gaga, another who is physically sentient, but morally less so, or a guy with a worm in his brain, an eco-zealot, and an antisemitic loon (I mean Cornel West).

It will not be surprising to me if, understanding the reality of their choices, the American people go for a guy whose manifest sins are on the table over the guy who is tottering on the edge of a mental abyss. We are going into the next election, much as we hate it, with our eyes wide open.