America Needs Transparency

Biden was slated to meet with governors about Afghanistan refugees at 3:00pm. That is now cancelled.

— Philip Melanchthon Wegmann (@PhilipWegmann) August 26, 2021

I have resisted all the chatter about the mental and cognitive abilities of President Joe Biden. I have read where he is senile, has dementia, or some other malady.  I have seen doctors who haven’t examined him weigh in and I have discounted it all.   I remember early in the Trump Administration where left-wingers wanted to enact the 25th Amendment and said Trump was mentally compromised. Congresspeople like Adam Schiff even encouraged the talk in his quest to undermine the President.

It seems every day, Biden puts an end to his Presidential activities very early.  It’s not to play golf either.  Obama and Trump both played a lot of golf but it was on weekends.  Biden goes to nap or rest or do whatever he does.

One thing I will compare and contrast is this.  A few years ago I attended a Chicago Economic Club dinner featuring ex-President Barack Obama.  I was not, and am not politically aligned with Obama and think he is one of the worst Presidents the country has ever had.  He had a friendly audience in Chicago along with friendly questions.

One thing that he said struck me.  I think it is true no matter who is President, and whether you are politically aligned with the President or not.  It’s true if you like the President, identify with the President, or abhor the President.

The question presented was this, “What surprised you most about the job of being President?”

It’s a great question because even if you think you are prepared for that job, there have to be things that are unexpected that you are unprepared for.  It might be a simple thing or it could be complex.  Presidents are human after all.

Obama paused.  He didn’t jump right into the answer.  I think that even though he was prepped and given many questions in advance, this one was random and it was truly innocent.  If he knew the question was coming, he is a better actor than I gave him credit for.  I think anyone could ask it of any living President and get a different answer since it is kind of personal given your background and what you did prior to being President.

Here is what Obama thoughtfully said in reply and I am paraphrasing since I don’t remember exactly word for word.

“I didn’t imagine or envision the sheer amount of decision-making that went on.  I knew I would have to make decisions.  However, it seemed like every 15 minutes, there was a crisis somewhere in the world that I had to make a definitive decision on.  Those decisions often had ramifications and would affect people’s lives.  Some decisions were more difficult and more intricate than others, but you had to think about what would happen after you made a choice, and what led to you having to make that choice.”

I thought that answer was fascinating.

The reason I bring it up today is I don’t think the sitting President is up to the frequent and constant decision-making tasks President Obama outlined in his answer at the ECC dinner.  I think Biden can do it for a bit, but he lacks the physical stamina and acuity to do it consistently over and over again for hour after hour.

It’s not that I disagree with the decisions Biden makes.  I do.  It’s that I don’t think he is actually able to carry out the most basic tasks of physically and mentally being the President.  Obama did and I disagreed with him 99% of the time.  My guess is given the fact world leaders aren’t cooperating with the US right now in Afghanistan, they see it too and aren’t saying anything.

It is not up to any staffer to make decisions nor should it be.  It is up to them to advise the President.  They implement the policies the President makes decisions about.  But, as Biden said in his speech the buck stops with him, and only the President in his singular capacity to run the executive branch of the government can make final decisions.  It requires that person to say yes, or no. Sign the documents.  Elucidate the policy and action.

Biden can’t do that.

Kennedy could.  Johnson could.  Nixon could.  Ford could.  Carter could.  Reagan could. Bush could.  Clinton could.  Bush could.  Obama could.  Trump could.

Biden can’t.

It should have come out in the campaign.  But, the press let him sit in Vermont doing nothing.  He was never challenged.  The question is how long will Democrats tolerate it?  Do they have confidence that VP Kamela Harris would be better?  From polls, it’s clear the country has lost confidence in President Biden.  Only the die-hard, hard-core, Democrats still support the President. But, they’d support a generic Democrat Weekend at Bernie’s style.

It is high time for people close to the President to be transparent and honest.  It’s high time for the press to be honest.  The American people deserve it.  We have earned that right.  If the President is mentally flawed, or not up to the task of being President, we ought to know.

I don’t think impeachment is the right method to remove this President.  Why?  Because we have used impeachment against Trump and it was a farce.  Impeachment is casually bandied about in today’s political vernacular by both parties. It should be used very very very rarely and that was the precedent in American history.  Only one President was impeached until Clinton.  It’s worth remembering Clinton was impeached due to his indiscretions with a teenage intern in the Oval Office.  Trump’s impeachments were similarly politically motivated.

Instead, resignation is the right way to go.  The President should not resign if they are unpopular.  See President Bush in 2007.  However, if they lose their political party, and they lose the majority of the country’s confidence, it should be considered depending on where we are in the four-year term.  Currently, we are in the first year, so resignation is appropriate and the classy way to go.

When will the tide turn?  Who is the Howard Baker of the Democratic Party? What do you think is going on behind closed doors now?  What’s being said in hushed tones?  I am going to guess the Turk will be Congressman James Clyborn.  Biden owes his political life to him.

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