Troubling NY Times Piece on Biden's Fitness

martin

Well-known member
One of the Biden White House’s greatest achievements, from the perspective of its staffers, if not necessarily the country, has been to deny the press the kind of juicy leaks that were constant under Donald Trump and frequent under his predecessors. Save for a very narrow period of time, that is, when there was a push to force an aging president toward the exits: Then and only then we got a drip-drip-drip of fascinating inside information.

For instance, we learned that Biden hadn’t held a full cabinet meeting since last October and that his handlers expected scripted questions from his cabinet officials. We learned that his capacities peak between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. and diminish outside that six-hour window. We learned that congressional Democrats, liberal donors and some journalists all had exposure to Biden’s decline that they didn’t discuss publicly until the debacle of the June debate. We learned that none other than Hunter Biden was acting as a close adviser to his father in the crucial days after that debate.

We even learned that from early in his presidency, the first lady’s closest aides worked to shield her husband from the staff that serves the first family in its living quarters, even as the aides themselves were given unusual access to the residence — as though it were essential to create a cocoon of loyalty and silence around the nation’s chief executive even when he isn’t on the job.

These are all interesting and pertinent facts about the man who officially leads the United States in a time of global danger — and they have not ceased to be pertinent because that president is no longer running for re-election.

For a few weeks the media coverage of the Biden White House built up the idea that there was a major scandal here, implicating the inner circle that encouraged the president to run for re-election and practiced deception amid his obvious decline.


The potential scale of that scandal has diminished now that the country is no longer being asked to entrust the Oval Office to Biden for another four years. And concerns about the capacities of Donald Trump, the aging candidate actually running for the White House, are naturally going to claim more attention now that they’re contrasted with a younger rival.

But Biden is still the president — albeit with a “scaled-down schedule” for his last six months. The people who readily signed up for another four years of a 10-to-4 presidency are still running the government around him. And since things keep happening in the world — for instance, this week, the nation that we’ve been arming for a defensive war decided to invade Russia — it seems like America could stand to learn a bit more about how the White House has been working recently, and what a perceptive observer (say, someone like George Clooney) might notice if he were to observe Biden consistently over a few days or just a full 24 hours.

Instead, we’re getting the fulfillment of the bargain that was implicitly offered to Biden by his fellow Democrats — that by bowing out he would trade the shadow of scandal for the halo of self-sacrifice and coast through the final days as his party’s Cincinnatus, nobly returning to the plow (or the Delaware beach, as may be).

And since that bargain is so far working out so well for his anointed successor, who is surrounded by positive coverage and leading in some polls, the incentive structure for anyone who wants to see Trump defeated seems to favor not talking anymore about the cover-up of the president’s deterioration.

Certainly, it’s better for Kamala Harris not to be asked questions (assuming that she ever deigns to be interviewed) about whether she participated in that cover-up or was taken in by it. Indeed, it’s better for Harris not to have her boss in the political conversation at all, the better to separate her own identity from his presidency’s unpopularity.

But also we don’t know if it will be possible to keep Biden’s struggles safely in the background, if all the events that require him to play a presidential part will be small successes like the recent hostage swap, where his aides can just swear to his intense behind-the-scenes involvement.

And if for now the act of raising further questions about his fitness is understood to be effectively pro-Trump, that was also how those questions were understood six months ago — and yet here we are and the Democrats should be grateful they were asked.

It’s possible, depending on Biden’s true capacities, that by rights he should have resigned and Harris should be president already — which probably would have put her in a better position to win the election even than her current honeymoon does. It’s also possible that there will come a crisis in the next few months that will make the Democrats wish that he’d resigned, rather than staying and then seeming overmatched.

For now their fervent hope is that we can declare the Joe Biden story all-but-over and move on. But the reality is that events, not hopes, decide when a presidency is finished.

Ross Douthat
 
Joe talks to the press regularly. When asked about Trump making the prisoned exchange about him saying he would have got everything done without giving up anything, Joe said "then why didn't he do it" He responded quickly and well.
 
Joe talks to the press regularly. When asked about Trump making the prisoned exchange about him saying he would have got everything done without giving up anything, Joe said "then why didn't he do it" He responded quickly and well.
If you’re suggesting that is inconsistent with the article, it isn’t.
 
You do not know any of what you wrote. I read that Biden was deeply involved in the deal that got the prisoners released. It was a 6 country deal involving 24 people.
Biden has been doing his job.
Where IS he? I haven't seen him for quite a while...
 
Joe talks to the press regularly. When asked about Trump making the prisoned exchange about him saying he would have got everything done without giving up anything, Joe said "then why didn't he do it" He responded quickly and well.
If joes is so quick and doing so well, why did they execute a bloodless coup against him?
 
He’s a journalist.

Ross Douthat​

Ross Douthat joined The New York Times as an Opinion columnist in April 2009. His column appears every Tuesday and Sunday.

 
He’s a journalist and the piece in question is journalism. If his facts are wrong it’s bad journalism. My sense is the facts as reported in the piece are not wrong.
So, the NYTimes calls him an opinion columnist. They do not call him a journalist.
 
journalists make the very best opinion columnists. If he were just throwing shit on the wall he wouldn’t be in the Times. The most famous joirnalist of the 20th century, Walter Lippmann, was an opinion columnist.
 
journalists make the very best opinion columnists. If he were just throwing shit on the wall he wouldn’t be in the Times. Walter Li
You are only person who does not know distinction between a journalist and opinion writer.
 
It's interesting that MAGATs and their media bullhorns have been screaming that Biden has dementia now for well over a year. Yet why aren't their elected leaders calling for Biden to resign? Or threatening him with removal via the 25th Amendment?

They're deathly afraid of a President Harris, and her re-election odds.
 
It's interesting that MAGATs and their media bullhorns have been screaming that Biden has dementia now for well over a year. Yet why aren't their elected leaders calling for Biden to resign? Or threatening him with removal via the 25th Amendment?

They're deathly afraid of a President Harris, and her re-election odds.
BINGO! The little creeps had no problem stone walling Obama at every term, but calling for resignation of someone that they claim was in the throws of early stage dementia (like Reagan?) was just beyond them? Puh-leeze! :rolleyes:
 
If you’re suggesting that is inconsistent with the article, it isn’t.
I do say that anything offered proves nothing. Biden froze during the debate and it was alarming. The Dems did the right thing and went past him. Trump is a floundering idiot ,immoral and unethical. He stays.
Biden took attention away from Trump's rapidly failing mind. Now it is targeted at him, where it belongs.
There is no proof that Biden has mental problems.
 
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