Both Biden and Trump have grave flaws.
Both are on track to be nominated.
Biden: "I don't know about you, but I'm going to go to bed."
Trump is in trouble because he did troubling things. Trump echoes Charlie Brown in the 1959 hit song about a high school bad boy. Charlie Brown smokes, gambles, throws spit balls,, and mocks the teacher. He then complains, "Why is everybody always picking on me?"
Since Trump has firm support with a segment of Republican voters and is on track to be the GOP nominee, GOP officeholders need to deny the reality of Trump mis-deeds and complain alongside Trump about the prosecution. They call to defund the FBI, the Justice Department, and state prosecutors. It makes them look hypocritical and defensive, and it injures the public's overall respect for institutions of justice.
Trump is presumed innocent of crimes for now, but his actions are a matter of public record, done openly and proudly. He defiantly took government documents, some secret, and showed them off carelessly. He hid them and moved them around to avoid returning them. He openly attempted to retain office by getting people to sign false documents saying they were duly elected. He admits it. He is proud of it. Republicans know Trump's effort to get Mike Pence to throw out ballots was morally indefensible and unconstitutional. The proof of that pudding is that every Republican readily agrees that it would be outrageously illegal if Kamala Harris were to do that. Loyalty to their likely nominee requires that Republicans somehow pretend not to see what is obvious and distasteful to 70% of Americans. That is the elephant in their room.
Biden had a bad incident. Alas, Democrats have an elephant, too. I bring up Biden's age and demeanor because it is an ongoing problem, most recently a press conference at the G-20 meeting. I realize he was sleepy. This arguably is bad staff work. He should never have been in front of a camera, but he was. It is part of the public record. Watch.
You will see two things. First of all he makes rambling seven-minute answers to questions, of which this meander into John Wayne and pony-faced liars is one. You may choose not to watch it all. Neither will most voters. Skip to the two-minute mark. This is standard Biden rambling, and I have watched him do this repeatedly in New Hampshire and Iowa three years ago and in Oregon last year. He clearly knows some things and has access to information, but he presents it as a disorganized slow stream of consciousness. It does not inspire confidence. Quite the opposite. Biden appears to lose all sense of his message, place, circumstance, and audience. You will see clips of this in GOP advertisements during the general election. I hear partisan Democrats tell me, "Biden isn't that bad." I consider that the equivalent of Republicans who say, "Trump isn't that bad." It is an expression of hope and denial, not political reality.
I do not intend to be cruel or unfair. I try to see Trump and Biden as do low-engaged swing-type voters. People have an opinion about Trump. A majority of people see him as a charismatic lying con man. Biden creates his own instant opinion. If we encountered a man like Biden at a grocery store, we would flash "frail old man." We might guess he will fiddle at the cashier and fumble paying with cash or remembering his PIN. Presidential politics is not about detailed policy checklists. Most people vote their party and their guts. Trump is crazy. Biden is frail and doddering.
Republicans appear to be stuck in their fate. Their voters choose Trump. Democrats are only stuck if no one steps up to free them. A legitimate and electable candidate -- not RFK, Jr. and not Marianne Williamson -- might break the chains of silence and party loyalty and give voters a chance to acknowledge the elephant and give Biden a chance to retire gracefully.
I made a short 53-second version of this blog to post to social media:
Nice, balanced, post, Peter. Yes, Biden does not inspire. He didn't, frankly, in 2020 either and yet the Democratic establishment pinned its hopes upon him and, surely he was and remains better than the alternative. He remains so today. No denying his administration has done great things but I fear that he might pull a Ginsburg and over-stay, with the result that the nation is plunged into (back into) darkness with the least capable, most flawed, most corrupt individual ever to serve on the national stage.
A translation of a Robert Burns poem from Wikipedia: “(a gift) To see ourselves as others see us! It would from many a blunder free us….” President Biden has to contemplate this and decide whether it applies to his situation. Is what the “others” are seeing a reality that outweighs what he sees. Choosing what they see and deciding not to run for reelection means that to defeat Trump he’ll have to support whoever wins the nomination. So Biden’s situation is more than a coming-to-grips-with-reality situation. It’s a gigantic leap of faith into the unknown. Ouch!