FEBRUARY 10, 2024
In a combination of pictures created on Oct. 22, 2020, the GOP’s Donald Trump, left, and Democratic candidate Joe Biden during the final presidential debate at Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee.
Your choices, America, are as follows: Either you vote for “a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory” (words of the recent special counsel report on Biden). Or you can take what’s behind door number two: an equally aging and most certainly not well-meaning man with little grasp on reality or of truth.
Forgetful vs. dangerous.
Yes, the special counsel in President Joe Biden’s mishandled document’s case, Robert K. Hur, said the quiet part out loud. The president is like a forgetful grandpa. But make no mistake, he’s an 81-year-old good guy.
Biden is livid over the special counsel report. And it’s understandable. His detractors were just served up a delicious roadmap of his political vulnerabilities, except this isn’t new information.
He’s long revealed this side of himself. His supporters are equally kind (as Biden) and protective of him, of the presidency, to make hay over it. Now Biden is on high alert to sound like he’s got all his marbles.
Unfortunately, he’s already slipped up in media interviews, confusing Egypt’s president with Mexico’s. Those gaffes are a sad state of affairs for Biden, perhaps a flub of nerves, but not the kind of mayhem that former President Donald Trump promises if reelected. And it’s pretty clear, Trump will likely be the GOP nominee.
Mary Sanchez.
Hur’s findings included an assessment of Biden’s demeanor when questioned during the investigation into his mishandling of classified documents. They wound up in Biden’s garage. Photos of them are stunning as they reveal the president’s carelessness.
The assessment of Biden’s acuity came as part of the report’s explanation for why no charges will be filed. The prosecutor argued that a jury would most likely see Biden as an elderly man who is a bit forgetful.
So charges against Biden in the documents case probably wouldn’t stick. It would have been necessary to determine beyond a reasonable doubt that Biden willfully mishandled the documents.
The report describes Biden as showing “limited precision and recall” – putting into words what many people feel about him.
Democrats, many life-long ones, have deep reservations about the 2024 candidacy of the current president. If victorious, he’d be 86 at the end of his second term. Trump is also up there in age – he’s 77 now.
Biden’s gaffes, some cringeworthy, are legendary and they’re not only the subject of much chatter by Republicans and rightwing cable news hosts. In his younger years, they were excused as being somewhat charming.
Biden has never been known for electric oratory. It’s important to remember that fact.
His recent gaffes are being chalked up to age decline, but it’s difficult to know what might be blamed on that or his verbal flubs that he’s displayed for quite some time.
Nevertheless, these two men will be our choices come November. Both political parties are to blame for this dismal situation.
How these two are the “best” candidates is a stunning rebuke of everything the democratic system can offer. We should put forth our best and brightest, those with the highest intellect, experience, insight and yes, morality, all of which is befitting the office of president.
To redesign a roadmap that could bring us better candidates will be work for the post-election period.
We still must await the outcomes of Trump’s various criminal cases, his own case involving mishandled classified documents and what he will be held culpable for regarding the insurrection of Jan. 6, 2021 at the U.S. Capitol.
Again, the nation has always known Biden to be a bit bumbling – a bit forgetful. He’s also never been a blustery strongman. It’s one reason his pushback on the Hur report came off awkwardly.
Rather, it is Biden’s humanity that’s always led, from his early days as a senator navigating Congress to the devastating loss of his wife and daughter in a car accident. We witnessed his faith and devotion to his second wife, as well as his grief over losing his son Beau.
We need more examples of this kind of good in Americans, not the craven greed, shocking sexism and racism that Trump has exhibited his whole life.
If reelected, Biden will again surround himself with a qualified, strong cabinet. Trump will again choose lap dogs.
These choices on the 2024 presidential ballot are not great, but they are clear.
One man, Biden, is worthy of the office. The other, Trump, most certainly is not.
Opinion by Mary Sanchez, Tribune Content Agency
Courtesy: Tribune Content Agency
