Many Republicans have grappled with a big question since the 2020 nomination and subsequent election of Joe Biden: "What do Democrats see in him?" After all, he's not known for being intelligent, well spoken, visionary, courageous, or any of the other key qualities one might expect out of a leader. And if one were to judge by his previous runs for the presidency in 1988 and 2008, they were basically car crash auditions for the role. Clay Travis, a radio broadcaster and author who I've followed for years, has claimed that Biden is an "accidental president", meaning that he would have never been elected were it not for the serendipitous luck of COVID19 occurring during the tenure of his predecessor, Donald Trump. However, this doesn't nearly begin to explain the key part of the question “Why him?” After all, the 2020 race included a number of very prominent Democratic candidates such as former HUD Secretary and San Antonio mayor Julián Castro, senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, Pete Buttigieg and business innovators Michael Bloomberg, Tom Steyer, and Andrew Yang. His current VP Kamala Harris, then a senator, had been a media favourite for the position as they wrote fawning tribute pieces about her Chuck Taylor sneakers . . . because that's the topic everyone wanted to know about, right?
Added on to the why? question is the fact that Biden is increasingly seen for who he is: aged, decrepit, confused, and likely involved in scandalous corruption. I'm inclined to offer a different take than Travis's. Biden's placement in the Oval Office is anything but an accident, no matter what he means by that. COVID enabled Biden to campaign virtually from his basement thus minimizing signs of his mental or physical health diminishing. However, no one that was supporting him had a problem with him being as weak as they knew he is. In fact it works to their advantage. For his staff and his backers, Biden is the perfect type of leader to rally behind because he is so weak and incompetent. I call it the Sultan Model after the fictional ruler of Agrabah in Disney's Aladdin. There are many real life comparisons one can make, but I chose the nameless Sultan of Agrabah, the father of Princess Jasmine, because I wanted to humour Biden supporters' belief that he is just a lovable old-fashioned grandpa who happens to have policies they like. In the movie he is manipulated by Jafar, his grand vizier, who ultimately desires total power for himself. The Sultan-Jafar relationship relies on the need for one of the other: The Sultan has the legitimacy of royalty but no special abilities or vision for his rule, while Jafar has his cunning and wit but no claim to the throne.
OK, so now that we have that childish analogy out of the way, we would be in much better shape if Pres. Biden was even as competent as the Sultan of Agraba. As should be abundantly clear by now his flaws are so glaring that even a subservient media cannot hide them. It's not enough that he is old, but he also appears mentally and physically frail, with Bill Maher saying he looks like his own “skeletal remains”. If his age and mental state are enough, who can defend his disastrous leadership in Afghanistan, on the southern border, or in handling the economy? OK, these don't seem bad enough, how about the series of hoops he has put the public through in explaining away how involved he is in his son Hunter's illegal and potentially criminal business ventures? While not everything has degenerated into chaos under Biden, his defenders find themselves hard pressed to explain what great accomplishments he can point to besides legislation like the American Rescue Plan that is likely only to appeal to people already supporting him.
So then the question presents itself: If Joe Biden is such a lackluster option, why is it that in September 2023 with next year's presidential election staring us in the face the Democratic Party is not able to eject from the plane and move on from Biden? This is answerable in several parts.
Praise the clothes
As a child you may have heard the folk tale "The Emperor's New Clothes", compiled by Danish author and storyteller Hans Christian Andersen. It features an emperor whose vanity is exploited by two con men who convince him that they can weave him clothes that are so magnificent that they are invisible to anyone but those that are intelligent and sophisticated. He is fooled into paying them to produce a set for him, and when the time comes they dress him in his purchased "outfit". He is so proud of his new acquisition that he sets off with his courtiers to parade through the streets in it. Of course he isn't wearing any clothes at all, but none of the noblemen or advisors is willing to tell the emperor he's been scammed, so they flatter and indulge him. The common folk watch in stunned silence as their ruler parades before them in the buff, until one boy yells out, “the emperor has no clothes”. That is the signal to the rest of the crowd that they are free to say what they had feared and they begin to jeer and taunt.
If one looks at American society our media and political class fit neatly into the roles of the story. It was con artist advisors like chief of staff Ron Klain or First Lady Jill Biden that helped enable Joe Biden's return from retirement despite probably knowing he was well past his prime, and those Democrat politicians like representatives Nancy Pelosi and Jim Clyburn that got in line behind Biden are like the nobles that genuflect while privately rolling their eyes at the man who rules them. Clyburn in particular was instrumental in February 2020 in getting the black vote behind Biden, even demanding backstage during a candidate debate that he commit to naming a black woman to the Supreme Court, which Biden had forgotten to do. For his trouble Clyburn's daughter, Jennifer Clyburn Reed, was hired as the Co-chair and executive officer of the Southern Crescent Regional Commission, a federal advisory committee focused on economic distressed areas in seven states in the southeastern US for a salary ranging between $165,000 and $183,000.
As for the voting public however they are harder to fool. As of this writing Biden's disapproval is 13% higher than his approval. How many crowds at sports games yelled out “F*** Joe Biden” or the more more family friendly “Let’s Go Brandon”. This doesn't matter nearly as much though, since it is the job of the emperor's flatterers, the media, to puff up his reputation. It doesn't matter how terrible the state of the world is, a decrepit leader with poor communication skills will have mouthpieces that are willing to lie for him. Biden has his own in-house people to do this, such as WH Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre and her predecessor Jen Psaki who now does the same thing for MSNBC. He also has an army of Democratic influencers on platforms such as Tik Tok to sing his praises. And then there are those whose propaganda is so absurd that one wonders if they are simply mocking the audience. Recently I read an interview by Dean Obeidallah of Salon talking with Biden biographer Franklin Foer about how the president according to them "is good at politics". Mind you that recently Biden has wandered completely out of the room during a medal ceremony with a veteran, babbled incoherently about "lying dog faced pony soldiers" during a public forum, and even lied about being at Ground Zero the day after 9/11 and was fact checked by CNN while failing to commemorate the event from one of the four disaster sites. Much of their piece tried to portray the bumbling behaviour of Pres. Biden as endearing. The reason that these people will not admit that something is going wrong with Biden is because they have conditioned themselves not to care - they are praising the emperor's new clothes.
Weekend at Wilson's
As it has become obvious that the president is not quite full functioning, several commentators including supporters like Australian columnist Nick Bryant have opined that his presidency is reminiscent of the late 1980s comedy Weekend at Bernie's. For those that haven't had the pleasure, the film follows two employees who work for the titular character Bernie Lomax at his insurance agency. After they find him dead at home they decide to exploit the situation and live vicariously through him by partying over the weekend. The challenge of this is that the whole time they are forced to manipulate his corpse in order to make it seem like he is alive. Tasteful, right? The idea behind a Weekend at Bernie's presidency is twofold: (1) a literal dead/infirm person would be better than an alternative, i.e. Donald Trump, and (2) that more importantly this person could manipulated at the will of the people behind him to take certain policy steps. How closely can this be done? It is often noticed that during press conferences Biden has been directed who to call on by his communications staff. On Sept. 10 in Hanoi he held a press conference and even mentioned that they told him both who and how many reporters to call on: "And now, I will take your questions. Let me see. They told me — they gave me five people here." He had also done the same during a post-midterm election press conference in 2022. Could he not decide who to call on himself? More importantly, why is it necessary that the White House communications staff is aware of which reporters want to ask questions ahead of time? This impacts the ability of the media to function as a check on government abuse, not that it is that strong to begin with.
It is not unprecedented that the US is governed by an infirm president. In 1841 William Henry Harrison was elected and immediately took ill with pneumonia before dying a month later, and James Garfield survived for two months an assassination attempt in 1881 before finally passing away. However, the most obvious comparison is to Woodrow Wilson (1913-21) who in October 1919 suffered a serious stroke that incapacitated him for the remainder of his presidency. As a result for the remainder of his time in office Wilson was reachable only through intermediaries, most importantly his wife First Lady Edith Wilson who determined which documents and messages reached the president. Because of her gatekeeping abilities, Edith Wilson is referred to sometimes as the unofficial first female president. However, until 1967 and ratification of the 25th Amendment it was not legally possible for a president to be removed due to health infirmity.
But wait, even if it is not as frequently as other presidents, Biden is appearing in public, so why apply comparisons to Wilson? Some have alleged that during the second term of Ronald Reagan's presidency (1985-89) he had begun to suffer from what would later be diagnosed in 1994 as Alzheimer's disease, but this speculation emerged after he left office and is complicated by the fact that he also had terrible eyesight for many years and was known for his hands-off management style. As Biden gets older it is becoming less possible to disguise the fact that he is not only well past his prime but progressively less able to keep himself together. The examples pile up daily of him having difficulty maintaining decorum while making public appearances. During a meeting at the UN General Assembly annual conferences with Brazilian President Luis Inacio Lula da Silva, Biden almost knocked over a Brazilian flag while entering the stage, and snubbed Lula's handshake while exiting.
So why keep him in office? Democratic Party and progressive ideologues tend to like the results on their policy agenda regardless of whether the person delivering is of character or there are other adverse results like economic ruin or international conflict. This leads to bargaining behaviour on the part of progressives like Kyle Kulinski who are willing to overlook those issues in order to justify supporting a president that they otherwise would view as totally unfit. “Centrist” Democrats meanwhile will continue to churn out op-eds like this one from former Clinton attorney Lanny Davis that call upon the president to “lead on securing our borders”, despite the fact that Biden has so mismanaged that issue he is now being turned to by other Democrats like New York Gov. Kathy Hochul and New York City Mayor Eric Adams to solve the issue that he created.
The Keys to the Palace
Beyond those that see a weak president as being a useful conduit to their policy goals, there are those with an agenda that is even more sinister that would choose to support him - personal gain or profit. It would be difficult to delve into all of the different ethical and public corruption issues that have been lodged regarding Joe Biden in this article, but in one of the latest examples an IRS official has corroborated two colleagues' testimony that the Department of Justice had stonewalled criminal tax violations by his son Hunter Biden that could lead back to the president. In another scandal involving the First Son, a donor who also purchased one of Hunter's art paintings was later appointed to a federal panel concerned with preserving American heritage abroad. There also is no logical explanation to why an estimated $20 million in payments were made by Hunter Biden's business partners to shell companies that are listed in the names of other Biden children and grandchildren. This type of financial transaction pattern bears all of the traits of a money laundering scheme.
The Bidens seem to have no care for either the commission or the appearance of impropriety, however as the First Family they have the foremost reason to cling to power. Like with Edith Wilson, they are surely aware that the day Joe Biden relinquishes the Oval Office they will also step down from a long list of privileges that they enjoy with that status, and unlike with other political dynasties like the Bushes and Kennedys none of them appear to have the type of background to follow in his footsteps.
But it's not as if Joe Biden's family did not try to emulate those examples. He often invokes the memory of his oldest son, former Delaware Attorney General Beau Biden. Beau had checked all the boxes of someone hoping to build a political resume: Law school, clerking for a federal judge, military service in Iraq, and then getting active in politics by running for statewide office. Unfortunately for him, and the Bidens, that promising future ended with his premature death in 2015 at the age of 46 of brain cancer. Coincidentally in 2013, with Beau Biden cancer already diagnosed, his brother Hunter was admitted to the US Naval Reserve having received waivers for his age (43) and past drug use. It would not be rash to speculate that the motive for having Hunter, until then focused more on the corporate legal world, suddenly enlist in the military could have been a contingency to step in if Beau's health never recovered. As a colleague and contemporary for decades of Sen. Ted Kennedy, Biden surely was acquainted with the fact that their dynasty reached an inflection point with the death in WWII of his oldest brother Joseph Kennedy, Jr., followed by those of two more, President John F. Kennedy and Senator Robert F. Kennedy.
But, to paraphrase former Democratic VP candidate Lloyd Bentsen, this younger brother was no Jack Kennedy. The backup plan short-circuited rather quickly when Hunter Biden was discharged “administratively” during his first week of reserve duty after failing a drug test. Just like with his early career at the credit agency MBNA, the move would not have been possible without Hunter's family connection, and just like with other failures of his it was undone by his poor impulse control. And what about Ashley, the third child of Joe Biden and the only one from his second marriage to First Lady Jill Biden? She has her own history of narcotics use that was revealed in 2009 when she was 27 years old and filmed snorting cocaine at a Delaware house party.
The Struggle against the Future
So Joe Biden has no familial heirs to his political legacy, and his acolytes and cronies will not necessarily be guaranteed the same status and privilege should he be compelled to leave office. Why is it then that those below him on the totem pole, VP Kamala Harris and various Democrat governors and cabinet officials, are not actively calling for him to step aside? The most simple way to explain this is that many of them are likely weary of the dirty fight that will take place once the battle for succession actually occurs. Much of world history turns on wars of succession, such as Russia's "Time of Troubles" (1598-1610/1612) that followed the death of Tsar Feodor I which led to the succession of several rival claimants and usurper impostors that attempted to seize the throne before Michael Romanov established his own dynasty that lasted until the Russian Revolution.
Democrats definitely will not want to relive the 2020 primary battle when several rising stars in the party saw their futures flame out. From Elizabeth Warren's desperate attempt to tar colleague Bernie Sanders as a misogynist, to Michael Bloomberg spilling nine-figure fortunes trying to buy the nomination, to the comical contest between Beto O'Rourke and Cory Booker over who could pander better to Latinos during a debate, that contest did more to show the limits of candidates' national appeal than it did to determine the ideological future of the party. It is also notable to ask who exactly did Biden succeed that has caused controversy over what the future face and soul of the Democrats will be? That would of course be President Barack Obama who selected Biden as his VP in 2008 when he was 66 years old, a two-time failed presidential candidate, and presumably less of a threat to Obama than his erstwhile rival former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. When Obama left office in 2016 he had opted to back Clinton in her bid to succeed him. This is the first time that a term-limited vice president leaving office would be passed over for nomination by his party as president since 1952 when VP Alben Barkley was snubbed by unions that nominated Adlai Stevenson to succeed Harry Truman as the Democratic nominee. The main reason for this was Barkley's age (74) and questions about his health. Sound familiar?
If Clinton had fulfilled her birthright and won in 2016 Biden likely would be an afterthought, the answer to trivia questions regarding who's who in Obama's administration. But she didn't, and in 2020 the party needed someone to reunite the party machinery in the aftermath of her colossal failure. (If you feel like having fun, tell any of your partisan Democrat friends frustrated with Biden that his presidency is all Hillary Clinton's fault. Then watch their mind try to process what you said). This is, like the Time of Troubles, an example of a lesser figure following on the coattails of someone of much greater stature. There best modern comparison I can make is to Mahmoud Abbas, the current President of the Palestinian Authority. He was brought in to essentially prevent a civil war following the death of the iconic Yasser Arafat in 2004. An aged academic, he has presided over a corrupt and divided semi-independent state since then. Arafat had used force, symbolism, and cunning survival skills to stay at the top of his Fatah movement and ahead of the competing pile of Palestinian terror leaders. Abbas’s hold on power is thanks to almost the exact opposite qualities. He was already 71 years old when he assumed office, and a majority of Palestinian Authority residents today know no other president in their lifetime. One other quality that Abbas shares with Biden is a tendency to embarrass his people on the public stage. In 2018 he went on a rant during an address on his frustrations with the long dormant peace process with Israel in which he blamed everyone, including long dead Napoleon Bonaparte and Oliver Cromwell, for the betrayal of the Palestinian people.
Those that placed Abbas, like Biden, into power were not looking for an inspiring leader to electrify the public but a reliable figurehead to placate all factions of their party. A profile of Abbas from 2017 featured a story that illustrated how Arafat chose him as his VP precisely because he could never threaten his rule.