Someone forgot to tie him to his Oval Office chair, and so it was that President Joe Biden took off for Europe to discuss the Ukraine horror with NATO and European leaders, visit Poland and fumble enough rhetorically to conceivably make the situation worse.
He said Russian President Vladimir Putin “cannot remain in power,” and yes, I want him gone, you likely want him gone, most of us want him gone, but this was a president sounding as if we were looking to rule Russia, not just defeat its efforts in Ukraine. He said we would respond in kind if Russia were to use weapons of mass destruction in Ukraine, a frightening elevation of that kind of evil warfare. In talking to U.S. troops in Poland, he indicated they would soon be going to Ukraine, meaning it would be our war.
That was hardly the end of it, and maybe you wonder if these muddled moments prompted a psychotherapist to say he “is dangerously mentally ill and temperamentally incapable of being president.” No. Those remarks were aimed at Donald Trump when he was first taking over the presidency.
Later on, a group of 350 psychiatrists and other anti-Trump mental-health experts, worrying about his “grandiosity, impulsivity” and “hypersensitivity to slights or criticism,” raised questions about his dealing with major responsibilities. He ought to undergo personal examination, said these professionals who aren’t supposed to make such public observations unless there has already been such an examination.
These folks haven’t talked that way about Biden, and true enough, his psychological escapades are of a different nature as bunches of right-wing news outlets, Brit Hume on Fox TV, a former White House physician and a Norwegian psychiatrist have said he has dementia. Even that goes too far, seeing as how we’re instructed that the word refers to inability to function in everyday life.
But while this 79-year-old man -- the oldest ever to be president -- has been pals with gaffes and tall tales all his career, he seldom exhibits the cognitive capabilities we sometimes saw in the past. He starts to make a point, it escapes his mind, and his words get lost in silence. He once forgot the name of his defense secretary. He confused New Hampshire and Vermont. He said he likes truth better than facts. He contradicts himself, defies his advisers and, please understand, such mistakes are frequent and some of them frighteningly destructive.
Don’t forget Afghanistan. Under his guidance, and while he was there on the day of surrender, the Taliban took over through a surge that could have been blocked. Afghans tried to escape by grabbing hold of flying airplanes and dropping to their deaths. Americans were left behind. Innocent Afghans were murdered. Some 13 Marines were killed with zero killed the year before under Trump. Some $80 billion worth of U.S. weapons were left behind. Women lost their rights while terrorists gained new footing and the West was weakened. The Taliban ruined businesses and trade, foreign aid went away because of it bolstering these brutes and millions are starving to death, including children.
Imagine what might be coming on such matters as China, the Iran deal, climate change, the inflationary spiral, the military and taxes. Ill-chosen advisers are sometimes responsible for the worst of Biden, but sometimes try to stop him, as in their attempt to erase his most reckless remarks about the war in Ukraine. Getting him to resign would be idiotic, considering that ridiculously inept Vice President Kamala Harris would take his place.
The Republican Party these days is not a joy to behold, but it has the virtue of not being the Democratic Party too often in cahoots with progressive crazies trying to remake Western civilization into something ever less devoted to the best of our norms and common sense. In the mid-term elections, we need the Republicans to take back Congress.
