There is no shortage of Americans who are concerned about Joe Biden’s advanced age and mental acuity. Even a number of Democrats would rather see someone else get their party’s nomination in 2024.
According to Jack Shafer of Politico, the way to solve this problem is a primary challenge:
Why Democrats Should Primary BidenIn the middle of the last century, prizefighters who weren’t fighting frequently enough to keep sharp would schedule tuneup matches with capable boxers to shake the ring rust out of their form. Their managers wouldn’t pick palookas or chumps but boxers who could challenge their guy in a way that would reveal his weaknesses and indicate what part of his game needed more training.President Joe Biden needs a tuneup. He’s a stiff when speaking at the lectern. When not a stiff, the 80-year-old can be a dolt, saying, as he did this week, that Russian President Vladimir Putin is “losing the war in Iraq” when he meant Ukraine, or blurting out a senseless, “God save the Queen, man,” at a gun control rally last week. The English language has never been his friend, so it’s logical that his managers, er, his aides, have limited his exposure to the press. No president since the equally doddering Ronald Reagan has held so few press conferences. Not since Ray Leonard’s ill-advised third comeback has a contestant seemed so out of condition for a big rumble.
Biden has actual challengers in Marianne Williamson and Robert Kennedy Jr., but according to Shafer, they wouldn’t be good for this effort. Biden needs ‘real’ candidates to challenge him:
Gov. Gavin Newsom of California is already acting like the president-in-exile, proposing a new gun control constitutional amendment, working to ban gas-powered cars and threatening to arrest Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis for kidnapping migrants. Like Newsom, Pete Buttigieg wears his presidential ambitions on his forehead like a bumper sticker. There’s surely not a moment that he’s not thinking about being president, so why not act on those instincts, the same ones that launched him from mid-city mayor to Transportation secretary?
The most hilarious and sad passage in the column is this:
Besides putting him in fighting trim (or not), primary adversaries would prepare us for the all too real possibility that he’s incapacitated by a stroke, seriously injured in one of his frequent falls or another bike crash, or just dies one evening.
Shafer is right to be concerned about this. Just last week, NBC News reported that 68% of voters have questions about Biden’s fitness:
68% of all voters say they have concerns about Biden having the necessary mental and physical health to be president, including 55% who say they have “major” concerns…What also stands out is how concerns about Biden’s mental and physical fitness have grown since we last asked this question in Oct. 2020 — when 51% of voters said they had concerns, with 38% having “major” concerns.And check out these numbers: In 2020, 21% of Democrats said they had moderate/major concerns about Biden’s fitness. Now it’s 43% of Dems who say this.
Of course, Biden doesn’t help himself on this issue. Every time he speaks, he reminds the public about it.
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