- by Graham Holton
- The Guardian
- Issue #2106
Photo: Gage Skidmore – flickr.com (CC BY-SA 2.0)
The recent US Presidential debate watched by 51 million people, was an obvious catastrophe for the Democratic Party. Biden looked lost and wooden.
The fiasco was reminiscent of the comedy Weekend at Bernie’s in which an obviously dead man is treated as alive.
The next day the Democrats told the media that Biden did a great job and he would not be replaced as president. Did they not see how badly he performed?
After the debate, a lot of commentators argued that Biden was unfit for another term. The question they avoided asking was this: has he been unfit to lead the country during his term of office? During the debate Biden looked vague, not comprehending what was happening around him, his diminished cognitive abilities were obvious. Which leads one to ask, does he perform like this in the Oval Office of the White House? If so who is really running the country?
Under the US political system, the president cannot be replaced for doing a bad job, as a prime minister can in Australia. Biden has to resign; he cannot be forced out. The US Constitution dictates that the vice president can become president only if President Biden dies, or becomes incapacitated. If the Democratic Party does not want Harris as president, the constitution does not say what process they should use for choosing a nominee for the upcoming election. News commentators have asked who could realistically replace Joe Biden as the Democratic Party’s official nominee in five weeks. Vice-president Kamala Harris is not liked, nor is California Governor Gavin Newsom.
Article II of the Constitution established the executive branch of the federal government and vested executive power in the president. As the 46th President, Joe Biden is head of State, government and Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces, which includes directing the world’s most well-equipped armed forces and the world’s second-largest nuclear arsenal. The primary responsibility of Vice President Harris is to be ready to assume the presidency if President Biden is unable to perform his duties. For that to happen, the Vice President and a majority of the Cabinet must judge that the President is no longer able to discharge the duties of his presidency.
If Biden steps down in the August convention, the 435 members of the Democratic National Committee would choose a new candidate. The members would meet in a special session to select a nominee. To be nominated candidates need the signatures of 600 convention delegates. There are 4,672 delegates, including 3,933 pledged delegates and 739 automatic or superdelegates. There is not a simple solution to replacing Biden.
Does President Biden even know and understand what he is signing? At a time when the US government is pushing Russia, China, North Korea, and Iran into a global war, does Biden really know what is happening around him and is he complicit in it? If his cognitive abilities are as bad as they seemed during the debate, is Biden being used to push through legislation that the Democrats want?
In March 2024 President Biden signed into law a US$1.2 trillion spending package. The Democratic-led Senate passed the bill with a 74-24 majority. The defence bill was passed without objection by the Republican-led House of Representatives. The 1,012-page bill provided US$886 billion in funding for the Defence Department, which included military aid to Ukraine, Taiwan and Israel.
If the Democrats are voted in after the November election and nuclear war breaks out, do we blame Biden, a decrepit old man, or his administration? Who is there to stop such nuclear madness? If Trump becomes president, he said he would stop wars by showing US military muscle. Trump says a lot of things.
Putin has warned numerous times that if Russia is threatened it would retaliate with tactical nuclear weapons.
Whoever wins, the US will be a gerontocracy – rule by the old – and the world will be a dangerous place. It shouldn’t be run by a ‘Weekend at Biden’s.’
