3/1/2023

JOE BIDEN'S GREAT. IT
DOESN'T MAKE HIM AN
'INDISPENSABLE MAN'

 THERE ARE TWO REASONS why Joe Biden should not run for a second term.
    One is obvious. He's too old.
    The other goes back to something Donald Trump said after he’d been nominated by the Republican party in 2016:
    “Nobody knows the system better than me, which is why I alone can fix it.”
    That’s the Indispensable Woman or Man Theory – a delusion common to leaders and their partisans in both democratic and authoritarian governments, and one which is as silly as it is dangerous.
    Of 331.9 million people in the United States, only one  is capable of defeating whatever terrifyingly awful candidate the GOP will  choose to run in 2024? And,  there’s only one human fit to govern the United States of America for the next four years?
    Give me a break.
   There aren't two people out of 331.9 million who could successfully run for president and be a good one? Not seven? Not 15.3; not 26; not 1,257?
    Granted, there are few to zero Democrats who currently make me or anyone else I know confident and optimistic about the coming campaign.
    The Washington Post recently ran one of its periodic lists ranking the “top” Democratic candidates. Among the Big 10:
    • J.B. Pritzker
    • Josh Shapiro
    • Jared Polis

J. B. PRITZKER

JOSH SHAPERIO

JARED POLIS

   In the Post’s ranking, higher number are worse than lower lower ones. So, J.B. is Number 10; Josh is Number 9; and Jared is Number 4.
    When I first scanned the list, I had absolutely no idea who Number 4 is, and I am both embarrassed and mad at myself about that. Same goes for the other two;  the remaining seven names at least I recognized.
    I’ve attached the list to end of this article. See how many you recognize. In any case, it’s not a great list, except for Number 1.
    You’d think this would undermine my argument that there is no such creature as the Indispensable Woman or Man, because,  if someone is supposed to keep the Free World free, a voter, at Step One, should at least recognize their name, and little pleasure zones should show up on CT scans of our brains when we hear or read their names.
    But it should be noted that despite my shameful ignorance of the list, these folks are  people who have been in the news lately, and who hold important government positions, backgrounds that qualify them for consideration for higher office.
    The "I alone" argument undermines the whole concept of democracy.

ANOTHER ARGUMENT that could reject my No Indispensable Person Theory is Joe Biden.
    Looking back on 2020, Joe may have been the only candidate at the time who could unite the Democrats, and pick up enough Independents and a smattering of Republicans to drive Trump from under his Oval Office rock.
    In my lifetime, Biden has been the best president, which sometimes isn’t saying much. The fact is, most presidents have terrible flaws, just like the people who vote for them. But some of them have been okay, and a few were better than that.
  Anyway, Joe’s been terrific. There’s his fight for the “soul of America;” his vision for huge, progressive spending programs; his ability to run a competent, decent government; how he's set out an inspired foreign policy. These are real accomplishments.
    Remember how bad we felt every day that Donald Trump was president? Now, imagine how bad we’d feel today if Trump were overseeing national healthcare, climate policy, education, inflation control, Ukraine’s defense and everything else that a president does, like go to concerts at the Kennedy Center. 
    But if Joe Biden is the only person whom the Democrats can come up with to defeat the Republican ogre, the Democratic Party and the country is in peril. And I choose to think that's the case.  

 BUT OLD is old.
    Eighty is old; Joe is 80.
   And news bulletin, when you turn 80 you don’t stay that way - you keep getting older. So, on Nov. 20, 2024, Joe will be 82. He’ll be 82 when he’s inaugurated the following January. When he turns over the keys to the Resolute Desk to his successor in early 2029,  he’ll be 86.
    This assumes that he doesn’t drop dead in the meantime.
    I’m 80, and it's one subject I know about.
    A fair number of my contemporaries are in their 80s, and some of them have died. Sure, some died earlier. A reporter friend of mine, who had exactly the same birthday, year and day, as me, died 36 years ago. Some of my friends will live late into their 80s and longer. I’ve interviewed people in their 90s who have crackerjack memories and incisive minds.
    But, in general, don't get your hopes up.
    Our failure to understand all the things that can go wrong with people in their 80s is just as head-in-the-sand fantasy as pretending that people actually don’t die.
    Sure, Joe Biden  could surprise everyone and live out his second term, assuming he gets through this one. The Social Security Administration has a table that estimates that at age 80, an American man, on average,  might expect to live another 8.43 years.
    You could argue that because Joe Biden has been such a terrific president, a good Plan B would be to elect a superior vice president, whom you’d feel perfectly happy, after Joe’s funeral, to fill in for Joe. But if that’s the case, why not have her or him run for the top job in the first place and skip the drama.
    In general, the theory that one and only one person can save democracy is fiction.
    There are lots and lots of people who can do the job of president.
    And they're lots and lots of people who can do it better than Joe Biden has.
    That's true, even if, at this point, we’ve never heard of them or don’t remember their names.
                                                                                  * * *

In case you’re in the same pickle as me and don’t have a clue as to who should run for president in 2024, here’s the Washington Post’s complete Top 10 list of leading Democratic contenders, along with their major credentials.

10. J.B. Pritzker, Illinois governor.
9. Josh Shapiro, Pennsylvania governor.
8. Bernie Sanders, senator from Vermont, who was a contender for the Democratic nomination for president in the last election. Bernie’s 81.
7. Amy Klobuchar, U.S. senator from Minnesota.
6. Gretchen Whitmer, Michigan governor and target of a failed kidnapping plot by right-wing nut jobs.
5. Gavin Newsom, California governor.
4. Jared Polis, Colorado governor.
3. Kamala D. Harris, vice president of the United States and former California senator.
2. Pete Buttigieg, Biden’s secretary of transportation, formerly the 32nd mayor of South Bend, Indiana.
1. Joe Biden, president of the United States, former vice president and U.S. senator.  His birthday is Nov. 20, 1942.