The Stark Truth: Only Biden Can Win Against Trump

Nobody else comes even close. So why do we keep sabotaging his campaign?

Photo by Salah Ait Mokhtar on Unsplash

Okay, I watched the damn thing. I watched George Stephanopoulos quasi-sincerely tsk-tsk his way through the worst kind of grilling, the ickiest kind of badgering of a beleaguered president still reeling from the attacks on his admittedly bad debate performance on June 27. (This ‘bad debate performance’ was against Donald Trump, who never gave a good debate performance, but as usual they’re not talking about Donald Trump.)

What I saw was Joe struggling to keep from asking George why he was asking such stupid questions, considering the fix we’ll be in if Trump wins.

It’s not Biden’s job to soothe those who will never be convinced he’s not too old or too frail. He has tried. It gets him nowhere. When someone suggests to him it might be time to hang it up and move along, what do you suppose Joe thinks?

I suspect he thinks, “Are you nuts? Do you know what would happen if I quit now? Instant political suicide for the Democratic Party. No one else can beat Trump but me. Who else? Name somebody!”

I know I do. I think that. Every single day.

But of course Joe Biden doesn’t say it. Of course he doesn’t.

George Stephanopoulos was on a mission during that entire interview to make Joe admit he should no longer be president. That was his one and only goal. He would not let up on forcing Biden to admit he’s no longer able.

“Let me ask you a tougher, more personal question'. (I’ve got news for you, George, they were all personal.) Are you sure you’re being honest with yourself when you say you have the mental and physical capacity to serve another four years?”

Joe says “Yes, I am,” and then goes on to explain why.

George again: “But are you being honest with yourself as well about your ability to defeat Donald Trump? right now?”

Joe says, “Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes…”

But George isn’t buying it. “ You say that, but let me challenge you.” And then he twists the knife by taunting Joe about how far behind Trump he is.

So how far behind is Joe? According to the recent Ipsos/Reuters poll Biden is a point ahead of Trump. (CBS and the New York Times polls not so much. George uses them, of course.)

Joe talks up his amazing staff and the hard work they’ve all done alongside him. George says, “But all that takes its toll. Are you up for the job?”

Why didn’t Stephanopoulis ask him some hard policy questions? Questions only he as president could answer?

Questions Donald Trump couldn’t answer in a million years?

Why did he skim over every accomplishment, every triumph, every string of public appearances that were successful? Joe tried his damndest to get them in there.

Instead it was hot seat questions designed to diminish and humiliate the president. George read from his script: “Part of the other concern is that [the debate performance] seems to have fit into a pattern of decline. It has been reported on recently—the New York Times had a headline recently: ‘Biden’s lapses are said to be increasingly common…’”

He names people who have said it. He reports it as if it’s everyone. And then he asks Joe if he would be willing to take cognitive tests, to which Joe said he takes one every day. BUZZ! WRONG ANSWER!

President Biden refuses to take a cognitive test. Why? What does he have to hide??

Joe again tried to promote his many accomplishments, citing specifics of his job. Where did George go with that?

“But are you more frail?”

Later, George switched to a hypothetical and wouldn’t let go:

Stephanopoulos: What if Chuck Schumer, Nancy Pelosi, and Hakeem Jeffries came to you and asked you to get out of the race?

Biden: They’re not going to do that.

Stephanopoulos: You sure?

Biden: I’m sure. I’ve talked to all of them and they want me to stay in the race. Stay in the race. I’ve talked to them for hours…

Stephanopoulos: But what if they don’t?

And it went on. And on. And on. Stab after stab after stab.

Who failed last night? George Stephanopoulos did. He had every chance to bring something of substance to the interview. He could have asked questions of the president that would require some brain power, some acuity, some sense that he either still has it or he doesn’t when it comes to matters of governing.

Instead, he chose to badger on and on about what other people including the president’s own allies are saying, how low he is in the polls, how much better Trump is at drawing crowds, what a goddamn loser he is.

I half expected him to demand Joe quit right there on the set.

We don’t need this. We can’t have this. They’re going after Biden as if there’s an alternative to his candidacy. There isn’t. Nobody else can win if Joe can’t.

This race is Joe’s to win or lose. He is the candidate. If we keep allowing this sort of thing to happen, Joe will lose. Not because he should, but because other people with enough press and pundit power will have decided he should.

And then what? Once we’ve satisfied them and thrown Joe out, what will we be left with?

Maybe they can explain it to us. They seem to have a knack for fanciful prognosticating. Maybe our worst fears won’t happen if the pundits can pretend hard enough it isn’t happening.

Apparently, according to them, we’ll be just fine without Joe Biden.

No worries. Just get someone else. Easy peasy.

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