Prediction: Bye, Bye, Biden

[Jersey Girl]

It is very sad that we are so shallow a nation that he couldn’t stay in the race because I think he would have done a fine job in his second term.

If his health continues to decline rapidly then I think those who asked for him to drop out will be vindicated. We will see.

Continues to rapidly decline? What's wrong with his health?

[drumdude]

If his health continues to decline rapidly then I think those who asked for him to drop out will be vindicated. We will see.

Continues to rapidly decline? What's wrong with his health?

https://www.theatlantic.com/health/arch ... an/679218/

Biden Made a Healthy Decision
Difficult conversations about a person’s decline—even in private—are still too rare in American life.

By Louise Aronson

As one of the physicians who recently expressed concern about President Joe Biden’s health and his likelihood of significant decline over the next four and a half years, I was relieved when he ended his reelection campaign—and also overwhelmingly sad. In essence, as people keep saying, he had his car keys and driver’s license taken away with the whole world watching. This evening as he gave a short speech from the White House about his accomplishments, his voice was weak, he stumbled occasionally over his prepared remarks, and his physical presence was diminished from what it once was.

For months, I have wished that I could have Biden in my exam room, not as the president of the United States, but as a patient in my geriatrics clinic. Instead, watching from afar as he insisted on running, I wondered if his doctors were talking to him honestly about his concerning symptoms, and his disappointing odds of fulfilling the requirements of the office for another term. I hoped that if they were discussing his future, they were pointing out the advantages of taking charge in this situation, even when no available option was Biden’s ideal. But, given what they and the president said in public before he ended his campaign, I worried that little of this was happening. Despite the aging U.S. population, few clinicians are trained to care for aging bodies, much less to discuss the developmental stages of elderhood and identity-threatening realities of later life.

LOUISE ARONSON

Louise Aronson is a geriatrician and professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco. She is the author of Elderhood: Redefining Aging, Transforming Medicine

[drumdude]

https://www.newyorker.com/science/medic ... bout-biden

Doctors Are Increasingly Worried About Biden
Nine physicians weighed in on the President’s health. Almost all were concerned that Biden’s symptoms might go beyond a gradual, aging-related decline.

By Dhruv Khullar

July 18, 2024

From the moment that Joe Biden announced his candidacy for President, in 2019, he has been attacked as being too old. At the time, Biden was seventy-six and cast himself as a “transitional” figure—a “bridge” to the next generation. Since then, he has governed admirably, passing more meaningful legislation than almost anyone thought possible with flimsy Democratic majorities in Congress. But, in the past year, concerns about his fitness have gained traction and credibility. Staff, donors, and elected officials have divulged mental lapses; in February, the special counsel Robert Hur labelled the President a “well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory” in a report about Biden’s handling of classified documents. Last month, with more than fifty million Americans watching, Biden delivered one of the worst Presidential-debate performances in history, stumbling over numbers and words, losing his train of thought, and struggling to finish sentences. He often appeared unfocussed, with a slack jaw and blank eyes; afterward, the First Lady gingerly helped him off the stage.

After the debate, Axios reported that before 10 a.m. and after 4 p.m. the President tends to tire and misspeak; Biden, who is eighty-one, said at a press conference, “I just got to pace myself a little more.” Meanwhile, supporters tried to excuse his performance by invoking jet lag, a cold, a busy schedule, poor preparation, too much preparation, and a blanket shield of “good days and bad days.” These are the kinds of difficult conversations one has when considering whether one’s grandfather can safely drive—not whether someone should run the country. Democrats, meanwhile, have damned the President with a mixture of tepid endorsements and outright defections. After Biden reaffirmed his intention to stay in the race, Representative Nancy Pelosi, who is eighty-four and announced in 2022 that she would not again pursue the House Speakership, told MSNBC, “It’s up to the President to decide if he is going to run.” At least twenty Democratic members of the House of Representatives have publicly called on Biden to withdraw from the race, and, last week, Peter Welch, of Vermont, became the first Democratic senator to do so.

We all experience fluctuations in how we feel and perform. But the frequency and the severity of fluctuations matter: occasionally misplacing your keys or forgetting a friend’s birthday is far less concerning than regularly losing your train of thought, which can be a sign of an evolving cognitive impairment. Trajectory and rapidity matter, too: a gradual descent may portend a different prognosis than a swift and jagged decline. Since the debate, I’ve asked nine doctors—including an internist, geriatricians, neurologists, and a neurosurgeon—to reflect on President Biden’s health. Most of them are, politically speaking, left of center; they practice in different parts of the country and range in age from their thirties to their sixties. They were careful to stipulate that they couldn’t diagnose the President from afar, and none wanted to be quoted by name. But almost all of them were concerned about the possibility that Biden’s symptoms might go beyond a gradual, aging-related decline, and could potentially be attributed to something more serious, such as a meaningful cognitive impairment or neurodegenerative condition. Most felt that an evaluation for neurological disorders would be reasonable. One neurologist, who practices on the West Coast and identifies as a Democrat, told me that Biden’s debate performance troubled a large number of her colleagues. “All of us had a gut reaction that this is not normal,” the neurologist told me.

[Morley]

In The Atlantic, 25 July 2024. Well worth reading.


The Dramatic Contrast of Biden’s Last Act

David Frum


Two political myths inspired the dreams and haunted the nightmares of the Founders of the American republic. Both these foundational myths were learned from the history and literature of the ancient Romans.

Cincinnatus was the name of a man who, the story went, accepted supreme power in the state to meet a temporary emergency and then relinquished that power to return to his farm when the emergency passed. George Washington modeled his public image on the legend of Cincinnatus, and so he was depicted in contemporary art and literature—“the Cincinnatus of the West,” as Lord Byron praised him in a famous poem of the day.

Against the bright legacy of Cincinnatus, the Founders contrasted the sinister character of Catiline: a man of depraved sexual appetites who reached almost the pinnacle of power and then exploited populist passions to overthrow the constitution, gain wealth, and pay his desperately pressing debts. Alexander Hamilton invoked Catiline to inveigh against his detested political adversary, Aaron Burr:

He is bankrupt beyond redemption except by the plunder of his country. His public principles have no other spring or aim than his own aggrandisement … If he can, he will certainly disturb our institutions to secure to himself permanent power and with it wealth … He is truly the Cataline of America.

President Joe Biden’s speech last night adapted the story of Cincinnatus: “Nothing, nothing can come in the way of saving our democracy,” he said. “That includes personal ambition.” By presenting the next election as a stark choice between, on the one side, “honesty, decency, respect, freedom, justice, and democracy” and, on the other side, the opposites of those things, Biden cast his chief political adversary in the ancient role of Catiline.

Biden’s act of renunciation gives power to his words of denunciation. By demonstrating that he cared about something higher than personal ambition, the president became more credible when he accused his chief opponent of caring for nothing other than personal ambition. By surrendering the power that he’d once hoped to keep, Biden condemned by contrast the predecessor who clung to the power he’d lost. Biden’s July 24 rebuked Trump’s January 6.

The names and stories of Cincinnatus and Catiline are no longer well remembered. But their symbolism survives even after the details have blurred: self first versus country first; appetite versus conscience; ego versus law.

The last act of the drama decides how the whole show will be remembered. Biden gave 50 years of his life to public service. It was a career of highs and lows, victories and defeats—all of it now backlit by the glow of its magnificent end.

Donald Trump’s career has not ended quite yet—though it, too, is backlit. Any hope or promise it might once have carried vanished long ago. His final chapter seems at hand. It won’t be good—and after the contrast with Biden’s finale last night, it will look worse than ever.

[Jersey Girl]

Morley I saw mention of Cincinnatus relative to Biden's stepping aside and although I brought up a wiki on him I haven't gotten round reading it yet. Thanks SO much for the article!

[Kishkumen]

If his health continues to decline rapidly then I think those who asked for him to drop out will be vindicated. We will see.

Will we? We may not. I am not sure how public he will be post-presidency.

[Doctor CamNC4Me]

Morley I saw mention of Cincinnatus relative to Biden's stepping aside and although I brought up a wiki on him I haven't gotten round reading it yet. Thanks SO much for the article!

I mean if you put aside the venalities, avarice, the rape, the pederastry, the unrelenting stupidity, the crazy stupid dementia-addled-garbage pontificating he did, the terrible job as a politician, the attempted coup well, Trump Catiline is just being maligned.

- Doc

[Some Schmo]

In The Atlantic, 25 July 2024. Well worth reading.


The Dramatic Contrast of Biden’s Last Act

David Frum

Thanks for posting that. We can't ignore history if we want to avoid repeating it.

Man, I love reading/listening to David Frum. He's my go-to conservative voice.

[Xenophon]

If his health continues to decline rapidly then I think those who asked for him to drop out will be vindicated. We will see.

Will we? We may not. I am not sure how public he will be post-presidency.

My take, whether his age and health would prevent him from executing on the actual operations of the job is a moot point. He was expending too much political capital spinning his wheels against that narrative. We can argue about how much Democrats gave over to that narrative and if it was right but it didn't change the reality of what Biden was facing. It isn't always great but so much of politics is optics and the optics of the debate into the internal party pressure was just too much for him to overcome. Perhaps if the political landscape was different (less partisan approval numbers, less at stake for the November election, stronger Democrat unity, etc.) he could have served out another term and let the excellent people around him do their work. But here we are, and I think his call and how he played it was about as perfect as could be expected given the situation.

[honorentheos]

...and I think his call and how he played it was about as perfect as could be expected given the situation.

I largely agree. I was concerned that any change after the debate would be seen as chaos and undermine whomever became the candidate so I was opposed to Biden dropping out. I agreed with Kish's sentiment that the administration has been doing a great job so far which meant whatever happened, a continuation of the Biden admin would likely be positive regardless of if his health declined and he needed to step aside or not.

Where I remain frustrated is in the process that got us here. The lack of a primary process due to Biden being an incumbent president is where I feel the DNC and those around Biden failed the country. We need more transparency than we had.

I also hope that this change this "late" in the process may affect how ridiculously long our campaign seasons have become. Most countries don't have perpetual elections and maybe if the parties start to question the candidate change as a tactic that could be exploited then maybe we will see campaign season go back to kicking off after Labor Day rather than years before the actual election date. Probably not but one can hope.