It was alarming to watch Joe Biden take a tumble Thursday at the Air Force Academy commencement.
But the really scary thought is that if he had landed head-first, Kamala Harris would be sitting in the Oval Office.
Talk about terrifying!
Naturally, the far left would be celebrating the fact of the first female president, heedless of the risks of identity trumping merit.
Meanwhile, the sensible Americans who make up a majority of the nation would be living in fear of the human word salad playing with the nuclear football and the possibility that her cackle could be the soundtrack of Armageddon.
Harris got her job because Biden was indebted to black voters and pols, such as South Carolina Rep. Jim Clyburn, who lifted him to the 2020 nomination after he appeared headed for defeat.
When Biden let it be known he would settle the debt by picking a black woman to be his running mate, history happened.
That seems like a very long time ago and these days, with Biden health scares more frequent, the presidential nominee who hid in his basement during the COVID campaign and often appears befuddled is asking voters for a second term.
Four more years is a long time for America to remain a banana peel away from a President Harris.
In fairness, it should be said that Biden’s excuses for his frequent falls are getting better.
Hours after it happened, he blamed Thursday’s crash (inset) on a sandbag on the stage, which is better than the time when he fell going up the steps of Air Force One and aides blamed the wind.
Propping up Joe for ’24
Democrats, of course, have an additional reason to be terrified of a Biden header.
If he falls and can’t get up close to next year’s election, they are almost certainly sunk regardless of whom Republicans nominate.
That elusive red wave might finally come ashore.
Which is why Dem poohbahs would be wise to reverse course on the matter of primary debates.
Their decision to rule them out would not be unusual if Biden were a popular incumbent with a firm hold on his party.
Biden is neither of those things.
His national approval ratings have been stuck in the basement for most of his term and there are signs of growing restlessness among the faithful.
In his case, debates were banned to protect the president from talking himself into deadends, lapsing into gibberish or doing a face plant in prime time.
For the same reasons, White House aides have limited his unscripted appearances since he took office, even with a protective media, and are unlikely to change course at this point because letting Biden be Biden could be an absolute disaster.
But hiding the president is not a viable approach either when polls consistently show a majority of Dem voters don’t want him to run at all.
An AP-NORC survey found that just 37% of party respondents favor his seeking a second term.
The AP described the unflattering findings this way: “Follow-up interviews with poll respondents suggest that many believe the 80-year-old’s age is a liability, with people focused on his coughing, his gait, his gaffes and the possibility that the world’s most stressful job would be better suited for someone younger.”
When you’re a Democrat and you’ve lost the woke AP, you are in trouble.
So Biden still has to win over voters who should already be in his pocket, and hiding him only makes that much harder to do.
Indeed, despite his team’s effort to shut down challengers and give primary voters no choice, two opponents have emerged.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Marianne Williamson are getting a combined support of nearly 30%, with the bulk going to Kennedy.
His name and his charge that both parties are too cozy with big business–what he calls “corporate feudalism”–could damage Biden among young voters, already a weak link for the president.
If Kennedy gains enough traction over the summer, Biden could be forced into debates to prove he deserves the nomination.
While mediocre performances might be sufficient for that purpose, he’ll need to gin up real enthusiasm to win a general election.
Or maybe not–if he gets the Republican opponent he wants.
Biden clearly wants to run against Donald Trump again on the belief he can win again.
He is said to be convinced he’s the only Dem who can defeat Trump and has done all he can to goad the GOP into nominating the former president for 2024.
Biden’s nonstop taunting of what he calls MAGA Republicans aims both to rally his base and drive a wedge through the GOP.
He knows nothing makes Dem donors open their wallets wider than Trump’s name.
Shamefully, Dem-led investigations and prosecutions of Trump mostly appear to be part of that political strategy.
Head-to-head dread
But, like much of what Biden believes, his assumptions about the political climate might be all wrong.
His performance has been so awful that some polls show Trump defeating him in a general election.
A widely-cited Washington Post/ABC News poll last month had then former president winning by six points, with respondents viewing the 76-year-old Trump more physically and mentally fit than Biden, who is 80.
Respondents also thought Trump handled the economy better.
Such findings are leading some leftist columnists to warn the White House against complacency regarding Trump.
“Did we learn nothing from 2016?”
Frank Bruni recently wrote in The New York Times.
(His “we” is a reminder that Trump’s victory over Hillary Clinton reportedly provoked election-night tears and fury in the Times’ newsroom).
There is a further complication for Dems, with some polls showing Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis would also beat Biden if he were the Republican nominee.
While no poll this early should be taken too seriously, such results are consistent with many others in demonstrating wide disapproval of Biden’s performance and a national hunger for a course correction.
In that sense, a Biden-DeSantis matchup would feature the added dimension of being a clash of generations.
The governor is just 44 and when he was born in 1978, Biden had already been a senator for five years.
The president, no doubt aware that his age and frail health give his opponents an opening, played it safe at his first public appearance after Thursday’s fall.
He delivered an unusual prime-time address on the debt-service bill while seated behind his desk.
His use of a chair reduced my anxiety and gave me an idea.
To keep Kamala Harris from ever claiming the Oval Office, I urge Biden always to be a sitting president.
