Beyond the politics of whether Biden can beat Trump again, the aides expressed new worries about whether the president can carry out his duties through another four-year term.
There are the twinned issues, the practical and the moral, of the hard decision. On the moral issue, the president cannot carry on the duties of the presidency for FOUR MORE YEARS!
But this is a binary choice so there is a BIGGER moral issue: the fitness of his opponent. That's a BIGGER NOT. And there's the pragmatic becomes twinned with the moral. I think the president is going to lose to Trump, but of course I don't know. The New York Times says Biden should end his candidacy and it is no longer "sufficient" to say Biden is necessary to beat Trump. Really, that's not sufficient? If Trump wins we get the BIGGEST NOT for the next four years and we lose the country. If Biden wins we get someone who "cannot carry on the duties of the presidency for four more years" but who saves the country. That is a Hobson's choice, "an apparently free choice when there is no real alternative." No, that's "sufficient", NYT EB!
What if we switched the binary? The aforementioned says there are tons of Demos who both can carry out the duties of the presidency (moral) better than Biden, and who can beat Trump (practical).
Who? I want a name. You can't project your fantasies onto an Ideal candidate, you have to choose an actual person. It is comical that it's the aforementioned augustly dumping Biden, by name, and not suggesting an alternative, by name, since they did the same thing in 2020 when they "recommended" to Demos the non-person of Warren-Klobuchar. While we await the candidate of the aforementioned on the moral issue, we should be mindful that we then will have to assess the comparative chances of that person beating Trump compared to president Biden. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is above my pay-grade and cognitive ability. Nobody can reasonably assess the chances of Kamala Harris, Gavin Newsom, Gretchen Whitmer, to name three, defeating Trump. You would be taking a reckless leap into the unknown with the issue of literally at stake of whether America "can carry on" four more years. Thus, your pragmatic calculus cannot in the slightest be separated from your moral calculus.
Internally, many aides have seen flashes of an absent-minded Biden, but typically brush them off as ordinary brain farts because they usually see him engaged, eight current and former Biden officials told Axios.
Between the lines: Biden's miscues and limitations are more familiar inside the White House.
The time of day is important as to which of the two Bidens will appear.
From 10am to 4pm, Biden is dependably engaged — and many of his public events in front of cameras are held within those hours.
Outside of that time range or while traveling abroad, Biden is more likely to have verbal miscues and become fatigued, aides told Axios.
Thursday's 90-minute debate began at 9pm ET.
I guess they shouldn't run a campaign ad asking voters which candidate they want taking a "3 am phone call"? That's a part-time job, 10 am-4 pm is a part-time job, much the same as my Big Brother has in dentistry. President of the United States is a 24/7 365 job.
