’80-year-old can be a dolt’

Bob Unruh
WND News Center

Saying of Joe Biden “the 80-year-old can be a dolt,” a stridently left-leaning news publication has posted a commentary demanding that “someone? anyone?” primary him.

It’s Politico, where one of the founders is so afraid of President Donald Trump he wants the Constitution rewritten to single out the 2024 GOP presidential candidate, that has the new comments.

“Just any heavyweight under the age of 75 with the pugilistic skills to put the current champion through a hammering 12 rounds. Nobody is owed another term just because they’re completing their first. You should have to fight for the right to lead your party. And your country,” explained the posting from Jack Shafer, the publication’s senior media writer.

Likening Biden to a prizefighter who needs to keep his skills sharp, the editorial suggests, “President Joe Biden needs a tuneup. He’s a stiff when speaking at the lectern. When not a stiff, the 80-year-old can be a dolt, saying, as he did this week, that Russian President Vladimir Putin is ‘losing the war in Iraq’ when he meant Ukraine, or blurting out a senseless, ‘God save the Queen, man,’ at a gun control rally last week. The English language has never been his friend, so it’s logical that his managers, er, his aides, have limited his exposure to the press.”

Shafer noted Marianne Williamson and Robert Kennedy Jr. as challengers, but said they “aren’t the right ring partners to prepare him for what will be his last electoral contest.”

He said Biden needs a Democrat opponent who “can make him prove that he can still run the traps and beat whichever Republican he faces. If Biden can’t vanquish a worthy Democrat in primary season, he has no business entering the general.”

He explained, “Not every old person who wants to be president should be placed on an ice floe and shoved off to sea. Several octogenarians who still have the gas it takes to operate the White House come to mind. Warren Buffett. Charles Koch. Michael Bloomberg. Nancy Pelosi. Anthony Fauci. Ralph Nader. Sandy Koufax. Well, maybe not Koufax, but you get the drift.

“But the onus should be on Biden to prove he’s mentally and physically nimble enough to do the job for another term before he’s allowed to run against the best the Republicans have to offer.”

He noted President Donald Trump just turned 77, but “he seems as competent (read that however you wish) as he was in 2016.”

He lists among Democrat personalities Gov. Gavin Newsom of California, Pete Buttigieg and others.

“Remember, thanks to Covid-19, a good portion of Biden’s 2020 campaign was virtual, so 2024 will be more taxing for the president. Besides putting him in fighting trim (or not), primary adversaries would prepare us for the all too real possibility that he’s incapacitated by a stroke, seriously injured in one of his frequent falls or another bike crash, or just dies one evening,” the commentary pointed out.

“It’s not impolite or unkind to plan for the sudden departure of any employee. If Kamala Harris had convinced the country that she could step into Biden’s shoes should he suddenly step out of them, the argument for a primary challenge wouldn’t be so urgent. But when was the last time somebody you trust told you Harris could easily fill those shoes, let alone sprint to the nomination if the hereafter called Biden home before November 2024?”

Shafer concluded, “Someone? Anyone? Even Beto O’Rourke or Amy Klobuchar or Cory Booker or Chris Murphy or Elizabeth Warren would suffice. Just any heavyweight under the age of 75 with the pugilistic skills to put the current champion through a hammering 12 rounds.”