2023-09-23 14:21:00
ELECTIONS/USA – At 80 years old, the oldest president in the history of the United States is seeking a second term. If re-elected, Joe Biden could celebrate his 86th birthday after leaving the White House. If he wishes “finish the job” as his campaign slogan promises, his state of health is worrying. The man makes multiple hiccups, searches for his way, stammers, pronounces incomprehensible sentences, falls… A fragility which does not escape American public opinion, including within the Democratic ranks. And a controversy is growing: weakened to this point, is the leader of the world’s leading power under supervision?
Visibly tested during his last public outings, Joe Biden is far too old to run in the American presidential election. This disrespectful speech could only be made by his political opponents, as a very divisive electoral deadline approaches. It is not so.
Biden “overwhelmed”
In fact, according to a survey Associated Press – Norcdated August 14, 2023, three-quarters of Americans (77%) think that Joe Biden is now “too old” to return to the head of the country. Among them, 26% consider it as “exceeds”. And 15% see it as “lent”, “confused” et “clumsy”. In short, 41% express strong reservations about the question of their age.
For comparison, his probable future presidential rival, aged 77, is far from being a youngster. But only 2% of those surveyed consider Donald Trump to be in decline. The one who danced to the song YMCA of the Village People during the 2020 US presidential campaign, maintains the image of a more dynamic man. An important advantage, even if the Republican is also considered by 23% of respondents from all political stripes as “corrupt” or “dishonest”.
77% of Democrats announce that they are still ready to renew their vote in favor of the current president. However, another AP-North poll, from February 2023, is worrying: barely 37% of Democrats want to see Biden run again. A figure which is also on the decline. Having announced his desire to run for a second term last April, Biden did not keep his promise expressed in March 2020 to be “a bridge, nothing else“towards “a whole generation of leaders” for “the future of this country”.
Under surveillance
All of Biden’s movements are now watched, all of his missteps analyzed, often accompanied by the First Lady. Mocked by his detractors without further ado, his sometimes erratic behavior worries his electorate, who could become demobilized.
On September 10, as part of a tour of Asia, Biden visited Vietnam. His performance at a press conference in Hanoi was cut short. The man doesn’t know if it’s morning or “The evening”… Lost, without filter, he questions the journalists in front of him. When he is asked a question on the subject of global warming, he tries to answer, evoking an (imaginary?) John Wayne film and “an Indian scout”.
The American president searches for words, stammers and ends up saying a phrase that has already become cult: “He’s a lying dog-headed pony soldier.”. Facetious observers have tried to find the origin of Biden’s quote in the cinematic register of the Western. Without success.
JOE BIDEN: “The Indian looks at John Wayne and points to the Union soldier and says, ‘He’s a lying, dog-faced pony soldier!’ Well there’s a lot of lying, dog-faced pony soldiers out there about global warming..”
— ALX ???????? (@alx) September 10, 2023
Finally, Biden declares that he wants… to go “to go to bed”. The microphone is cut off. White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre abruptly announces to the audience that the press conference is over. A surreal jazz tune smooth then accompanies the laborious exit of Joe Biden.
Chutes
This is not the first time that the president has shown signs of great fatigue or clumsiness. In June 2022, he fell on his bike in front of the cameras, during a ride in his Delaware stronghold. The video goes viral. A year later, he tripped over electrical wires on the floor of a graduation podium at theAir Force Academy. With all his weight, Biden collapses on the ground. The examples are numerous. The Fox News channel, fiercely opposed to the Democratic camp, even took the liberty of carrying out an irreverent compilation of the president’s falls.
A fall can happen to anyone. But as in Hanoi, Joe Biden regularly shows signs of memory loss, even cognitive disorders. He loses his way, doesn’t know what to say. This may appear worrying for those who hold the power of nuclear fire. And on social networks, his political detractors never miss an opportunity to remind him, by quoting the risky words of the person concerned.
BIDEN: “The idea that I have absolute authority as commander-in-chief and the sole authority to use a nuclear weapon…” pic.twitter.com/6WYxXFgrxF
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) April 26, 2023
His performance as head of state is regularly called into question. Studying his diary reveals long weekends, which are repeated. At the time of the disaster on the island of Maui in Hawaii, the latter did not immediately interrupt his vacation in Nevada, he delayed in traveling to meet the victims.
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To face all these criticisms, during a press conference with his Korean counterpart Yoon Suk Yeol, Biden declared that he “feel good”. He wants to appear determined against the “danger” what Trump represents in his eyes.
After all, he has recently increased his travels: G20 summit in India, stopover in Vietnam, after participating in the September 11 commemorations… Who would not be tested by such a program? However, isn’t that what is being asked of the president of a nation of 330 million inhabitants, the world’s leading power?
This is not the first time in history that a head of state of this importance has experienced health problems. Brezhnev, during the USSR, suffered from atherosclerosis and was considered senile before his death. Despite the Kremlin’s efforts to maintain the secrecy of his state of health, foreign observers noted his impossibility to lead the country.
In a very different context in the United States, Roosevelt remained in a perilous situation for four terms. Thin and exhausted, he died in office and subsequently inspired a reform to limit the number of mandates.
“Deep State”
A man close to breaking point – but who is not stepping aside to let the institutions take control and reshuffle the cards democratically – has some questioning who really holds the reins of power.
On September 21, Vivek Ramaswamy, one of the Republican candidates in the 2024 presidential election primary, did not hesitate to point the finger in a disturbing way “the Deep State”. Or a parallel hierarchy, a hidden group which secretly holds power.
“I want to say something about Biden and why I don’t talk about him much on the campaign trail: I don’t think he’s the one who runs the country”pense Ramaswamy. “I think he is a puppet for the ruling class of the administrative state”he adds, bluntly.
Take Biden out of the game?
On September 14, the journalist (very close to Republican circles) Miranda Devine of New York Postgoes even further on the social network “Discard” of the aging Biden.
From @20committee It’s common knowledge in spook circles that Ignatius has long served as an unofficial CIA spokesman. When he opines on intelligence matters, as he frequently does, it’s “the seventh floor,” doing the talking. They want Biden gone
— Miranda Devine (@mirandadevine) September 14, 2023
His argument? The position taken by one of his colleagues, David Ignatius (very close to democratic circles), a columnist at Washington Post. In a column published on September 12, he declared that “the president should not run in 2024”, after, however, having flatteringly praised his record.
What Miranda Devine analyzes as a Deep State “plan”, attributing David Ignatius to CIA ties, could only be a Democrat’s realization that Biden’s age is a severe obstacle to his re-election.
As for knowing “who is in charge?”, the evolution of contemporary politics did not wait for the concept of the deep state to see the emergence of spin doctors, lobbyists of all kinds, intelligence agencies, military power and its industry, the impact of Big Pharma, etc. So many more or less opaque administrative entities or private interests increasingly influential in public decision-making.
In 2020, the constitution of the close administration of the Biden-Harris tandem, for example, gave a glimpse of its desire to go to war: which was verified with the war in Ukraine. Joe Biden is surrounded and thus advised to the point of wondering if, today, his presidential function is not slipping towards an honorary and symbolic representation.
A political offer claims to be an alternative to this observation. She is played by a younger candidate, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., aged 69. For the moment, this is not unanimous within the Democratic Party. Can the situation change? Increasingly, Americans are realizing the captain’s problematic age. Perhaps tomorrow they will ask themselves the question of where the boat is going.
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