If Joe Biden is unfit to run for president, how can he be fit to continue serving as president?
The New York Times wants Biden to end his campaign.
But the job of being president is more demanding than running for re-election, by far.
Anyone who thinks Biden’s infirmity means he ought to drop out should be calling for his immediate resignation.
Biden’s term doesn’t expire until late January 2025 — more than six months from now.
The president was at times unable even to complete his sentences in last week’s debate.
According to the Times: “The president’s performance cannot be written off as a bad night or blamed on a supposed cold, because it affirmed concerns that have been mounting for months or even years. Even when Mr. Biden tried to lay out his policy proposals, he stumbled.”
In such a condition, can Biden lead the country for another half-year?
What to know about the fallout from President Biden’s debate performance:
The crisis brought on by his public implosion isn’t just political, although that’s how it’s being treated by many who wish he’d make way for a different Democratic nominee.
This is a national and international emergency: Biden has neither the stamina nor the cogency to fulfill the duties of his office.
He couldn’t sustain his attention for 90 minutes in the debate, which only made obvious to every American what White House staff and campaign insiders have known all along.
Foreign leaders, too, have witnessed Biden’s decline with their own eyes.
Biden’s condition cost him the debate — what has it cost the country?
Polls show more than 60% of voters believe the nation is on the wrong track.
After 2½ years, the president hasn’t been able to map a path to victory in Ukraine, where the situation has only deteriorated as his capacity has diminished.
The conflagration in the Holy Land is on the brink of erupting, as Iran vows to go to any length to support Hezbollah against a wider Israeli anti-terrorist campaign.
What are these wars going to look like six months from now — will their escalation wait on our election calendar?
Governments are changing in Europe, with tremendous implications for our Western alliances, while China continues to probe its neighbors’ defenses, and ours, in East Asia.
This isn’t a world that can abide a part-time American president, or a senile one.
Joe Biden is stubborn, and he may not even comprehend the dangers he’s courting.
His enablers — there’s no gentler word for them — need him to stay in office so they can cling to power; indeed, the less capable the president is, the more powerful they are.
Out of pure self-interest, however, many Democrats have reached the limits of their patience with the charade.
A Biden defeat in November would be one thing — a humiliation would be another, potentially crippling the party’s congressional hopes and prospects for state races in 2026 and beyond.
Yet the same self-interest that has some Democrats ready to jettison Biden from their presidential ticket also leads them to want to prolong his presidency.
If Biden resigns, Kamala Harris becomes commander-in-chief — and the Democrats’ presumptive nominee for November.
Too many in her own party doubt Harris’s ability to perform at the ballot box any better than Biden, even in his debilitated state.
But that’s politics.
Whatever her weaknesses as a candidate, Harris’ job as vice president is to succeed Biden in the event of his death or incapacity — and his incapacity was exposed on live television.
Political scientists say presidential elections are referendums on the party in power.
If that’s true, Democrats will have to answer for Biden’s record even if he’s not on the ticket.
They’ll also have to answer for something else:
From Watergate on, the lesson of many a major scandal has been “it’s not just the crime, it’s the cover-up.”
Top Democrats, aided by too much of the media, covered up Biden’s incapability.
For the good of the country, the president should resign — and so should everyone who enabled this fraud on the voting public.
Daniel McCarthy is the editor of Modern Age: A Conservative Review and editor-at-large of The American Conservative.
