In 2021, while ascending the stairs to Air Force One, President Biden stumbled.
We all trip/slip/stumble once in a while. No big deal! But since he descended to the next level, this was a fall. He continued and immediately stumbled again. In a hurry? Not wanting to look weak? But instead of stopping/slowing down out of caution, he stumbled a third time. Biden is not a stupid man, but this was dumb behavior. Which makes me worry not so much about his cognitive abilities or his physical limitations, but about his psychology, namely his bullheadedness. ‘Perseverance’ is the nice word for stubbornness. And it cannot rule all of one’s actions. He stumbled/fell other times since then. So when a new video appeared recently sans stumbles, we are supposed to think stumbles were just incidents in his past?
Episodes of physical problems (vertigo or ocular migraine, for example) are not like episodes of a TV show, which are usually scheduled and discrete. That first episode of vertigo will freak one out. But maybe it was a fluke: only time will tell. A second episode happening a year later affects someone much differently than it happening a week later or if it occurs while driving. I’m 79 and my legs are starting to go. I haven’t fallen (yet) but when I do, I’ll try not to do it again immediately. Anyone’s knee can buckle once in a while, but if that becomes chronic, caution is needed. Bullheadedness is not beneficial here.
I watched the debate for 10/15 minutes and turned it off. Biden’s vacant look reminded me of the friends with Alzheimer’s disease or the friend dying of lewy body dementia. My partner dying of a glioblastoma had more animation in her face than Biden. He looked like he hadn’t slept in days or was having severe side effects from some drug treatment or who knows (a cold?!). I wondered why his aides let him go on stage at all. Or did he not listen and thought he could just gut it out?
FDR, the greatest president in my lifetime (in a league of his own) had polio. But that infirmity was concealed from the general public. Biden has been just OK as a president. He can run on his accomplishments. We have more transparency now, but the stakes are higher and the next stumble could be catastrophic.
So I do not know if Biden should withdraw or not. But I do not trust him to make that decision on his own. He has sounded cavalier about losing while doing his best. I’ll vote for anyone who can defeat Trump, because Trump’s win will be the end of our democracy. And I worry about what could happen to Biden between now and November. And no one can predict what will happen in the 4 years after that. Pick a good VP! (Kamala is just fine with me.)
