Biden Trips and Falls

W.J. Astore

Does it matter?

Yesterday, President Joe Biden tripped and fell at the Air Force Academy after handing diplomas to roughly 900 graduating cadets. He was helped to his feet by an Air Force officer and two Secret Service agents.

There. That seems straightforward. Biden tripped and fell, apparently not seeing a small sandbag in his path that was being used to weigh down a teleprompter stand. No big deal. We all stumble, bump into things, trip, and fall.

Why didn’t the Secret Service neutralize the sandbag that tripped our president?

So I have no idea why the New York Times described it like this: 

President Biden appeared to trip and fall to his knees after handing out diplomas to graduates at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs.

He “appeared to”? Why the hedging? He obviously tripped and fell. And he had some trouble getting back up. That’s OK. He’s 80 years old and has some arthritis. We shouldn’t be surprised that this happened, nor should we try to qualify it. “Appeared to” trip and fall—c’mon, man, as Biden might say.

What worries me much more about Biden is that he never holds press conferences and rarely speaks extemporaneously. Remember when presidents would hold televised press conferences and occasionally take challenging questions? These simply don’t happen anymore. Biden is kept isolated from the press, and when he does appear, the questions appear to be scripted, with Biden calling on reporters by name in pre-determined order.

Add to this the DNC’s policy that there will be no Democratic candidate debates in 2024, irrespective of how well rivals are polling, and it truly makes you wonder about Biden’s fitness for office. If he can’t handle a real unscripted press conference and can’t endure a 90-minute unscripted debate with rivals like Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Marianne Williamson, how can he possibly be well enough to serve as president, unless, of course, he’s merely a figurehead, pushed and shoved and propped up by those around him?

Even Hillary Clinton of all people has said that Biden’s age is a legitimate issue in the 2024 election. (Clinton said this, it seems, as a reminder to the DNC that she’s ready to run if Biden should stumble and fall in the primaries.) I don’t know what’s happening behind the scenes, but so far the DNC is standing by their man, no matter how much he has to be propped up.

Personally, I don’t want Biden to run again for many reasons, but one is most certainly his age. He deserves to walk away with some dignity intact. Another four years as president for Biden would likely kill him; charges of ageism aside, the physical and mental demands of the presidency are simply beyond most people in their eighties. That’s no knock on Joe; it’s just reality.

5 thoughts on “Biden Trips and Falls”

  2. From Brussels-based (and frequent visitor to Russia) international analyst Gilbert Doctorow:

    [begin quote]

    What is Ukraine doing in the town of Shebekino, Belgorod oblast and what consequences may we expect?

    Possible evolution of the conflict to total destruction of Kherson and annihilation of the Kiev regime

    Allow me to draw the attention of readers to the ongoing Ukrainian artillery attack on the border city of Shebekino in the RF oblast of Belgorod. This is not the sporadic shelling that the city of Donetsk has undergone over the course of years from fortified positions of the Ukrainian army that were put in place since 2014. No, it is an assault measured in hundreds of artillery shells during the past 24 hours as well as attempted armed incursions of Ukrainian fighters across the border. Several hundred residences and apartment buildings in Shebekino have been damaged or destroyed in the past several days.

    Children have now been evacuated to further points in the oblast and in neighboring Voronezh oblast if not further still, where they are being put up in summer camp facilities. Adults are now being moved out as well from the entire border region of which the town of Shebekino, with its population of 39,000 is a part. Those who can are leaving in their own vehicles. Others are being moved by emergency workers.

    The intensity of the attack on Shebekino is made possible by its proximity to the Kharkov oblast of Ukraine, which is under Kiev’s control. And that is front and center in the thinking of Russian decision makers as they consider what to do next. This is the territory that Kiev retook in its famous offensive of September 2022.

    The widely watched host of Sixty Minutes, Olga Skabeyeva, this afternoon on live television called for notifying residents of Kharkov to leave their homes and not look back, because Russian forces will flatten the city and its surroundings to the ground. Meanwhile experts on the same program are repeating the call by Dmitry Medvedev yesterday for the annihilation of the “terrorist government” in Kiev.

    Let there be no confusion here. The Ukrainian attack on Shebekino, a purely civilian town with no military value whatsoever, IS the long awaited Ukrainian “counter offensive.” It is the action of a spent military force which cannot engage the Russian armed forces on the field of battle. [emphasis added] Evidence on Russian television suggests that day by day their advance west from newly conquered Bakhmut/Artyomovsk is proceeding relentlessly. The entire line in Donbas is pushing back the Ukrainian forces, which have not brought into play their much touted Western tanks and other top supplies, since they would be destroyed for lack of air cover and for lack of the munitions that the Russians have been systematically eliminating through missile strikes on weapons caches over the past several weeks.

    Meanwhile, the Russian Talking Heads are paying close attention to President Biden’s fall on the podium yesterday during an awards event. They find it utterly shocking that this senile creature called Joe holds the fate of the world in his unsteady hands. [emphasis added]

    ©Gilbert Doctorow, 2023

    [end quote]

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  3. “charges of ageism aside, the physical and mental demands of the presidency are simply beyond most people in their eighties.”

    I am in my 80’s and in excellent physical and mental shape according to my physician. Even so, I agree with the above remark. I would say that maybe 72 is the upper limit to run given the potential of serving two terms.

    There are two reasons for my saying this. First, the obvious one of age-related limitations. Secondly, once one reaches about 70, the world begins to pass one by and one is out of touch with the majority of the population. As a result, one is making decisions in terms of a world that no longer exists as such for most people.

    However, there is a larger issue involved that is not age-related and that is competence. In my view, most people in positions of power are not qualified to meet the responsibilities. What I see is an elite that cannot think beyond the next move on the chessboard. This is not only the US but also the UK and EU, and NATO as well. Biden is just a symptom of that.

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