So: that’s the shock and the spectacle. What’s the suspense?
The suspense is of course all on the other side, the side where the Democratic Party dwells. Will Joe Biden run for a second term in November, or won’t he? Will he even see out his first term?
The Twenty-Fifth Amendment, ratified February 1967; Section 4, quote:
Whenever the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive departments or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall immediately assume the powers and duties of the office as Acting President.
So to remove Joe Biden from his ”powers and duties,” a majority of his cabinet must tell Congress, in writing, that he’s too ga-ga to go on. Then Cacklin’ Kamala becomes Acting President.
Is that likely to happen? A week ago I would have said not, no way. Then on Wednesday we got the news that Biden had tested positive for COVID. Isn’t it kind of fishy that that came out just when all the news outlets were full of the dazzle and enthusiasm of the GOP Convention?
Could Joe, or whoever is handling Joe, be setting up an excuse for Joe’s cabinet to do a Section 4 on him? I’m just wondering.
Here’s a story from my own family.
My mother was a dedicated full-time professional nurse in the small provincial town we lived in. Across thirty years she’d worked all the hospitals, knew all the doctors and senior nursing staff.
My Dad was a cigarette smoker. Now, in the early 1970s, that was starting to be a no-no for older people. Dad was stubborn, though, and wouldn’t quit.
Then he got a cough. Mum persuaded him somehow to go get a chest X-ray. The doctor who looked at it said there was a shadow on the lung, possibly malignant. Dad should quit smoking. So he quit.
My sister and I suspected that Mum had had a quiet word with the doctor before he issued his report. We knew from her medical stories that such things happened often enough. She would never admit it, though. Dad stayed a nonsmoker, died ten years later from pneumonia.
Hey, it’s just a family story. Would White House medics behave like that? If they hate Trump badly enough—and some of these D.C. types really really hate Trump—and they believe that he’s sure to defeat Joe in November … I guess they might, just from misguided patriotism. I’m only speculating.
Whatever: the negativity is mounting. Quote from the New York Post today, Friday, quote:
But sources close to Biden said they weren’t so sure—even after a torrent of reports Wednesday indicating that both [former House Speaker Nancy] Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer had privately warned Biden that polling shows he could lose in a landslide, while Biden campaign co-chair Jeffrey Katzenberg reportedly warned that donor funds were drying up.
‘F–king stubborn’ Biden may refuse to go despite exit speculation as Pelosi joins mutiny: insiders
Biden insiders say ‘f-ing stubborn ‘ prez may refuse to go despite weekend exit speculation as Pelosi joins mutiny https://t.co/JYr9UfeRsZ pic.twitter.com/J6Z5wnupwY
— New York Post (@nypost) July 18, 2024
Concerning Joe Biden’s intentions, condition, and prospects, as best I can judge nobody outside the inner chambers of our federal government has any idea, any idea at all.
