Eddie Scarry of the Federalist ponders the media’s role in elevating Joe Biden to the presidency.
“Biden, At 79, Shows Signs Of Age And Aides Fret About His Image,” reads a headline on the front page of Sunday’s New York Times.
It’s a goofy article, one that reluctantly tries to tackle the president’s publicly deteriorating mental faculties while claiming he’s still more fit than either Presidents Ronald Reagan or Donald Trump (Republicans). At one point, the reporter even cites “experts” who “put Mr. Biden in a category of ‘super-agers’ who remain unusually fit as they advance in years.” But foolishness aside, there it sits: an article questioning Biden’s fitness for office on the front page of the Sunday Times. …
… Combined, the Sunday-Monday front-page punches make clear that the Times regrets putting the president in office as much as many of his voters do.
The difference, however, is that while the public voted for him, The New York Times, their media friends, and their allies in Democratic leadership are the real people who hoisted his presidency on our country. Together, they pushed him onto a disinterested Democratic base, papered over his mental decline, suppressed criticisms of his competence, and even actively censored credible accusations of his corruption. …
… While America’s elite presidential historians rushed to tell the public Biden was the second coming of Franklin Delano Roosevelt (and would “save the soul of America”), the reality is he’s not even Bill Clinton. Clinton was the kind of politician who could make a deal with a hostile Congress, survive a sexual affair with an intern less than half his age, and still reign as a kingmaker for decades after finishing his second term. In contrast, D.C. Democrats quietly worry Biden might not live through a second term.
So now they want to banish him and his distinctly unimpressive vice president, whom the voters (to their credit) left in last place during the Democratic primaries.
