Month: September 2023

From Greg Fallis:

I had to check with Wikipedia to see how old he is. He's 80. He'll turn 81 in November. That's pretty fucking old. Does it matter? Well, yeah, it kinda does. Does it matter enough to change how I'll vote? Nofuckingway.

Is he in good health? According to his doctors (and at least Uncle Joe has real doctors, not some fluffer in a white lab coat like Comrade Trump), he's "in good physical and mental shape relative to his years." That's…well, not entirely encouraging, but still somewhat comforting. I mean, the guy still rides a bike. That requires lower body strength, balance, hand-eye coordination, responsive reflexes, bilateral coordination, and postural strength. Sure, he's not going to make the Olympic cycling squad, but he can get on a bike and crank out a few miles. That's pretty damned good for an 80-year-old guy.

Okay, he's also fallen on his bike. But let's be honest about that. He fell when he was dismounting; caught his leg on the crossbar. Almost every person who's ever ridden a bicycle with a crossbar has done that. I'm younger than Uncle Joe and I ride a step-through bike because I've done that too often. I'm not as flexible as I used to be.

But the ability to ride (and successfully dismount) a bike doesn't directly translate to running the entire government of the United States. That take a certain amount of mental acuity and political savvy. Uncle Joe probably isn't as sharp as he was when he was Vice President, but he's still as politically savvy. He's accomplished a hell of a lot since he was elected, and he's done it without much drama (and without much public recognition). He's still got great political instincts. He still travels the world and gets stuff done.

But yeah, he's old. And he'll be even older when/if he's re-elected. But so what? It's stupid to compare Uncle Joe against some ideal Democratic candidate. We have to compare him to his opponent. Which is almost certainly going to be Comrade Donald Trump. The guy who thinks he 'aced' a mental acuity examination because he was able to repeat man, woman, person, camera, TV. The guy who needed two hands to drink from a bottle of water. The guy who saluted a North Korean general, wanted to buy Greenland, and thought it might be a good idea to nuke a hurricane.

Since we acknowledge that Uncle Joe is old, let's go ahead and say the 'unthinkable' thing we're all thinking about. What if he gets elected but then goes toes up before the end of his term? That would be bad. But hey, Kamala Harris is perfectly competent to take over. I mean, that's the whole reason to have a Vice-President, isn't it. I'd be happy and feel secure with President Harris running the government.

So yeah, once again, Joe Biden is old, but he's moderately fit and he's very politically astute, plus he's got Kamala insurance in case something unfortunate happens. Donald Trump, on the other hand, is a dumbfuck who…oh hell, dumbfuck ought to be enough. Seriously, the Democrats should run adverts saying Vote for the Old Guy; Don't Vote for the Dumbfuck.