By Bill JuneauThere are at least three good reasons why Joe Biden cannot weasel out of debating President Trump where his mental agility and that of the incumbent will be on display for citizens to watch and judge. Debates are traditional, and Americans want them and expect them.
Reason One is that Biden himself is on record guaranteeing that he'll be there. "I can hardly wait to compare my cognitive capability to the cognitive capability of the man I am running against,.....Just watch me," Biden has said.
The personal commitment and word of the challenger seeking to take over the highest and most prestigious office in the United States, in fact in the entire world, is a sacred pledge not to be discarded like an old hat. His 40 years as a U.S. Senator and another eight as vice president must have taught him that his word is revealing of his character.
Presently, there exists a huge question in the minds of Americans whether the former Vice President may have slipped mentally and become incapable of handling the job. The suspicion is based upon his often befuddled demeanor and frequently inane and foolish comments. Likewise, his refusal to campaign as a Presidential candidate raises doubts in some voters' minds about whether he is hiding something.
Currently, the 77-year-old Biden remains hunkered down in the basement of his Delaware home declining interviews and eschewing news conferences with questions from aggressive reporters. His main activity and way of campaigning is by sending out statements (prepared for him) and making commercials blaming the President for causing problems for the country.
A few days ago, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, an octogenarian clearly fighting a bad hangover or a denture problem, admonished the former vice president that he should not debate as his appearance would have the effect of "legitimizing a conversation with Trump."
Joe Lockhart, a former Bill Clinton press secretary, said that Biden should skip Presidential debates because of Trump's track record of lying. "Whatever you do, don't debate Trump," he wrote in an OpEd page column.
When it comes to lying, "Slow" Joe Biden has been a pro at the job, and Lockhart and all of Washington is well aware of that. In addition to having been a frequent plagiarizer who kept getting caught, he has boasted of his days at law school at the University of Delaware which he attended on an "academic" scholarship, finishing high in his class.
Biden has acknowledged that he had been fudging after fact checkers discovered that he finished near the bottom of his class, 76 out of 85; and that his "academic" scholarship was actually a piece of financial aid given him because of his contention that he was penniless. One classmate remembered him as the "dumbest s.o.b. in the class." The Washington Post has called Biden the "Lamborghini of Gaffes" as a kind way of assessing his disingenuous behavior.
According to Lockhart's logic, two liars should cancel each other out and the debate should go ahead.
A few weeks ago, a CBS reporter managed to connect with Biden by way of a virtual hook up. Biden jumped all over him when asked if he intended to take a mental test like one President Trump had taken and passed. Biden said he would let the public decide at the debates if he had the mental fitness. "Why the hell would I take a test—that's like saying you (reporter) should take a cocaine test before going on the air. "C'mon man, I am tested every day, and I am perfectly willing to have the public judge my mental fitness."
"Lets scrap the debates" ran a headline in the New York Times' Opinion Page on which only opinions consistent with positions taken by the Times are permitted. CNN and NBC pundits also are commenting that debates are not necessary, even superfluous. Nothing surprising there since the media has become an arm of the Democratic National Committee, and has abandoned all journalistic ethics when it comes to politics.
But with all that Democrat scrambling to keep the authentic "Slow Joe" in his basement bunker, the debates have been scheduled by the Presidential Commission on Debates, and that is Reason Two that canceling is highly unlikely. The debates are scheduled for Sept. 29, Oct. 15 and Oct. 22.
Jen O'Malley Dillon, Biden's campaign manager, committed to that schedule in a letter of agreement to the Commission. Trump advisers are asking that the debates begin sooner and that there be a fourth and a fifth debate, but Biden's people would be unlikely to agree to extra showcasing of the authentic Biden.
Reason Three why the debates will not be stopped and will proceed as scheduled is that Biden's wife, Dr. Jill, has said that her husband of 44 years will debate. "Joe will be there," asserted Mrs. Biden in a July interview with Fox News' Dana Perino.
It's sort of unscripted law in American folklore that when a wife speaks, her word is gospel, and when the wife is a "doctor" well, in Biden terminology, "That's it man...period.".
Mrs. Biden, 67, is the recipient of an "EdD" degree in 2007 from the University of Delaware. Her field is education.
Bill Juneau worked for 25 years as a reporter and night city editor at the Chicago Tribune. Subsequently he became a partner in a law firm and also served as a village prosecutor and as a consultant to the Cook County Circuit Court and to the Cook County Medical Examiner. He is currently writing columns and the 'Florida Bill' blog.
Free Press International
