Doesn’t it seem like we’ve been talking about age a lot lately?
Just last week, for example, 89-year-old California Senator Dianne Feinstein (finally) announced her plans to retire after her term expires next year. In her leaving remarks, DiFi, as she’s affectionately called by her fans (of which I am not one), said she was honored to serve for so long (she was first elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 1969 and then occupied the city’s Mayor’s office for nearly ten years from ’78 to ‘88) and sounded hesitant to leave. One can only guess the reasons why she hated to go?
Recall how Feinstein won a 1992 special election to fill Republican Senator Pete Wilson’s old seat and the pampered blueblood’s been haunting the halls and committee rooms of the Senate ever since, becoming California’s longest serving senator as of last year. (Note: You might also remember former Senator Barbara Boxer first won her seat in 1992 as well, and the two liberal Golden Staters anchored what was referred to as the “Year of the Woman”. The state had two Democrat senators for the first time in however long and triggered my resolve to abandon the place of my birth, having deemed it politically hopeless from then on out.)
There’s been much talk about how Feinstein, over the course of years, became so senile that she could not function any longer, leading to rampant speculation that she would voluntarily step away. Are Californians now ready for a Senator Adam Schiff?
At any rate, like our current president, Dianne Feinstein has swum with the liberal swamp elites for well over fifty years now and will soon take her place beside many a notorious liberal icon in the politics hall of shame. It takes a special breed of person to last a half century in any industry, but politics in particular spawns an inimitable kind of hanger-on who tests the limits of physical and mental endurance in order to stay in power – oops, I meant office!
Lots of folks say age is just a number, but when it comes to DiFi and her younger but still age-challenged pal senile president Joe Biden, that’s become a pretty darn big number. And though Father Time places no limits on the capabilities of many longevity champions, many other folks with big numbers aren’t so proficient at outrunning him.
Biden’s age is terrifying some senior Democrats, too. In a piece titled “Senior Democrats’ Private Take on Biden: He’s Too Old”, liberal gossiper Jonathan Martin wrote at Politico:
“High-level Democrats are rallying to President Biden’s reelection, not because they think it’s in the best interest of the country to have an 82-year-old start a second term but because they fear the potential alternative: the nomination of Kamala Harris and election of Donald Trump. Not that many of them will say it publicly, at least not that directly… “There was the senator who said few Democrats in the chamber want Biden to run again but that the party had to devise ‘an alignment of interest’ with the president to get him off the ‘narcotic’ of the office; there was the governor who mused about just how little campaigning Biden would be able to do; and there was the House member who, after saying that, of course, Democrats should renominate the president told me to turn off my phone and then demanded to know who else was out there and said Harris wasn’t an option.
“My favorite, though, was the Democratic lawmaker who recalled speaking to Jill Biden and, hoping to plant a seed about a one-term declaration of victory, told her how her husband should be celebrated for saving democracy. When I asked if I could use any of that on the record, the lawmaker shot back: ‘absolutely not.’”
Hmpf. It seems Democrats can say anything about the hair sniffin’ old geezer in private but always resort to spouting the party line in public. Judging by the eternally contentious political Republican world – and the genuine back-and-forth over electing a new Speaker last month – conservatives are freer to say whatever they think as long as it’s backed up with facts and precedents.
Democrats wouldn’t admit the sky is blue if they thought their denial meant winning a political prize. What a bunch of cowards.
As a result, in Democrat-land, it’s almost become a competition to see who can say the nicest things about Biden to the media audience but not mention anything about his mounting demographic pressures, his actuarial plague being the most stringent. Who wants to be the one making an appointment to see the old bumbler in the White House and then tell him he’s too dang old to even consider running again?
It's like that scene early on in Braveheart when someone had to stick a red-hot iron into the old Scottish warrior’s chest to dislodge an arrow head, but each successive appointee was petrified of the grumpy old man’s certain reaction (and physical retribution). “Here. You do it. I’ll hold him down.”
For Democrats and senile Joe, it’s more like, “Here. You do it. I’ll hold the office door while you run out.”
The latter half of Martin’s article lists the primary reason why Democrats are so reluctant to publicly call for Biden’s capitulation is because of Kamala Harris and the fact no one would dream of allowing the current number two to succeed senile Joe without a contested primary – which they’re terrified of initiating, with good reason.
These same Democrat office-holders also won’t go on record with their less-than-flattering opinions of Kamala’s bona fides, but again, privately, they blast her. All of that and Harris’s age isn’t even a factor in their considerations. Imagine the hypocrisy!
In reading the Democrats’ interview comments about Biden, it’s evident they buy into his spiel about being bulletproof in the electoral arena. They must not have delved deeply into the reasons why Biden ended up the official 2020 winner, which had nothing to do with the man’s skill on the stump, his platform, or his (lack of) personal charisma. They seem to enjoy the notion that Biden still wouldn’t be able to campaign much if he does run again – that’s okay, they’ll just let the media do all the destroying of the Republican nominee!
As would be expected, Democrats are itching for a Biden/Trump rematch, conveniently overlooking the fact that the old goat has brought the country to its knees through incompetence, outright corruption and neglect (in terms of law enforcement or policing the southern border). Sooner or later the American public will get beyond the question of who’s the nicer guy and vote for what he stands for.
Republicans are just as wary of openly criticizing Donald Trump, but few that I can think of – unless you count Liz Cheney as a Republican – are so bold as to savage his job performance. For conservatives, once you get past the mean and ill-timed Tweets and the unique-to-Trump personal snafus, there’s general agreement that Trump was the most effective president in a long, long time.
And Trump was unabashed in his advocacy for the Republican platform, including the social issues. Would they say the same things about George W. Bush? Or Mitch McConnell? Kevin McCarthy appears to be gaining support simply by being unafraid to put himself on the line, which is what the voters liked best about Trump.
Amidst all this Democrat public/private secrecy, it shouldn’t be forgotten that there are age issues in the Republican primary camp as well. Last week, new presidential candidate Nikki Haley made headlines by calling for a cognitive test for any politician above the age of 75. Gee, who do you think Haley was referring to?
The entire Democrat House leadership from the last Congress would’ve been subject to such an assessment – since they were all above 80 – as well as 81-year-old Republican senate leader Mitch McConnell (whose birthday was yesterday – Happy belated birthday, Mitch!) and, of course, former president Trump.
Would the constant Democrat reservations over Biden’s age be less fervent if the Delawarean weren’t so feeble and pathetic? As lots of folks have pointed out, there are many, many people of Biden’s age who present themselves as eminently capable and vigorous. But senile Joe doesn’t. He’s “only” 80 yet seems much, much older.
By their public silence but privately-expressed terror, Democrats must believe that Biden one, won’t be able to run a thorough campaign and two, he may not make it through a full second term (which would leave Harris in control of the party as well as the country).
The most depressing thing for Democrats regarding senile Joe Biden’s age and health is the realization that his condition will never get “better” and, with each passing day, the worries only intensify. Dianne Feinstein – and Kamala Harris – can be replaced, but will the liberal party be able to soldier on without Obama’s water carrier in the White House?
No wonder Joe’s age scares them to death.
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