RUTHFULLY YOURS

Once Joe Biden emerges from his basement bunker as the presumptive Democrat party presidential nominee by default, he’s expected to name his vice presidential running mate.  He’s promised to choose a woman but has provided no clue as to whom he will tap to carry his water for the next six months.  One thing is for certain: she will be tasked to defend and run interference for a man exhibiting serious mental decline issues, a man who has been accused of sexual impropriety by a former female Senate staffer, and a man whose checkered career in politics is guaranteed to be fodder for President Trump.

Prior to the nationwide COVID-19 lockdown and before sequestering himself in his Delaware home, Joe Biden’s questionable behavior in public was already raising eyebrows.  Multiple incidents plagued his performance on the campaign trail, ranging from sudden bouts of anger and insulting audience members at campaign rallies to licking his wife’s fingers while she spoke at a campaign event.  His oftentimes awkward television interviews, coupled with an obvious inability to string together a coherent sentence, has left even the most casual observer wondering what’s wrong with Joe.

In 1988, Mr. Biden survived not one, but two brain aneurysm surgeries.  In August 2019, his surgeon, Paul Kassel, claimed there was no negative effect on his mental capability or agility.  Dr. Kassel added,  “He is every bit as sharp as he was 31 years ago.  I haven’t seen any change.  I can tell you with absolute certainty that he had no brain damage, either from the hemorrhage or from the operations that he had.  There was no damage.”  Mr. Biden’s daily podcasts from his basement over the past seven weeks indicate otherwise.  His incoherent episodes will most likely continue once he returns to the campaign trail.  Whatever mental health issue is plaguing Joe Biden, his running mate will find herself in an untenable position, deflecting questions about Mr. Biden’s state of health while denying there’s any problem.

It’s just not Mr. Biden’s inability to articulate his thoughts coherently; allegations of sexual impropriety made by a former Senate office staffer have surfaced despite the liberal media’s herculean efforts to suppress and ignore the accusations.  In unison and in order to shield the Democrat candidate by not applying the same “believe all women” standards, established during the Senate confirmation fiasco for Justice Brett Kavanaugh, the media standard-bearers simply refused to acknowledge Ms. Reade’s story — right up until they couldn’t anymore.  Mr. Biden also finally acquiesced, agreeing to an interview on the MSNBC’s Morning Joe show.  Notably, co-host Mika Brzezinski pulled up her big girl pants and, using her most serious voice, questioned Mr. Biden about the allegations.  As expected, the former vice president vehemently denied Ms. Reade’s accusations; however, social media reviews of the early-morning interview are a mixed bag.

No doubt, Mr. Biden’s campaign will continue to field questions about the 1993 incident, with his running mate caught up in the maelstrom.  Regardless of whether the yet to be named Democrat V.P. nominee thinks all women should be believed, it will her job to defend Mr. Biden and reject any possibility that Tara Reade might be telling the truth.  But that’s not all she’ll have to defend.

Joe Biden has spent nearly all of his adult life in politics since he was first elected at the age of 28 to the New Castle County Council in 1970.  Two short years later, he ran for the Delaware Senate seat against Republican incumbent J. Caleb Boggs.  He won by a little more than 3,000 votes and was then re-elected to the U.S. Senate five more times before Barack Obama tapped him to be his vice president in 2009.  His personal and political life has been peppered with tragedy and controversy; from the death of his first wife and daughter in an automobile accident to allegations of plagiarizing a speech, which abruptly ended his 1988 presidential campaign bid.  In recent years, his touchy-feely, “hands-on” notoriety has earned him the moniker Groper Joe.  With more frequency than not, Biden appears confused and is markedly unable to express himself coherently.

Will his running mate be able to effectively quell the questions about Joe’s mental decline, counter his gaffes and goofy behavior, and assure Democrat voters that the adults are in charge?