Hold Your Nose

The Presidential election of 2020 will definitely be different.

On one side is President Trump. Think about how unthinkable those words were just five years ago.  I'm not saying that in a bad way. I don't think most of us could ever picture a scenario in which the brash New York developer would be elected, much less become the nominee of a major party.

I think it is fair to say that Trump has been unlike any President I know anything about and I have all twelve volumes of  American Heritage's Presidents And Famous Americans.

He's extraordinarily crude and rude. He's surprisingly inarticulate. He's incredibly thin-skinned, petulant, and you could say childish, but I don't know any kids who act like he does. He's the poster child for narcissism.

But, the guy is a workaholic and he seems to care if he keeps his promises. While their support for him has come at a great price, he's one of the few figures who seem to care about American Evangelical Christians.

I see this all the time. "How can Evangelicals support someone who is as spiritually problematic as Trump?"  Trump coming out in support of churches opening-up out of the pandemic is a good example.  If Wal Mart can be open, if Costco can be open, and if Home Depot can be open, then churches can be open.  We've got something called the FREE EXERCISE of Religion in this country and it is in the First Amendment, which the last time I checked was not negated by a disease.

In fact, before the pandemic, I thought Trump had a very good chance of being reelected.  Now, I think it is a coin toss.

Trump's opponent from the Democratic Party will be former Vice President Joe Biden.

I've said it before and I'll say it again.  Joe Biden was first elected to the Senate when I was in eighth grade. I am sixty years old.  That is a long time being on the American stage.

He's run for President twice before and was out of the running right before it even got started. President Obama put him on the ticket because even Obama couldn't put up with having Hillary Clinton around every day.

Biden is a throwback to the glad-handing, retail politician of the past. Another way of putting it is Biden is a hack.  He's a go-along to get along type of pol which explains why he has accepted, without much apparent thought the ideas of the progressive wing of the Democratic party.

However, he is not Trump and a lot of people have "Trump Fatigue".

He has one big problem and as he would say, his name is Joe Biden.

It is not simply that Joe Biden is too old to be President.  After all, he's only a few years older than Trump.

Biden is, at the very least, in the early stages of dementia. He is in cognitive decline.  I'm not saying this to be a ha-ha funny man or to be mean. He is not there all the time. It is as plain as day.

Take for example his interview with Charlamagne tha God. (It is interesting to note that the toughest interview a Democrat can have is not on NBC, CNN, etc.  No, it is one given by Charlamagne tha God).

Biden was combative to what he perceived to be a hostile question. The tone of his answer "You ain't black" was not sarcasm.  It sounded to me to be an angry old man. I might have cut him some slack if I hadn't heard him respond to questions for regular people in town halls the same way.

This is what makes Biden's Veep selection so critical. Have you ever heard of the 25th Amendment? Can you imagine Biden serving all four years as President?

So far, the names appearing on the "shortlist" does not inspire a lot of confidence. Biden made this goofy pledge to select a woman running mate. The shortlist supposedly includes:  a couple of opponents in the Democratic primary, a couple of unknown members of Congress, a couple of governors, and a former minority leader from the Georgia House of Representatives who is doing everything but putting up a billboard saying "Hey Joe, Pick Me!"

This will be another Inez Principle election   I named this principle after my mother because when I asked her who she was voting for in the Nixon-McGovern race, she said she was holding her nose and voting for Nixon.

I imagine a lot of people will be holding their nose and voting in November.

Good luck.