When my mother entered her eighties, she began experiencing recurring health problems. These included spells of fainting, frequent falls and resulting fractures. Fortunately, she was on good terms with our local emergency services due to her regular attendance at their crab based charity events.
Each time an event occurred, my brothers, sisters and I would bend over backwards to bring her home from whichever medical facility she had been admitted to. During one incident in 2003, I attempted to persuade a doctor in the casualty department to discharge her after an 11 hour wait.
The doctor responded, “I’ll allow her discharge if she can correctly tell me the identity of the current president. We both turned to my mother in anticipation.
“George,” were her first words. I was over the moon; she had correctly remembered President George W. Bush. Then she added, “Washington,” bringing me back down.
Following each episode, I would proudly inform her GP, Dr Simon, of how we had taken care of her and helped her recover. Eventually, exhausted, he said, “You’re missing the point. Your mother is metaphorically hanging from a cliff edge, gripping on with five fingers. After each incident, that number diminishes. You imagine you are starting anew each time, but it’s accumulative.”
My mother was a tenacious woman and held on, initially with just two fingers, then one, until she reached the ripe old age of 97. We administered morphine towards the end, washed down with a shot of bourbon.
I’m aware that people in their eighties and nineties can maintain their sharpness. My mother remained witty and mentally agile well into her nineties. However, I also understand that they begin slowly losing parts of their own narrative, causing distress for them and those who love them.
Eventually, the elderly reach that metaphorical ledge. As Dr Simon taught me, each calamity weathered only leads to another one waiting on the horizon.
President Joe Biden now has the task to show that he can hang on without a fall, without bringing down the House, Senate and the democracy along with him.
Following a disappointing performance in a debate, Biden attempted to hit the reset button – initially with an appearance on ABC with George Stephanopoulos, then holding a press conference on Thursday night, and finally, an interview with Lester Holt on NBC come Monday. He’s committed to tailoring his schedule to permit more rest, yet continues a frenzied travel itinerary around the nation and globally as a testament to his vigor.
His strenuous efforts to demonstrate both physical and mental capability evoke melancholy. Every misstep or blunder is now interpreted as a potential political calamity. Last Friday, as documented by The New York Times’ Annie Karni, Biden contested this narrative in a conversation with the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, specifically to Rep. Mike Levin, a precarious California Democrat who suggested Biden step aside.
Biden’s response was a commitment to remain in the public eye, allowing citizens to engage with him, and challenge him. He asserted his awareness of his role, despite it seeming somewhat pathetic that a president has to demonstrate his cognisance in such ways.
It is a critical juncture for Biden who ought to be receiving praise for his accomplishments and becoming the father figure of his party. Yet, his team is oddly criticising other influential Democrats, such as Barack Obama and George Clooney. The Biden officials are imploring journalists to refrain from scrutinising the president and instead emphasise the flaws of Donald Trump.
Biden’s latest political approach involves disparaging elites, a tactic that appears incoherent. Criticising elites is futile when you are the president and harbour deep respect for them. The media elites on “Morning Joe” seem to be unofficially functioning as his campaign managers and PR.
Rather than highlighting Trump as a severe threat during his Thursday press conference, he spent that hour proving his mental stability, boasting about the accolades from elites – from historians to Nobel winning economists.
The internal workings of the White House are often compared to that of a submarine; an entity struggling to comprehend the nation’s state of affairs despite being the core of national governance.
During a media briefing, the skipper of the submarine broke into a bizarre hush, declaring that unless his team asserted that his triumph was impossible he would stay in the competition. He emphasised that there was no indication of his predicted loss – neither from his allies nor any public poll.
The Democratic party, including Biden’s partners and a few of his aides, express significant concern over his soaring unpopularity, defections from his congressional and donor support group. Encountering a bigger challenge due to declining polls even in certain democratic states and battleground states, Biden seems to be struggling with limited funds and endurance.
Compounded by sheer ignorance or refusal to accept the status of his campaign, he seems to draw some solace from his wife Jill and son Hunter’s self-serving delusions. It is high time Jill regained her sanity to save her spouse from the impending embarrassment. She should revisit her stand, as in 2004, where she vividly displayed her disapproval of a possible presidential endeavor.
Flashback to an instance from their house at Wilmington, Delaware, when Joe was being persuaded by his advisors to join the race, Jill enters the room clad in a halter top. Written across her tummy was the word ‘No.’ This indirect indication did not go unnoticed, and Joe immediately got the hint.
Currently, Biden’s clinging on to power seems increasingly shaky.
Indeed, one cannot outpace the ticking clock.
The New York Times originally published this article – Saturday, July 13th.
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