Where’s Presidentish Joe Biden when you need him most?
Scratch that. Poor wording on Insanity Wrap’s part. No one has ever needed Biden, except as the occasional hatchet-man for bad Democratic projects like the 1994 crime bill and poisoning the well for judicial confirmations.
But you know what we mean: The country, we’re obliged to at least stipulate, needs a president. And Biden is AWOL.
Welcome, one and all, to a special “One of Our Presidents Is Missing” special edition of Insanity Wrap.
Shall we begin?
Something’s Not Right
I served as White House physician under THREE Presidents. I’ve seen what it takes physically AND mentally to do the job. I can tell you right now that the way Biden is hiding from the public is a MAJOR red flag. Something’s not right!
— Ronny Jackson (@RonnyJacksonTX) March 21, 2021
Insanity Wrap has been detailing Biden’s apparent decline for over a year, once it became undeniable during the Democratic primaries that the then 77-year-old had lost a step or two.
And it isn’t just us.
That tweet is from former White House physician (and retired US Navy Rear Admiral and current Texas Congresscritter) Ronny Jackson.
All the News That’s Unfit for the NYT to Print
A Detailed and Disturbing Overview: Joe Biden Looks Seriously Unwell
In his inaugural column for RedState, Andrew Malcolm has performed the Herculean task of assembling all the public evidence that “something is very wrong with Joe Biden — mentally, medically, strategically — or all three.”
Needless to say, Andrew has written a lengthy and data-rich piece.
But the juiciest detail might be the one most everyone missed from President Porchlight’s kinda-sorta press appearance on “Good Morning America” with Clinton apparatchik George Stephanopoulos:
You saw much media attention last week on Biden’s exclusive network interview with a handpicked former Bill Clinton aide. It was taped Wednesday but not broadcast until Thursday. What you likely missed in the avalanche of adulation was a tiny italic note on ABC’s transcript — “Edited for Clarity.”
Emphasis added. But did Insanity Wrap really need to?
That GMA softball interview conducted by a Dem hack was supposed to serve as Biden’s warmup for that real presser that his people swear up and down is going to happen any day now.
Even so, GMA had to edit for clarity.
Not for length. Not to fit in a commercial break halfway through.
But for clarity.
It’s clear to Insanity Wrap — and it ought to be clear to you, gentle reader — that the presidentish is not up to much presidenting.
If any.
But Wait, There’s Less!
Biden’s firing squad stands in a circle
Insanity Wrap probably doesn’t have to remind you that the Executive Branch is a massive apparatus, completely contrary to the design of the Founders.
Without a firm hand from the White House — preferably the President’s own — there’s going to be chaos as various factions fight for control.
Nowhere is the chaos worse than in foreign policy.
PJ Media contributor David Goldman writes for the Asia Times:
Washington is angry at Germany for building a natural gas pipeline with Russia, at India for purchasing a Russian air defense system, at Russia for mistreatment of President Putin’s opponents and at China for treatment of its Uighur Muslim minority.
None of Washington’s recent threats is consistent with identifiable policy objectives. On the contrary, recent outbursts from Biden and his cabinet will cement a Sino-Russian alliance against the US, undermine US efforts to rebuild relations with European allies and damage US efforts to create a “Quad” alliance against China in the Pacific.
And:
Visiting India last week, Lloyd Austin, “the guy who runs that outfit over there” in Biden’s description, warned India not to go through with its planned purchase of Russia’s S400 air defense system, to “avoid any kind of acquisitions that would trigger sanctions.”
According to news reports, Austin is the US secretary of defense. India is supposed to anchor the “Quad,” a four-way alliance among the US, Japan, Australia and India to contain China’s ambitions in the Pacific. Threatening one’s prospective allies with sanctions is not the conventional way in which alliances are built.
Insanity Wrap has written for years on the Pacific/Indian Ocean theater. Our conclusion — hardly original — was that as Communist China’s strength and territorial ambitions both grow, China’s neighbors would move toward the U.S. as naturally as iron filings to a magnet.
The U.S. is a distant superpower with no designs on India, Vietnam, Australia, etc. China is a local superpower bent on domination.
It would take, Insanity Wrap concluded back then, a concerted effort on our part to screw up an alliance based on containing Communist China’s ambitions.
Enter President Porchlight.
Or as Biden’s old boss, Barack Obama, once said: “Don’t underestimate Joe’s ability to f*** things up.”
This brings us to the Middle East…
Previously On Insanity Wrap: Journalism Wasn’t Murdered, It Committed Suicide
Thank You, Sir, May I Have Another?
Biden Torpedoes Abraham Accords Summit
President Trump was able to dramatically reduce our footprint in the Middle East for two reasons: Backing Israel and a true peace process with her Arab neighbors, and fracking.
Insanity Wrap told you during the campaign that Biden would go to war against fracking, or as we like to think of it: The War on Energy Independence.
Without fracking, our national security focus returns to the Middle East…
…where President Porchlight’s team of third-rate Obama holdovers are determined to prove he really does have the ability to f*** anything up.
Isn’t peace in the Middle East the collective dream of the Beltway policy establishment, left and right? Trump, love or hate him, got Bahrain, Morocco, and Sudan as well as the UAE to normalize relations with Israel, the first peace agreements with the Jewish state since Jordan signed in 1994—and Biden said he wanted to build on the Abraham Accords. But as it turns out, “peace” has a very particular meaning for American policymakers. For the Middle East hands in the Biden administration, what matters most is completing the project many of these Obama alumni helped initiate while serving under Biden’s former boss—realignment with Iran.
Trump spent four years setting Iran’s mullah regime back on its heels. The result was a preference cascade for peace between Israel and the Arab world, and reduced Iranian influence throughout the region.
This is Nobel Peace Prize-worth stuff, but our absent president is allowing his Obama holdovers to undo it all.
Just to try and redeem their former boss.
Insanity Wrap says this is the most shameful foreign policy act since the Democratic Congress refused to allow President Ford to fulfill our treaty commitments to South Vietnam when the North broke the peace treaty and invaded.
That was the end of South Vietnam.
Now we may bear witness to the end of a fragile Middle East peace.
The Best Possible Spin
What explains Biden’s chameleon-like transformation?
Michael Barone has an explanation for what happened to the once kinda-sorta moderate from Delaware:
In the 1990s, the local terrain changed. Affluent suburbs in the Northeast and Midwest trended Democratic, and so did Delaware. Starting in 2000, it has averaged 57% Democratic in presidential races, 7% above the national average. Roth lost that year, and Delaware is now rated safe Democratic.
That left Biden with no worries about reelection and more in sync with a Senate Democratic caucus that, in my observation, over the last 20 years, has been more cohesive and like-minded than Senate Republicans.
Then, in 2008, Biden was elected vice president and, installed in the West Wing and the VP’s residence for the next eight years, less exposed to nonliberal opinions, even as the Democratic administration and party became more lockstep liberal.
By the 2020 campaign cycle, he was taken to voicing woke opinions, suggesting that perhaps this family man has been influenced by woke, young family members.
It’s a good explanation, but Insanity Wrap isn’t buying it.
Ronald Reagan — who was usually kind to other politicians in his personal diary — wrote privately of Biden: “Smooth but pure demagogue.”
Biden was never anything but a mouthpiece for whatever was convenient to Biden’s career and wealth.
Now that there’s less Biden there than ever, he’s a mouthpiece for whichever one of his coteries is, at any given moment, holding the strings.
There’s No There There
There is No Biden Administration
Insanity Wrap will allow Daniel Greenfield to provide today’s conclusion:
Biden’s face is everywhere, but there’s no real sign that he’s actually running anything. Instead the Biden administration seems to be exactly the kind of mess that the 25th Amendment was designed to prevent in which a non-functional president is the figurehead for the cabinet members and the special interests who are actually calling all the shots.
The Potemkin village that is the Biden administration was built in two tiers with establishment cabinet members who appear more moderate presented for Senate approval while extremists were being placed in key positions to set policy on everything from civil rights to Iran.
Insanity Wrap would wager that the only reason Biden hasn’t been 25th’d out of office is that he’s still able, if only just barely, to put a friendly, moderate face on a radical progressive agenda.
President Kamala Harris, God forbid, could never wear that mask.
One More Thing…
The absolute kindest thing one could say about Presidentish Joe Biden is that this meme isn’t true.
The truth is: Our missing president has Insanity Wrap making all our Bloody Mary’s doubles.
That’s a Wrap for today.
Come back tomorrow for another Insanity Wrap…
…assuming we make it that long.
Before You Go: Insanity Wrap is just one of the many regular features on PJ Media, in addition to Stephen Kruiser’s Morning Briefing, and hot-off-the-presses news and columns from Paula Bolyard, Megan Fox, Stacey Lennox, Matt Margolis, Tyler O’Neil, Victoria Taft, and more. But did you know our VIP supporters get all that plus exclusive members-only features, podcasts, and live video chats with your favorite writers? All without ads? And without any social media censorship? You can join the cause right here.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member