Joe Biden is old enough to know better. Donald Trump’s victory is on him

President Joe Biden is not too old to know what he has done.

However infirm he may be with age, he must know that he should have just retired after a good period.

The Democrats could then have chosen someone in the usual way of primaries.

Perhaps Josh Shapiro, the governor of Pennsylvania, would have been a candidate.

Maybe it would have been Gretchen Whitmer, the governor of Michigan. Indeed, the result could have been the first female president.

Whoever it was, he or she would have been the party’s choice.

And the duly elected candidate would have been in a better position than Vice President Kamala Harris was to call Donald Trump a threat to democracy.

Kamala Harris and US President Joe Biden
Biden’s refusal to concede in time for a contest gave Trump a sword a shield, a man defying democracy in 2020 who could point to his opponent being elected without a vote.

The candidate would also have been required to defend what Biden had and had not done, particularly regarding the southern border.

One thing Trump was right about was that Harris had become the Democratic nominee without a single vote.

Because much else Trump said was dangerously false.

But he’s going to the White House anyway.

He will once again be our commander-in-chief, and he now reclaims the mantle after talking about using the military to secure the southern border, quell domestic protests and fight crime in our cities.

Among the troops he will lead are three young soldiers who manned an information desk outside the US Army Force Recruiting Station in Times Square last week.

They had American flags on the right shoulder of their fatigues and name tags on the chest. Ahmed said she is from Ethiopia. Yilmaz is from Turkey. Stupuris is from Lithuania.

Soldiers in Times Square
Three young soldiers seen in New York City’s Times Square – Ahmed from Ethiopia, Stupuris from Lithuania and Yilmaz from Turkey – want a new commander in chief.

“What’s wonderful to me about the United States is that all nations, all cultures, like you can find every culture, every race in here, and people are united here,” Stupuris said. “That I just love it. That’s what’s beautiful to me about the United States.”

He said he is 20 and enlisted on March 11, 2024. He had graduated from high school and had taken some college and then decided he was going into the military.

Democratic presidential candidate U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris is embraced by U.S. President Joe Biden during a campaign event at IBEW Local Union #5 on September 2, 2024 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
There should be no comforting Biden in Harris’ defeat: His actions brought us here.

“I’ll admit it, I didn’t come along to serve the United States first,” he said. “But after I got my uniform, after training, after I met people who say thank you for your service, now it turns into me actually wanting to serve this country, because how great is that.”

He stood clear-eyed at the recruiting station where America famously celebrated its victory in World War II. He said he hopes to become a Green Beret and seemed like exactly the kind of person we want to defend ourselves.

But thanks to Biden, we will now have a commander in chief who talks about sending troops against what he calls the enemy within. And Biden is 81.

That doesn’t absolve him.

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