Not a Joke, folks

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The last Democrat I voted for in a Presidential race was James Earl Carter. I thought he was a good man. He was probably too good of a man to be President. He was honest. He said what he thought and what he felt. He was respectful and thought other people were too, and the media ate him alive. It turned out that he would have made a better preacher, or history teacher, or maybe a lawyer like Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird instead of a President, but that was Jimmy. He was real, but he was just Jimmy, and they ate him alive, and that was back in the '70s when the world was supposed to be a kinder place. Now, we have Joe, or Joey, if you like. I never voted for him. I don’t necessarily think he’s a bad person, I just don't think he has any of the better qualities of a man like Jimmy Carter. They were both Democrats and the media ridiculed one and adores the other. How does that figure? They cover for Joe all the time. The emperor has no clothes, but the media falls in line. They make excuses and walk back his blunders. Joe loves to talk but when he's not sure of his facts, he doesn't let that stop him. He just makes it up as he goes along. I don’t think Joe really likes his job, and I think he doesn’t seem to have a clear idea about his own mind. He's ok in a crowd like the Senate, but he loses direction quickly when he's on his own. Joe’s main ambition is just to be cool. But it’s hard to be cool when you‘re 80. If you are having trouble remembering who you are or where you are or which group of voters you’re talking to in Vermont or New Hampshire or where the teleprompter is, you are going to be disappointed in your efforts to look cool. You want to know what else is really hard? It’s hard to be Jill. She looks like she is worn out all the time, and she hardly ever smiles when Joe is around. I understand. She’s afraid to clean up the house because she’s just not sure where the next classified documents might jump out at you. She gets nervous when Hunter plays video games on her laptop. I understand. I think everybody in the White House is nervous. I would be too. Just take a look at Joe’s aides when he goes unscripted in front of a crowd. They look like they’re in a spinning car waiting to hit the telephone pole.

This country believes in giving everybody a fair chance. But now we’re two years into the Biden era and things just don't seem to be working. The wiring of this country seems to be crackling and shorting out with faulty connections and fuses popping. The traditional standards and measures just don't seem to apply anymore, and too much of what you see just makes you say, "well. . , that doesn't seem right." From inflation to immigration, the answers we are getting from the press briefing room at the White House are pure deflection or purely unintelligible. I think everybody in Washington D. C. is drinking a lot more these days. Joe is in trouble. Between the war in Ukraine, inflation at home, classified documents everywhere, fentanyl in the streets and schools, the rising gas prices and green energy fiasco, rising interest rates, China teaming up with Russia, and the largest national debt ever, and on and on, the fantasy just keeps getting darker and darker. Goofs and gaffs might make for funny YouTubes at first, but we are now past that point. Past the point of looking the other way and just accepting repeated disasters of domestic and foreign policy and past the point of accepting the wrong turns from the true course this country has traveled that has kept us strong and safe. We are past all of that, and now in a dangerous place where our adversaries are watching closely and making judgements about how strong and stable or weak and shaky we may actually be. When Joe wants to sound decisive and emphatic he is fond of saying, "Look folks, and Not a Joke, folks". I hope he does that soon, and I hope he follows it up with some straight answers and some clearly thought out course corrections. This country needs to hear that.