Editorial: No ordinary Joe and Kamala

Photo By Dmytro Muravskiy/Ukrainian Defense Ministry

Column By Mike Bibb

“Ukraine is a country in Europe.  It exists next to another country called Russia.  Russia is a bigger country.  Russia decided to invade a smaller country called Ukraine, so basically, that’s wrong.”

Kamala Harris, Vice President of the United States, March 1, 2022

A perfect explanation.  Even Paw Patrol or Ms. Wennston’s 2nd-grade class understood the seriousness of the situation.  Russia, bad.  Ukraine, good.

I’ll admit, I’m not the sharpest knife in the drawer; don’t have a prestigious college degree from some Ivy League university; my parents were not Blue Bloods from the Northeast; a substantial financial inheritance is out of the question; no aunts and uncles are connected to anyone remotely resembling a Washington politician or bureaucrat, and my “fair share” of the national debt is probably about $12,000,000.

Maybe more, depending upon the current rate of inflation and how many billions of dollars our government has borrowed today.  It’s kinda hard to keep track of exactly how much I owe when the amount is going up faster than a gallon of gas.

Thankfully, I’m fortunate to have a president who has figured out if we buy more foreign oil from Russia, and pump less of our own, then Putin can partially finance his Ukrainian border dispute with U.S. dollars. 

Oh sure, like Vlad we have a few border problems of our own.  The drug cartels are constantly causing disturbances along our two-thousand-mile southern boundary, and millions of foreign migrants come across whenever they please.   That’s just normal nowadays, and no one in Washington seems overly alarmed.  

Look on the bright side.  At least our supply of fentanyl isn’t being delivered in armored tanks – yet.

It makes perfect sense.  Joe Biden’s 50 years in Washington is finally paying off.  After multiple decades of shuffling from the Amtrack depot to his D.C. Senate office, he now shuffles from Marine One across the grass to the White House.  

He was only #2 under President Obama.  As #1, the nuclear “football” accompanies him where ever he goes, and he can finally kick his shoes up on the Oval Office desk, ask Kamala if she’d like to be in charge of something really important – she already knows Russia borders Ukraine – and call Jill to remind her that since there isn’t much going on in the world today, he’ll be home earlier than usual. 

First, he has to be briefed on some kind of commotion going on in Eastern Europe, then attend another one of those ridiculous press conferences, but that won’t take long.  One or two questions by reporters will be sufficient to guarantee Joe’s continual descent into the opinion poll’s abyss will not be in jeopardy of suddenly reversing.

Lucky for me, these are just a few of the problems I don’t have to fret over.  There are hundreds of others – some big, some small, some not worth mentioning.  Stuff happens every day in one form or another.  I can’t be expected to keep track of all of it.

Besides, retired truck drivers aren’t that smart.  

That’s CNN’s job.  They’ll tell me what I need to know.  If I don’t need to know, they won’t tell me.  Simple news for us more simple folks.

To keep things in check, I have the right to vote for whoever assures me they can do a better job. There are usually several candidates involved in every race, so choosing the right one is not an easy thing to do.  Especially, when each office-seeker is wagging fingers at the others, insisting they’re too inexperienced, corrupt, or stupid to handle the task.  Maybe all three.

Actually, I’m not sure if a politician’s experience, honesty, or IQ really matters.  Doesn’t seem to.

What’s a confused voter to do? 

How about joining a political party and letting the party bosses sort it out?  After they’ve made the selections at their state and national caucuses, and the primary elections have reduced the number of candidates to one, two, or three per office – we can vote again in the general election to select our favorite.

Although our favorite might not have survived the primary cut, we still have the option of selecting our second or third least favorite choice.  Where else in the world can a person cast a ballot for a candidate they detest only slightly less than the others? 

If that aspirant doesn’t win, too bad.  Maybe the voting results can be challenged in court.  Either way, the whole thing is a messy process, and still ends up with winners and losers. 

That’s Democracy.  Apparently, participation trophies are not normally handed out at these events.  

However, I never imagined we’d end up having a president who has been a career office-holder nearly his entire adult life; had the good fortune to continue to receive a government paycheck and benefits for half a century – through good economic times and bad; was a mediocre member of Congress with few meaningful legislative accomplishments; avoided military service, even during the Vietnam draft era, and,  finally, campaigned for the presidency without hardly leaving his house and, somehow, won with a “No Malarky” theme.

Then, he picked as his VP an individual who performed poorly in the 2020 Democratic Presidential Primaries before dropping out early due to a lack of support.

Now, he wants to “Build Back Better” by printing and randomly handing out billions of dollars in free money at the same time inflation is increasing; manufacturing production and distribution are reeling from supply-chain disruptions; our southern border is a total mess, and another war in Europe is brewing.

In spite of these problems, climate change remains near the top of Joe’s to-do list.  As if electric vehicles, Chinese-made solar panels, and wind generators will get our country back on the right track.   

In actuality, Joe has little “real world” experience or knowledge to draw upon, other than what he’s gleaned from inside the Washington beltway or his advisors and speechwriters have prepared.    

Consequently, it comes as no surprise his presidency has been considerably less than stellar.  A formerly sympathetic press now seems hesitant to endorse many of his proposals.  Moderate Democrats are shying away, realizing ultra-liberal schemes are not in their best reelection interests. 

With COVID hysteria on the wane and Trump no longer around to blame, Joe’s forced to face reality – his blunders and bloopers are his own making.  He can stop insisting Fox News, conservative podcasts, and “white supremacists” are responsible for an administration that is tanking faster than Jimmy Carter’s.  

Or, as he’s fond of saying “Come on, man.  You know that ain’t right.” 

Mr. President, contrary to what you may have heard, “denial” is not a river in Egypt.

The opinions expressed in this editorial are those of the author.