Long before the latest charges against Hunter Biden, the Biden name had become for many a literal punchline.
Each passing week brings more and more Democrats or left-leaning journalists openly bemoaning that President Joe Biden will be their nominee for 2024. Left-leaning editor and Biden fan Harold Meyerson has a piece out titled “Are Democrats Sleepwalking to Disaster?” The main premise is that “Biden is the candidate least able to defeat Donald Trump” and that “other Democrats need to enter the race.”
That concern is added to those from others who are worried about the president’s advanced age or his alleged cognitive issues, which now regularly produce “Biden’s Senior Moment of the Week” video clips.
While I may disagree with President Biden on a host of issues, he is still my president. More than that, he is a human being with feelings. As those clips now surface with more frequency, I choose not to watch them, as they do make me hurt for Biden the human being. Others, unfortunately, revel in them.
Beyond the partisan bloodlust, we come to the legal.
Law professor Jonathan Turley wrote a column for The Hill titled “With Hunter’s indictment, Democrats face a moment of maddening truth.” That “truth” being that the blanket of corruption has seemingly — and alarmingly — settled over the Biden White House. As Turley writes, “According to recent polling, nearly 70 percent of voters (and 40 percent of Democrats) believe that Biden has acted unlawfully or unethically or both.”
Those are Nixon-like numbers of perceived corruption.
The acclaimed law expert further states: “It is now clear that Biden lied when he maintained as a candidate, and later as president, that he had no knowledge of his son’s business dealings with foreign interests … It is also now clear that he lied in denying that his son never made money in China. The indictment confirms massive transfers from Chinese sources.”
Beyond President Biden and his son Hunter, other members of the Biden family are now regularly being dragged into the webs of corruption or influence peddling. At what point does someone with influence within the Biden family cry “uncle” to save the president and the family further embarrassment?
As we accelerate toward election day 2024, it’s becoming clear that there is only one person in the country who might be able to dissuade President Biden from seeking a second term. That person being his wife, Jill Biden.
Critics can say what they want about President Biden and his family, but it certainly seems as if the president and the first lady have a strong and loving marriage. Each truly seems very protective of the other.
I have long believed that spouses and children of presidents should be off-limits, unless they choose to directly insert themselves into the debate — past first lady Hillary Clinton being a prime example, as some saw her as a partisan who self-elected herself “co-president.”
In terms of Machiavellian politics, Jill Biden is far removed from Hillary Clinton. While she for sure has her beliefs — and has freely expressed them — for many, on both sides of the political divide, she comes across as a dignified and classy first lady.
And, more importantly, one who does seem to have her husband’s best interests at heart. This creates possibly the most important political question of the election: To protect her husband and the greater Biden name, will the first lady quietly but insistently intercede to convince President Biden that it is in his best interests — and that of their family — not to run for reelection?
Literally every single Republican or conservative I know is hoping and praying that President Biden is the Democratic nominee in 2024. There’s a reason for that.
Likewise, every single Democrat I know is hoping that Biden steps aside and gives his approval to the Democratic National Committee to open the process so Vice President Kamala Harris, California Gov. Gavin Newsom and others can battle it out for the 2024 nomination.
As of now, it appears that only one person in the country can make those Democratic hopes become a reality: first lady Jill Biden.
Douglas MacKinnon, a political and communications consultant, was a writer in the White House for Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush, and former special assistant for policy and communications at the Pentagon during the last three years of the Bush administration.