OPINION:
President Biden is not the first president propped up by staffers when their boss’s failing health compromised his abilities — when he was no longer capable of doing his job. President Franklin Roosevelt is blamed for mistakes made by staffers after his health failed in his final years as commander in chief.
In Woodrow Wilson’s final year as president after he suffered a major stroke, historians now agree that Wilson’s wife made major policy decisions her husband was incapable of making.
As I’m sure you’ve observed, some senior presidential aides see themselves as the author of most of what their boss does and regard him as a necessary pain in the backside anyway, so they may not regard his deterioration as the serious problem you and others working with you do. But others had to have been troubled about the possible consequences of assisting in a cover-up. It must be the same today.
Assume for a minute that you are a junior- or middle-level functionary in the White House who interacts with President Biden often enough to realize that his cognitive abilities and awareness are slipping. You have spent months or even years as a loyal supporter ready to fight any criticism of him. But now, you are beginning to realize the country you love is in the hands of a chief executive incapable of doing the job you help elect him to do.
You are almost certainly a partisan believer in the superiority of your president’s policies over those of the intra-party contenders he beat to win your party’s nomination, and without question, anything anyone from the other party might offer.
You may have worked on Capitol Hill and know the difference between a functional and dysfunctional elected official. The House and Senate include many fully capable men and women of both parties with whom it is a pleasure to work. They also include people who don’t know when to leave and are no longer capable of doing their jobs.
Regardless of party, voters elect a president not just because of his record, but because voters sensed in him an ability to handle challenges that no one could have predicted when they cast their ballots. A president cannot be a “potted plant,” but a leader who can make major decisions in real time.
Your family and friends in Washington and back home sleep better at night believing that the world is a better and certainly a safer place because you and your boss are on the job.
But Wilson didn’t run for reelection, and Roosevelt died before he could.
As President Biden seeks reelection, you must be wondering how his doing so can be good for him, the party he heads or, ultimately, the country we all care about. You’re part of his team and can no doubt repeat the talking points favoring him marching into battle one last time. He’s not really in bad shape at all. He’s better than any of the alternatives in either party. His agenda and yours are more important than anything else and justify working to reelect him regardless of any doubts you might harbor.
But as you turn out the lights in your office and head home, how do you dispel the doubts and the niggling feeling you are participating in an effort to reelect a president incapable of providing the judgment and leadership that may be needed to protect the nation’s very survival?
I’ve been there. I came to Washington in 1970 to work in the Nixon White House for then-Vice President Spiro Agnew. I was part of the team assembled to defend my boss and his boss as Watergate and associated investigations blew up around us. I did my job then as you are doing yours now, but even then, I lost more than a few nights’ sleep wondering if fighting to keep a damaged and increasingly weakened presidency was good for the country.
Finally, President Richard Nixon, as loath to give up the power of the office he held as anyone else, decided to surrender the presidency and retreat to San Clemente. Prolonging the inevitable was bad for the country, and he knew it. Eventually, he decided to do what he had to. It was sad for those of us who had worked to defend him, but most of us were relieved.
Maybe at some point, your president will realize that like it or not, he can no longer provide the leadership needed by a great nation and retire to Delaware. If he does, I bet it’ll be a relief.
• David Keene is editor-at-large at The Washington Times.
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