OPINION:
President Harry Truman had a sign on his desk that read “The Buck Stops Here.” Truman was nominated to the vice presidency in 1944 to unite the Democratic Party.
On April 12, 1945, Truman was in the chambers of House Speaker Sam Rayburn when a call from the White House summoned him. After just 83 days of being vice president, he was now president.
When Truman arrived at the White House and met with Eleanor Roosevelt, he asked if there was anything he could do for her. She replied that he was the one who needed all the help he could get.
The war was in a particularly savage state, as Allied forces were closing in on Nazi Germany, and the Battle of Okinawa — the bloodiest Pacific battle of World War II — was raging. As events unfolded, Truman would have to make decisions about the use of the atomic bomb to defeat Japan.
Truman acquitted himself in the eyes of history with the Marshall Plan, the formation of NATO and the genesis of the Civil Rights Movement.
Now, in the remaining days of the Biden administration, it is clear to the citizens and the world at large what has long been known to insiders: President Biden is so cognitively disabled, the vice president should take over immediately.
Unlike Truman, who had fewer than three months as vice president under his belt when he assumed the role of commander in chief, Vice President Kamala Harris has been in the inner ring of the presidency for nearly four years. She should have the knowledge to carry out the duties of the presidency, if only for the last month of this current administration.
In short, the buck stops with her.
MIKE McADOO
San Francisco
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