Were Joe Biden and Donald Trump the best the nation had to offer last year? Were you, like many voters, \u201cdespondent that in a country of three hundred forty million people, (we) had to choose between these two men\u201d?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Perhaps you are pleased with results of last November\u2019s election, perhaps you are not. Regardless of level of satisfaction, perhaps we can agree that the two major political parties left us hung out on dilemma of deception: one candidate, now the occupant of the Oval Office, for whom truth seems secondary to advantage; and the other, his predecessor, who promised to be a one-term president and then, when hubris erased that promise, tried to hide the toll aging had exacted from him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cOriginal Sin,\u201d a solid piece of reporting clearly told, tracks the decline of Joe Biden from the end of his vice-presidency in 2017, when he was still a sharp septuagenarian, albeit one prone to spoken gaffes and other verbal malarkey, to July 21, 2024, when, as an octogenarian enfeebled by a stiffening body and softening mind, the latter displayed for all to see during a disastrous debate with Donald Trump, he shut down his campaign for a second term and tossed the keys to the Democrats\u2019 future \u2013 and the country\u2019s \u2013 to Kamala Harris.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The book \u2013 developed from more than 200 interviews \u2013 is a damning indictment. Biden\u2019s vainglorious (and delusional) belief that only he could defeat Trump is the least of the culprits. Enmeshed in a web of complicity, willful ignorance, and the primal motive of career politicians \u2013 self-preservation \u2013 the guilty abettors include Biden\u2019s family, his campaign team, and elected Democrats of all stripes. They blinded themselves to Biden\u2019s stumbles, deafened their ears to his mumbles, and held themselves mute even as Biden\u2019s fall hastened Trump\u2019s rise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The narrative is rich with anecdotes \u2013 Biden not recognizing actor George Clooney at a Hollywood fundraiser, the distress of staffers watching Biden freeze gape-mouthed during the debate \u2013 but the larger message that may or may not be of service to nation is that Biden\u2019s deception deepens the mistrust most of the populace has of politicians.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cOne of the great lessons from 2024,\u201d said former Obama campaign manager David Plouffe, is that \u201cnever again can we as a party suggest to people that what they\u2019re seeing is not true.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If \u201cOriginal Sin\u201d contains a durable wisdom, it is rooted in this observation by the authors: \u201c\u2026 the Constitution isn\u2019t necessarily about optimal requirements (for the presidency). It\u2019s about minimum requirements. The US Constitution does not require politicians to be self-aware, or brave, or selfless.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It is up to us, then \u2013 we, the people \u2013 to impose such a requirement.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
If it\u2019s possible in these inflammatory times to ponder a question about American politics without igniting an inferno of accusation, contempt, and derision, then this is my query: Were Joe Biden and Donald Trump the best the nation had to … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[784],"tags":[944,770,943,941,942],"class_list":["post-2390","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books","tag-alex-thompson","tag-book-review","tag-jake-tapper","tag-nonfiction","tag-original-sin"],"yoast_head":"\nBookshelf - Original Sin, Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson - Tim Porter's Second Draft<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Were Joe Biden and Donald Trump the best the nation had to offer last year? 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