Where's Joe Biden?

Crises arise. It’s in the very nature of things. Within an organization the worse the crisis the more you will crane your neck to follow the leader. In a crisis leaders get a chance to take charge. If they seem to have a firm grasp of the situation, others down the hierarchy will manifest a similar degree of confidence.

They will understand, at times without having to say so, that the situation is under control, firmly in someone’s hand. If the leader chooses not to lead, then everyone lower down feels that he is on his own.

Chaos will reign.

I have said much of the way that Ron DeSantis led Florida through Hurricane Ian. Surely, his firm hand, his command of his brief, told the people of Florida that he was in charge and that he would lead them through the storm. Which is what happened. Nowadays more and more Americans are looking for just such leadership for America. Not a bad idea, overall.

In time of trouble a leader has only one obligation-- to be the steady hand steering the ship of state. If an airplane goes down in the Pacific, the CEO will be out front; he will make manifest his responsibility for the accident and for the cleanup. He will not call in and say that he had already scheduled a vacation. 

In itself, that form of dereliction is unworthy of anyone who even wants to pretend to be in charge.

Unless his name is Joe Biden. We all know now that Biden is an empty suit. We all know that he does not have the cognitive capacity to provide leadership in time of trouble. After all, no matter how incompetent he is, the press will cover for him.

At a time when he should have been manning the battle stations, Biden was in St. Croix, on the beach. Why? Because Dr. Jill likes the beach. Our tough, aviator-wearing president is completely whipped, as the saying goes.

Better yet, the people President hired to man and to woman his cabinet are a motley crew of complete incompetents. After all, Biden hired a small city mayor who could not deal with potholes in his city to run the transportation department. 

That Pete Buttigieg has consistently  been AWOL during times of crisis-- think the supply chain backups, the invasion across our Southern border, the Southwest Airline implosion-- preferring to shift the blame to corporate incompetence or even malfeasance or climate change, tells you all you need to know about how the rot at the top infiltrates the rest of the system. 

Again, with the Biden presidency, the impression we glean is that no one is really in charge. It is, as they say, the optics. No one thinks that Joe Biden was going to ride to the rescue. But I doubt that too many observers thought that senile Joe would continue with his vacation plans.

It is the first lesson in any management course. The leader takes charge. He coordinates the efforts of others. He sets priorities. He becomes the public face of the operation. He instills confidence in others, making them feel like they are part of a larger coordinated effort. 

In today’s America, regrettably, our culture rot makes it that 

Biden does not have to lead. 

Newsweek gave him plaudits for taking a vacation while the country seemed to be imploding. CNN pronounced him a great success-- what with the massive crime wave in blue cities, with the chaos on the border, with the breakdown of the transportation system. 

So, the media that ought to hold leaders to account has failed its primary task. It no longer reports news; it spins propaganda, especially the kind that makes Democrats look good and Republicans look bad.

Such are the wages of hate. The American left has become so consumed with its hatred of  certain president that it reflexively cheers any politician who represents the contrary. The Biden policy agenda is simply the opposite of what President Trump had proposed. That the Trump approach seemed to be working while the Biden approach is failing-- the media will never forgive Donald Trump for the indignity.