The first official presidential debate of 2024 was held on June 27, and the reactions are fascinating.

Joseph Robinette Biden, who has held offices in the Newcastle County Council, the United States Senate, and the White House for the past 54 years, was clearly as close to incapacitated as one can imagine for a person currently holding public office.

Biden frequently mumbled, often appeared not to know where he was or what the questions concerned (despite it being public knowledge that he had been given the questions in advance), even needed to be guided on and off the debate stage.

This has embarrassed the politicians and pundits of the Left, with some exhibiting horror that he could be in such bad shape, and amazement that it was displayed for the world to see.

Such reactions indicate an acknowledgement of this thoroughly shameful situation, and a recognition that it reflects badly on their party, their supporters, and the nation, for anyone to see him like this.

While the Right has been talking about this issue for years, this is the first time that most such voices of the Left have done anything but deny the fact of Biden’s incapacity.

Here’s the fascinating part: a presidential debate is about politics, not about governance.  They are embarrassed by his performance as a political candidate, in the partisan political setting of a campaign debate.  Why weren’t they this embarrassed by such performances when he was performing the role of America’s head of state?

To all these voices in the media and the political class who are now suddenly saying that the DNC needs to somehow dump him from the ticket and find someone else, America has questions about these past four years.

They weren’t embarrassed when he lost focus in public meetings honoring veterans or mourning military losses, wandering off in the middle of the event, leaving the honorees and attendees insulted. Why?

They weren’t embarrassed when he gave speeches, recounting the life stories of others as if they were his own, as a fabulist imagining histories that could easily be fact-checked and disproven in real time, again and again. Why?

They weren’t embarrassed when he sniffed the hair of a prime minister or literally bumped heads with a pope.

They weren’t embarrassed when he had “bathroom malfunctions” on stage in the middle of speeches and meetings with foreign heads of state.

They weren’t embarrassed when he spouted insulting gaffes to his own constituents, shouting such insults as “I don’t work for you!”, and “They should learn to code!” whenever his policies attacked a business, a profession, or a state.

They weren’t embarrassed when he fell asleep in the middle of cabinet meetings, state events, even one-on-one press conferences with other world leaders.

But most importantly, they weren’t embarrassed when mountains of undeniable evidence proved his criminality -- and the criminality of his family -- in a pay-for-play pattern that has been going on for decades.

And they weren’t embarrassed when he appointed incompetents, criminals and freaks to be cabinet secretaries and department heads, ranging from an airport kleptomaniac in drag to a man wearing a plastic nursing chest prosthesis for imitation breastfeeding. 

And they weren’t embarrassed when his policies caused record deficits, unprecedented inflation, a collapse in the American standard of living, a flood of illegal aliens, a lethal crime wave, and the destruction of our standing as a net exporter of energy.

None of this has embarrassed them about Joseph Biden.  These are the things that matter -- to our nation’s standing in the world at large, to the security of our allies, to the peace and prosperity of our people at home.

And none of it is new; none of it has changed since January 20, 2021 when he first usurped the office of the presidency.

But the Left is embarrassed now. Today, they recognize a crisis, because they now see that their own hands on the reins of power are in jeopardy.

Much was revealed about Joe Biden in this debate.

But much more was revealed about his party in its aftermath.

John F. Di Leo is a Chicagoland-based international transportation manager, trade compliance trainer, and speaker.  A one-time Milwaukee County Republican Party chairman, he has been writing a regular column for Illinois Review since 2009.  Read his book on vote fraud (The Tales of Little Pavel) and his political satires on the current administration (Evening Soup with Basement Joe, Volumes I, II, and III).

Image: Gage Skidmore via Wikipedia