BY HARRY PINCUS |
Poor Old Joe
I like you… So
it’s really sad
That it’s time to go
Just like Willie
When he dropped that fly ball
or Muhammad Ali
When Father Time came to call
Every Champion who enters the ring
Must fall.
There is no shame
In walking away from the flame
When the Torch must be passed
To a new Champion, from the last
A fire is raging across our land
And the hourglass is losing sand
Shall we respond with a resigned sigh
In a fight for our lives
Against the Big Lie?
You’re a good man, Joe
So you know.
Pincus is an award-winning artist and longtime Soho resident.
I know Steve Stollman as a friend for forty years, and he’s two weeks older than Joe Biden. I actually gauge my opinion of Biden by uising Steve as template, because when I talk to him on the phone, he sounds exactly as he did forty years ago.
If you compare the Biden who debated with Trump last week to the Biden who debated in 2012 and 2020, Poor Old Joe is not the same person. I’m disheartened to see it, but having a weakened and failing leader is dangerous.
I’m reminded of Hitler’s ascension to power after an 86-year-old von Hindenburg failed to stop him.
Or if age doesn’t matter, why not comporoimise and nominate Jimmy Carter! May G-d Bless him!
The profiteering that many comopanies embraced under the cover of Covid has inflated prices in a way that cannot be combatted. The supply chain crisis is long gone but the price raises continue. Add Trump’s greed factor and you have the only issue that the Republicans can muster to undermine good old Joe. Still, if you watched that debate you were horrified. If he was your lawyer he’d be disbarred. If he was driving your cab you would get out at the next red light. Ignoring something so apparent is surely dangerous. Surprisingly, KAMALA IS AHEAD OF HIM IN THE POLLS AND SHE IS SOBER AND SANE AND NOT SUFFERING FROM THE OBVIOUS INFIRMITIES NOW PART OF JOE’S CONDITION.
When tapes of the worst moments of his debate performance are replayed endlessly in Republican commercials, the public will be frightened to vote for Mr. Biden. Imagine your own worst moment being immortalized this way.
Unfortunately we are screwed unless we are able to anoint a younger candidate and push them over the line.
More alarmist cries from apparent Dems detractors of old Joe who must have very limited life experience to be so “horrified” by old Joe’s debate performance. I’m more revolted by how spineless these wussies are by failing to back one of the best presidents in my lifetime.
More overwrought reaction to Biden’s debate performance. I have to wonder about Steve Stollman’s life experience if he was “horrified” by old Joe’s senior moments. Personally, I’m just revolted by the pack of spineless wussies putting down one of the best presidents of my lifetime.
President Biden will be 82 years old on November 20, 2024, which means that he will be an 86-year-old president at the end of a second term.
If Biden is incapacitated, we will not have Kamala, we will have uncertainty and chaos, assuming that the president clings to power, as he is doing right now. One might argue that he was incapacitated at the time of his debate with Donald Trump, and he himself says that he felt ill, exhausted, but we did not have Kamala, we had uncertainty and chaos.
Donald Trump butters his toast with chaos.
What does Harry Pincus mean by referring to an 86-year-old president? Who is that? That won’t quite be Biden’s age when he finally finishes his term, right? I think that we should stick with Biden because it’s too late to get somebody else who could build up an electorate to support him. If Biden is incapacitated, we’ll have Kamala.
Trump is so insane he’s really incapacitating himself. You can lie only for so long. Pretty soon he won’t know what he’s saying.
I am (was) a Biden supporter but let’s not fall into the RBG syndrome and support someone who no longer is able to to the job just because that person wishes to continue on.
We can’t risk it!!!!!
Joe, please retire!
Respectfully
Gary Tomei
He has been doing his job well for more than 3.5 years and continues to do so despite one bad night. Biden has been an amazing president and doesn’t deserve to be dumped because he fumbled some lines and looked confused at times in a debate with a convicted felon. Whatever happened to loyalty? Dems don’t seem to have much that or even a semblance of fairness.
Bravo, Harry!!!
Right now neither choice is good. If Trump gets in he will be in revenge mode and that revenge will point toward New York. We need a younger person with experience who has the energy to do this job and bring us together. The job is tough and it is draining even for a younger person.
MB,
Everyone is worried about Trump’s revenge mode but during his term he could have gone after Hillary but he didn’t. Meanwhile on Biden’s first day in office he went after Trump and every Trump supporter, and has kept it up throughout his term.
That said, I do agree with you wholeheartedly that we need a younger person, the job is tough. The real election this year will be VP against VP.
Of course Joe is too much a gentleman to use the #SCROTI new KINGLY power given him to BAG Alito, Clarence Thomas, Roberts & revoke The Felon’s appointees, as well as replacing them all!
Our “Old Joe” has a jammin’ team & accomplished MUCHO.
Let’s handle & honor aging better BTW
Mika got it
https://on.msnbc.com/3W4AMDQ
also thank you to the Philadelphia Inquirer
https://www.inquirer.com/opinion/editorials/first-presidential-debate-joe-biden-donald-trump-withdraw-20240629.html
Hey, Putin drugged him LOL (not funny). Trump promised he’d be “on drugs.”
BTW between the heat and all the GLOBAL jetting around & having a cold, I’d be spaced out too.
I used the term “Poor Old Joe” because this is a terribly poignant moment, and I feel sorry for the president. If you had seen the entirety of the appearance he made the day after the debate, you would have seen him wiping away tears as he was lovingly introduced by Dr. Jill. I like these people, and I like the people who work for them. I admire their accomplishments, and hope that their values will be continued in the next administration, but you don’t have to be a neurologist to see that the president is impaired.
Feeling sorry for our president is not a good thing, at a time when the leaders of Russia and China are conspiring together, there are major wars flaring in the Middle East and Ukraine, our Supreme Court has been tainted and our House of Representatives can occasionally resemble a Hitler Youth rally.
Donald Trump has ruined this country, and he must be stopped.
A neurologist’s opinion would be helpful, because we are being asked to vote for four and a half more years, and not just an Election Day result. President Biden may be thinking, “Apres moi, le deluge,” but no one can outwit Father Time.
I often disagree with Mary Reinholz but her comment is the first I’ve heard since Thursday’s debate that upholds Biden’s strong record on the environment.
In addition to our democracy being under imminent threat (to the extent it functions), destruction of the earth is arguably the greatest existential threat we face. Chain-sawing mature trees and hacking up green space, from East River Park to the Elizabeth Street Garden, feels apocalyptic.
Personally, I think Biden should have stepped aside months ago.
I’m not sure how helpful it is to deride him and his accomplishments: the environment and organized labor being the most outstanding.
Don’t get your logic, Frank. Do be careful. Somebody might call you cognitively impaired.
What is condescending is the brain-dead inclination to liken the calamitous and inevitable decline of old age to a “bad night” or a poor debate performance. If we are complaining about the dishonesty of Trump and his cohorts, how can we ignore the
obvious? Joe Biden was once a brilliant orator, but he is now unable to defend himself against a vicious, lying bully in a national debate.
The world is full of would-be Trumps and malicious dictators. As President Biden often says, “This is the United States of America,”
and if we are to remain the United States of America, we need a leader who can defend our democracy, and bind us together as a people.
When you are carrying a heavy load and need asistance, do you look for the oldest person in the parking lot and ask them to carry your weight? I’m an old guy myself, and I don’t try to kid myself about the limitations imposed upon me by the passage of time.
At what point does a “bad night” graduate into senility or outright dementia? Who will tell a ranting 86-year-old president that he is wrong?
George Burns famously signed a contract to play Vegas on his hundredth birthday, and he almost made it, but he wasn’t distracted by warring dictators and would-be despots.
I had tears in my eyes when I watched the debate the other night. Joe Biden is our Champion, the man who knocked out Trump, and he must not now allow himself to become Trump’s chump.
Your opening phrase–“Poor Old Joe” -could be ascribed to a beloved family dog about to be put to sleep instead of a man who created more than 15 million new jobs and fought for the environment after he defeated Donald Trump for the Oval Office. I take it you are not a neurologist so maybe you should wipe away your tears and stop presuming you have the skills to assess Biden’s fitness for continuing in office based on one dreary televised debate.
Condescending claptrap about an 81-year-old man who has been a damn good president for nearly 4 years but faltered during a 90-minute debate. There’s no perspective in this maudlin poem.
Damned good? Where do you shop for groceries?