Mr. Indispensable

Joe, we love you, but you are not as indispensable as you think you are.

During his interview on ABC last week, Joe Biden claimed that he is Mr Indispensable. “Who’s going to be able to hold NATO together like me? Who’s going to be able to be in a position where I’m able to keep the Pacific Basin in a position where … we’re at least checkmating China now? Who’s going to — who’s going to do that? Who has that reach?”

Yes, Joe, you’ve been around a long time and you know all the players on the International Stage. You recognize that Putin is bad news, that North Korea’s Kim is a crackpot. You would never flatter them with a personal private meeting like Donnie did.

The President sets the tone, but it’s the rest of the government that does the work. Any Democratic President would have a Secretary of State Antony Blinken, CIA Director William J. Burns and national security adviser Jake Sullivan guiding our international relationships as opposed to Trump’s revolving door of crackpots and conspiratorialists such as Michael Flynn, Kash Patel and Stephen Miller.

The classic example of this was the Secretary of Energy from the Obama to Trump administrations. Obama chose Steven Chu who won the Nobel Prize in Physics. Maybe the guy in charge of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission should have a scientific background. Trump chose Rick Perry, former Texas governor with no science training who previously recommended abolishing the Department of Energy. If I lived near a nuclear power plant, I’d feel a lot more secure with Steven Chu in charge than Rick Perry.

Joe, ya done good. You led us out of the pandemic and returned us to prosperity. You revived and expanded NATO. You saved Ukraine. You passed a historic infrastructure bill. You nominated a brilliant Supreme Court justice. But all that goes away if Trump wins in 2024, and right now, running against you, he probably will.

You are not the only Democrat who could do this good work. Save your legacy. You are not Mr Indispensable.

By Ed Dufton