A most enjoyable – and scary – week

By Jim Thompson
HCP columnist

For the last 50 years or more, the Democrats visibly have had the hair stand up on the back of their necks when one even slightly suggested some of their ideas belonged in the loony bin.  

Such ideas have pushed our national debt through the roof (and in recent years, Republicans without backbones have gone along). Besides financial loonies, the regulatory and climate change regimes have gone completely bonkers, again raising aforementioned hair if one even slightly criticizes or asks for proof when it comes to their wackier ideas.

For the past few weeks, we have witnessed the Democrats and their left-wing brethren being hoisted by their own petard. It started with the infamous presidential debate, conducted at the insistence of President Biden, then rolled on through a mass of sober-minded opinions by a brave Supreme Court, and now, at least for the moment, is culminating in a vote of no confidence from George Clooney, who apparently had an epiphany in the midst of raising $30 million for Biden’s campaign at his own house.  

Hollywood has clearly gone to Clooney’s head. I can’t imagine someone raised in the Ohio River valley being so daft. 

Then, there is the press conference held at the end of NATO’s 75th anniversary meeting, which might have been no big deal if it had not been for the machinations of the last three weeks. But by the time this rolled around, all eyes were on potential gaffes. 

As a friend texted me during this presser, “You could make a drinking game out of watching this.”

The exposés continue. Turns out Biden has not had a Cabinet meeting for 10 months, and when he had them in the past, he was using a teleprompter. Seems like everyone is in on the coverup.

Democrats are now questioning Biden’s statement about being the only one qualified to take on Trump. What about Vice President Harris, Joe, are you saying she’s not qualified? This line of questioning has caused him to backtrack. The Democrats are eating their own.

Then, there is the mainstream media – print, video and audio – who have obviously been covering up what they have known for a long time – that Biden has lost his mental acuity.  

Personally, I never thought he had any. I have thought he was a lightweight for decades. But for the media, who can believe them going forward? They have the credibility of Richard Nixon.

But as I mentioned in my column two weeks ago, how vulnerable does the president’s condition leave us? If I were China, I would take Taiwan next week. If I were Russia, I would beg, borrow or steal enough weaponry from China and Iran to finish off Ukraine before this coming winter.

Fifty years ago, in the summer of 1974, a presidential crisis was unfolding in a similar manner. It was a drip, drip, drip every day as new items were exposed in the Watergate coverup. That one ended in Nixon resigning on Aug. 8, 1974. Gerald Ford became president at noon on that date. To borrow a line from a presidential campaign of 1988, when Sen. Lloyd Bentsen said to Sen. Dan Quayle, “Senator, you’re no Jack Kennedy,” I’ll add, in case we are soon confronted with a succession issue, Kamala Harris, you are no Gerald Ford.

Jim Thompson, formerly of Marshall, is a graduate of Hillsboro High School and the University of Cincinnati. He resides in Duluth, Ga. and is a columnist for The Highland County Press. He may be reached at jthompson@taii.com.

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