There is a real possibility that, this coming week, Joe Biden will be selecting the 47th president of the United States.
For the woman Biden picks — he has promised to exclude from consideration all men, black, brown, white or Asian — has a better chance of succeeding to the presidency than any vice presidential nominee in U.S. history, other than perhaps Harry Truman.
In 1944, the Democratic establishment engineered the dumping of radical Henry Wallace from Roosevelt’s ticket. They could see from FDR’s physical deterioration that he would not last through a full fourth term.
There are other reasons the woman Biden chooses in August may become our 47th president.
If Biden wins, he will be 78 when he takes the oath, older than our eldest president, Ronald Reagan, was when he left office after two terms. Biden would turn 80 even before he reached the midpoint of his first term.
Moreover, Biden has suffered a transparent deterioration of his mental capacities that was nowhere evident when he debated Mitt Romney’s running mate Paul Ryan in 2012.
What are the odds that Biden would serve a full term?
Of our 45 presidents, nine failed to complete the term to which they had been elected. One resigned; four died in office; and four were assassinated. All nine were succeeded by their vice president.
John Tyler became president in 1841 when William Henry Harrison died a month into office of pneumonia, following an inaugural address of nearly two hours in the cold without an overcoat.
Tyler would effect the annexation of the Republic of Texas in his final days in 1845, fail to win his party's nomination to a full term, back the secession of Virginia in 1861, and end his days as a member of the Confederate Congress sitting in Richmond in 1862.
Mexican War hero and President Zachary Taylor died in his second year in 1850, to be succeeded by Millard Fillmore, who would go on to become the 1856 nominee of the anti-Catholic, anti-immigrant American Party known to history as the "Know Nothings."
Andrew Johnson became president after the assassination of Lincoln at Ford's Theater a month after Lincoln's second inaugural.
Johnson would be impeached in 1868 by radical Republicans who wanted a more severe Reconstruction of a defeated and occupied South.
Chester Arthur succeeded James Garfield in 1881 after President Garfield suffered a mortal wound from an assassin's bullet at a D.C. train station, only months into his first year in office.
Teddy Roosevelt became our youngest president in 1901 when he succeeded the assassinated William McKinley. In our own time, Lyndon Johnson succeeded John F. Kennedy after Dallas in November 1963.
In addition to Tyler, Fillmore, Andrew Johnson, Arthur, TR and LBJ, three vice presidents succeeded to the presidency in the 20th century on the death or departure of the men who selected them: Calvin Coolidge on the death of Warren Harding in 1923, Harry Truman on the death of FDR in April 1945, and Gerald Ford on the resignation of Richard Nixon.
Thus, of our four dozen vice presidents, all of whom have been white men, nine have risen to the nation's highest office to fill out a term of the president who selected him.
Yet, with the pandemic crisis, the economic crisis and the racial crisis gripping the nation, what are the unique conditions Biden has set down for the person he would put a heartbeat away from the presidency?
Biden began his selection process by eliminating and discriminating against whole categories of people.
First, no white men need apply. Second, no man of any race, color or creed will be considered. Gender rules them out, though every vice president for 230 years has been a man.
Nevertheless, says Biden, this one has to be a woman.
"No men need apply!" automatically eliminated 17 of the 24 Democratic governors who are men, including Andrew Cuomo of New York and Gavin Newsom of California, and it eliminated 30 of the 47 Democratic members of the Senate who are men.
In the aftermath of the George Floyd killing and protests, pressure has grown on Biden not only to choose a woman but a woman of color, and preferably a Black woman. If that were a criterion, it would eliminate all but a tiny few of the party's senators and governors.
What national interest impelled Biden to so restrict the pool of talent from which a possible presidential successor would be chosen?
Joe Biden would be the oldest man ever to serve as president. He would enter office with visibly diminished mental capacities. And he has decided to restrict his choice as to who should inherit our highest office by ruling out the vast majority of the most able and experienced leaders of his own Democratic Party.
Is this any way to select someone who could, in a heartbeat, take control of the destiny of the world's most powerful nation?
Whatever happened to Jimmy Carter's "Why Not the Best?"
Patrick J. Buchanan is the author of "Nixon's White House Wars: The Battles That Made and Broke a President and Divided America Forever."
My opinion , just don’t think this picking of a Black woman to be a candidate on the democRAT ticket this year will win the White House !!! Again pandering to the Black vote !!! but that is the democRAT way !!!
Discrimination is abhorrent, except when it meets the narrative of the Democratic party. Then it becomes accepted and even encouraged, and don’t call it pandering because if a Democrat does it, it must be OK.
Pandering to the women’s vote? How do you think that is going to play with a knowing pedophile? For me, he is not even a consideration. The evidence is out and it is everywhere.
CORRECTION, ” He ” won’t be selecting ANYONE as a running mate. Rather, he will be told who is running mate is by the LEFT WING CONSPIRATORS who are running the DEMOCRAPIC party. They want to position themselves to move that person into the Oval Office as soon as possible, once the election is over. Buttt, two thoughts:
1. I HOPE & PRAY they pick ” KAMMIE ” …. we will have a field day with her over the next three months. She is Loud, Hateful, Bombastic, and Totally In Love with Herself. Bring it !
2. None of the above will be necessary, as there is one major roadblock in front of the Left Wing Darlings:
( Hint: TRUMP IN 2020 ! )
Boy, now THAT sounds “exclusive”! . . . And they WONDER why Joe Biden (and OTHER Democrats) are LOSING the 2020 elections, ESPECIALLY with their FAILED LEADERSHIP and HORRIBLY failing POLICIES. The Left Run cities that are BURNING down are PROOF. Don’t vote for him if you VALUE your country! One Wary Patriot sounding THE alarm. Team Trump and his allies 2020.
I have been saying from day one, Bidens sole purpose is to get in the WHITE HOUSE and whoever he (they) pick to be V.P. will then bump him for mental reasons and, become the President. Ask yourself why Nasty Nancy keeps claiming she is “second” in place ? What’s will happen if President Trump doesn’t win in November….
His selection has already been made by the Party.
MICHELLE OBAMA…she will. eventually, succeed him as President!
No sane people either
But the piece stated that no man need apply and as Michelle is really Michel a man this can’t be now can it.
Well Sleazy joe only wants women to apply….after all he don’t want to run his hand down in a pair of boxers/briefs without their consent….JUST women….Probably Camel Toe will be the one ….she has experience fooling around with the boss.
This is proably true
Joe is a senile old codger and if he knows what a stooge he is surely he doesn’t care. The Democrats are hiding what a sap he is and if they succeed in their media spin of the last three years millions of dumb ignorant voters will deep six our country. Sorry that I can not sugar coat this.
Trudeau, the avowed feminist did the same thing in Canada with his cabinet. Half the positions must be filled by women, despite being in the distinct minority numbers-wise. It doesn’t matter who the best person for the job is anymore. It doesn’t matter who you are. It only matters who you are not.
You go Joe!! You have my vote!!!!
not only no men but no white women , boy he really thinks we are stupid, a person should be picked because he or she is qualified for the job , every women should be insulted black or white because he is using these women for his benefit TO PUT HIMSELF IN OFFICE?????
you just made my point , he is using women , does that not bother you?
I agree, truth be told, if democRATS win in 2020 this country will be DESTROYED by either nasty nancy, KH-ole and we certainly don’t need another Obama, the last one was bad enough, but then much of the country has gone stupid RE demo party and there doesn’t seem to be a cure for them and we can thank the news media (which today is all lies or fake) for much of that.
He wins the vote as the most sexist presidential candidate ever.
I can’t find anywhere a logical reason for his statement
Where does he find a basis for inferring that a vagina or skin color of anything but white are qualifications for the job of POTUS. I hate to use the Democratic Word “RACIST “ but that’s the first thing that comes to mind, besides UNCONSTITUTIONAL. I know it, you know it and he knows it—He will never live out a first term. He will either die, be declared incompetent or Hillary will do her thing. Who ever he picks will not be qualified and GOD help our once great country. Let’s stop playing games with America,this is not MONOPOLY. Go find an empty suit or anyone other than this pathetic LOSER for your ticket at the convention. Please
Only if you are a queer, transgender or a lesbian the Obama way of picking your vice president. Imagine that vice president pulling Biden strings just like a puppet with their radical ideas and destroys America. That’s why it is important for us to vote for President Donald Trump.