(3) Who is mentally and physically Fitter to become the next President?

The leader of any country is supposed to be mentally and physically fit because if he is not, he can make wrong decisions that can prove to be disastrous for that country. The point of being mentally and physically fit becomes all the more important when it comes to the selection of the leader of a World Superpower like the United States of America because a single wrong decision by him can jeopardize the safety & security of the whole world. With this perspective in mind, let's now look at the mental and physical fitness of both candidates. 

Let's first look at how Trump's fitness is as of today, August 8th, 2024 just 3 months away from the Presidential Elections. As per reports, Trump goes for a walk regularly every morning. He plays golf once a week at least, a sport that involves a lot of walking and also stretching of arms and legs. He doesn't face any problem in navigating his directions when he is on the stage to deliver his speeches. He doesn't fall down all of a sudden. He can still run about 50 meters non-stop, without any worrisome increase in his heartbeat. He doesn't have any serious illnesses like diabetes, blood pressure problems, or heart problems. When he was President, he gave a cognitive test during COVID times back in 2020, which he passed with flying colors. He doesn't choke or get suffocated while speaking in public. Thus, overall Trump's mental and physical fitness can be called "very good" and on a scale of 1 to 10, if rated, he will easily get a 7 or even 8. 

Having talked about Donald Trump's fitness, let us now consider the mental and physical fitness of the presumed presidential candidate of the Democratic party, Kamala Harris. She seems to be physically very fit, in that she doesn't fall down here & there, just like how her predecessor Joe Biden has been, in the last 3 and a half years. She is 59, turning 60 this October but physically looks much younger, say 45-47 years old. Her medical reports suggest she is not suffering from any major illness, that can hamper her functions as a likely President if in case she gets elected. 

The reason why Kamala got a chance to become the (presumed) Presidential nominee of the Democratic party was the poor fitness of Joe Biden. During that CNN Debate with Trump on June 27th, 2024, he faltered, got choked, and blocked for no good reason at a particular point. He behaved like some mentally retarded person for at least 10 seconds. That was enough for his party to cancel him out altogether. All the senior leaders of the Democratic party like Chuck Schumer, Nancy Pelosi, Jeffrey Hakeem, etc. were pretty convinced after seeing what he did in that debate, that this guy was no longer fit enough to become their nominated presidential candidate for the forthcoming presidential election. They became equivocal upon one thing - Biden must be replaced. Pelosi and Schumer informed him that it was time for him to step aside. After some pressure from other senior leaders of the party too, Biden finally gave in to their demand, putting aside his ambitions of another term in office at the age of 82. 

On July 22nd, 2024 he announced his decision to step aside and totally cancel his run for the Presidential elections in a post on the social media platform X (erstwhile Twitter)!! He also mentioned there itself his desire to pass on the baton to Vice President Kamala Harris, saying that she was the most deserving candidate to run for the highest office at that time. 

There were huge shockwaves after this announcement from Biden. The whole of online social media was abuzz with a lot of speculation about what would happen next. The Trump campaign was also eagerly awaiting to know as to whom they needed to fight against now.

Meanwhile, the senior Democratic party leaders, who once sought to become the President of the country but did not get a chance of nomination because of their old age or some other reason, once again began dreaming of a likely shot at the Presidency!! This includes the likes of Bernie Sanders, etc. 

However, this little phase of dreaming and excitement came to an end as Kamala Harris swiftly and smartly enough, garnered the support of most delegates of her party within 4 days of Biden expressing his desire to nominate her. Her nomination was almost finalized as Barack Obama, the 44th President and still a very influential figure within the Democratic party as well as his wife Michelle Obama, endorsed her officially on 30th July, 2024. Before that, she was already endorsed by Hillary Clinton, the former Secretary of State in the Obama administration as well as her husband Bill Clinton, the 42nd President of the US. With all these endorsements, it is now pretty clear that she is going to be the next nominated person from the Democratic party to run for presidency against the Republican party's official nominee Donald J Trump. 

Let's get back to the one and only most important reason why Kamala Harris got nominated in place of Joe Biden. As discussed before, it was his poor health and declining cognitive abilities - mentally and physically - that led him to step aside from this election. Had not been for that reason, the Democrats wouldn't have replaced Biden with Kamala at all. It all became evident after the CNN Debate disaster of June 27th, that Biden was no longer capable of speaking or acting properly, let alone leading this country. Still, the Dems took 20+ days to ask him to step aside!! That shows that they were either too obsessed with Biden, under whose leadership they could defeat Trump in 2020 OR they couldn't see anybody with the same potential as his, not even Kamala Harris, who could steer them towards a Presidential election victory. But then as soon as Biden officially showed his desire for Kamala to succeed him, all of a sudden, the entire party started thinking about Kamala in a very big way!! It was a paradigm shift as far as their opinion about Kamala was concerned!! So many of her own party members wouldn't have endorsed her/ shown readiness to support her, had Biden not endorsed her. 

Biden, as such, has been not able to speak properly in public, for about a year now. He keeps on creating nonsensical "word salads" quite frequently nowadays. While on stage he finds it difficult to navigate his direction as to how he should go to descend down the stage after he has finished speaking! While speaking, he is unaware as to why he has started speaking at length on an unrelated topic all of a sudden. While talking about US Navy seals, he once started discussing about Baby sitters, sanitary napkins, etc.!! He keeps on falling down very frequently anywhere, these days. 

Here, let me be very clear about one thing. In this entire chapter, I have been critical of Biden's physical and mental fitness. This is because a US President is supposed to be fit, by default, being the highest serving person in the country. If he is not fit, he can ruin the image of the country. My purpose is not to make fun of Biden. I respect him as much as I respect Trump and Harris both. Biden has had a fantastic career spanning over 50+ years. He has risen from being a lower middle-class citizen to being the POTUS (President Of The United States) - an achievement that needs to be congratulated and applauded by everyone. All I am saying is he made a mistake by not selecting the right time to quit. Had he quit way before and not decided to throw his hat into the Presidential race back in April 2023, it would have paved the way for a democratic selection of the right nominee after him. So many rising stars of the Democratic party would have courageously and confidently decided to fight it out along the primaries and then prepare themselves for a final showdown with the Republican party nominee in November of 2024. Ample of time would have been available for this entire process, which in fact, is the right & a democratic process as said above. But because Biden continued being the presumed nominee for a long time and withdrew himself just about 100 days before the Election, it has made the task much more difficult for not only Kamala Harris but also the whole party. He should have shown his wisdom by withdrawing at the right moment, looking at his age and an unwanted cognitive decline. But he didn't. 

Biden was already showing aggravated signs of his cognitive decline for about a year now. Yet the Democratic party leaders and all those concerned decided to try to conceal these signs. Kamala Harris definitely knew how bad this decline was becoming slowly, but certainly. But she chose to remain silent about this. Why? Because she must have thought - "Let him fulfill his lust for power, till he decides it's enough. I am ready to wait because I know that if I remain good towards him, he is going to endorse "nobody else but me" after all. I won't even have to pass through the severe test of primary debates just like what I had to, in 2020!! How good is that, Jesus! Wow!! Because I remember how badly I had to struggle in front of weirdos like  Bernie Sanders etc. back then and finally drop out of the race. Instead here, once Joe Biden endorses me, everyone in the party will fall along the same lines and endorse me! How easy for me!?! So I should just be patient and wait for him to exit. I don't care even if this country gets a cognitively declined President once again, in 2024." This must have been her thinking because had she thought about this country when Biden decided to run again, about how bad an image an unfit top leader can create internationally, she would've protested against that or at least told Biden as well as her party workers that the current President isn't fit enough to run again. But obviously, over there she gave more preference to what was good for her own self, rather than giving preference to what was good for this country! Some Republicans describe this as "treason", as an act of betrayal towards one's own country. I wonder what you think about that! 

Not just Harris, the entire family of Joe Biden, including his wife Jill Biden, son Hunter Biden, and every other Biden must know about the gradual and serious cognitive decline of Joe. So many leaders of the Democratic party, who are in close contact with him, like Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer, Barack Obama, etc. must also be aware of this. But all of the above-mentioned chose to remain completely silent!  They put their personal interests ahead of their country's! 

Guys, I have already told you right at the beginning of this book, that I neither endorse nor oppose any of these two candidates in this Election. I will try to remain impartial throughout the course of writing this book. (Of course, I will praise or criticize a candidate wherever necessary though.) At the same time, I will not criticize any candidate "unnecessarily". But here it becomes very necessary for me to criticize the very obvious cognitive decline of President Biden and the deliberate act of hiding that on behalf of the Biden-Harris team. 

Biden falling down on the stage, in the most embarrassing manner, at an event of the US Airforce Academy on June 1, 2023

Biden falling down on the stairs of
Airforce-1 plane.

When Biden fell down on the stage in that US Airforce Academy event, he accused the wire loop, lying in an untidy manner on the stage for his fall. When he fell off the bicycle, he accused the failed brakes of the bike. But he couldn't accuse the stairs of Airforce-1, for his falls on them! Obviously, he can't blame the stairs like, "They were so bad and unorganized that I had a fall. I wonder why they build Airforce-1 planes like that, these days!" Can he??

The striking thing is how and why the Democrats listed in the previous paragraphs, all chose to remain silent and hide the cognitive decline of Joe Biden. This shows how selfish they are! For them, these embarrassments, these humiliations, these frequent occasions when American pride gets jeopardized just do NOT matter! What matters for them are 2 things: (1) Their personal interests and (2) Trump should not be able to win, by any means. So they were allowing a guy to run for Presidency, who was mentally and physically quite unfit to run for even an election of a Mayor in a small city of the US. Biden called all this "his desire to keep a dictator like Trump away from power." But that was wrong. It was actually his own lust for power, his own selfish desire to remain as President as long as possible, that he and all his supporters kept on fooling the Americans until it all didn't get exposed automatically in that CNN Debate. 

The mentally and physically dumb person, that Joe Biden has become, did cause a lot of harm to the public image of the entire Democratic Party, spread across the nation from its west coast to the east one and from its northern part adjoining Canada to its southern borders in Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona states, adjoining Mexico. There is no doubt about that. Can Kamala Harris repair that damage quickly? Only Time will tell. 

Whether Harris can beat Trump, a guy whose popularity has been rising so rapidly in the last few weeks after the assassination attempt on him, or more importantly, can she manage to maintain good relations with the corrupt, deep administrative state, as efficiently as Biden could -- that also only Time can tell.  

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