Right now, it appears that the major party nominees for president will be two old, white men with weird-looking hair.
Joe Biden will be 81 and Donald Trump will be 78 on election day.
However, age, race, and hair are where their similarities end.
Once upon a time, the voting public expected presidential candidates to speak English well.
President Biden may stumble over words but at least he makes sense. Whereas Trump’s nonsequiturs and delusional assertions often leave folks scratching their heads.
Examples of Trump’s daftness are many; here are just a few.
–The first interview following his arrest at the Fulton County jail:
“Terrible experience. I came in I was treated very nicely but it is what it is. I took a mugshot. I never heard the words mugshot; that wasn’t, they didn’t teach me that at the Wharton School of Finance.”
If you believe a New Yorker has never heard of a mugshot, I’ve got a bridge in Brooklyn to sell you.
— Knows how to mind melt with secret documents:
“If you’re the president of The United States, you can declassify just by saying it’s declassified, even by thinking about it because you’re sending it to Mar-a-Lago to wherever you’re sending it, and there doesn’t have to be a process there can be a process but it doesn’t have to be.”
Yeah, right.
–As president, he helped Black people:
“I said openly, and not a lot of people dispute it. I’ve done more for Black Americans than anybody with a possible exception of Abraham Lincoln. Nobody has even been close.”
A straight-up lie from a man who loves himself some white supremacists.
–Why he did not fulfill his campaign promise to drain the DC “swamp:”
“I didn’t know people. I became president. I’m riding down Pennsylvania Avenue with our First Lady. I had 250 motorcycles. I had armies and everything. I said you believe that we’re president. I said take a look, this is wild, right?”
Of course, the ol’ inaugural parade excuse.
–Explaining his Ukraine policy to a reporter:
“We’re losing our dignity but we’re losing that big market. It has more power when you have it rolling like we had it rolling. So it loses that power but the tariffs are great not only for the dollar and all of those things that we know about that you and I like and understand better than most, but it’s also good for keeping us out of wars.”
Ruminations of a self-described “stable genius.”
–His views on voting by mail:
“If you get the unsolicited ballots, send it in and then go, make sure it counted, and if it doesn’t tabulate, you vote. Just vote. And then if they tabulate it very late, which they shouldn’t be doing, they’ll see you voted and so it won’t count. So send it in early and then go and vote, and if it’s not tabulated, you vote, and the vote is going to count.”
Even the MAGA cult found this silliness confusing.
–A diplomat par excellence:
“Before I even arrive at the Oval Office, shortly after I win the presidency, we will have that horrible war between Russia and Ukraine settled. It’ll be settled. I know them both very well. Get it done very quickly, maybe in 24 hours.”
Wait. What?
–He possesses the power to keep America safe:
“I’m the only candidate who can make you this promise: I will prevent World War 3. We have a man right now who can’t put two sentences together and he’s negotiating on our behalf with nuclear weapons.”
The worst thing for humanity is Donald Trump with access to the nuclear codes again.
We must not subject ourselves to another four years of Trump-speak that will undoubtedly deteriorate as he ages.
Unlike 6 of the 8 Republicans in the first debate who promised to vote for the ex-president even if he is a convicted felon, I hope others in the party will finally un-park their brains and drive away from Trump.
But the ultimate head-scratcher will be if unaffiliated voters decide to cast their ballots for a notorious demagogue who sounds no smarter than a 5th grader.
Jo Ann Allen retired recently from Colorado Public Radio in Denver after 47 years of reporting the news. She is the creator and host of the podcast Been There Done That.
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