Are you surprised?

Happy hump day, everyone.  I’m in the middle of a week of travel, made more complex by having to pack up the tent and move mid-trip.  Seldom my favorite, but can’t be helped!

So let’s recap briefly what’s been happening lately, particularly on the political front.  We must start with the events of last Saturday in Pennsylvania, which saw a 20-year-old man attempt to assassinate former President and current candidate Donald Trump.  I saw what you saw, none of it in real time, but a few things seem clear:

A turn of the head at the time of the shooting would have been disastrous for Mr. Trump

Rally attendees saw the shooter moving into position and others reported he was acting strangely near the metal detectors; how did he get onto the grounds with an AR-15 and a ladder?

Part of me felt that what occurred on stage when Mr. Trump was grazed by a bullet and thereafter seemed staged.  I don’t think I’m alone in that ambivalence.  And the timing of these events, on the eve of the Republican convention, is also worth considering.

A rally attendee was killed as he tried to protect his family, and two others were seriously injured.  True to form, none of their families have heard from the candidate or his campaign.

Mr. Trump’s election opponent is, of course, incumbent Democratic President Joe Biden.  These were the two candidates in 2020, of course, but this time around there is a lot of apathy among voters who really don’t especially like or support either candidate.

Complicating matters is Mr. Biden’s recent poor debate performance, appearing tired, confused and unable to articulate.  Almost immediately following that performance, quite a few Democrats and a number of news outlets began promoting the idea of Mr. Biden withdrawing from the race—with just a few months to Election Day—and to do so “for the good of the country.”  News reporting became dominated by this story, to the point where Mr. Biden is trying to demonstrate his acumen and vitality with multiple events, many of them unscripted and interactive.

Some of these have been one-on-one interviews, which networks emphasize are NOT edited, but in those I’ve seen the interviews look addled, asking the same questions repeatedly after they were answered.  The entire scenario looks like an overreaction from mostly nervous Democrats who think that if Mr. Biden loses his reelection bid, they will too.  But I think the more bothersome aspect of this is the “buyer’s remorse” not only of Democrats who formerly supported Mr. Biden’s reelection bid but of so many news outlets who apparently feel they need to inject some drama and interest into a process that was mostly decided, in both parties some time ago.

I’ll say it here.  Mr. Biden has done a good job for the American people during his three-plus years in office.  Is he a smooth-talking politician?  No, he never was that.  Is he young and vital?  Of course not, he’s 81 years old, and susceptible to the factors of aging that people of advanced age experience.

And that’s really it.  It’s a choice between a very imperfect but dedicated public servant and a narcissistic megalomaniac who had the keys to the kingdom for four years and largely missed his chance to make lasting changes, save the Supreme Court appointments he made.

The people who are the least perturbed by all of this?  The voters themselves.  Polls appear to indicate that few people have changed their opinions of either candidate despite all of these events and efforts to change minds.

So we shall see.