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So... where's Joe Biden?
I will state for the record that these sort of questions come up fairly regularly. Almost always, the VIP emerges soon enough, seemingly no worse for wear. Kim Jong-un was MIA for a couple weeks, and I think Putin may have disappeared too at one point.
So normalcy bias being what it is, I expect Joe to turn up soon and give some sort of speech.
But, isn't it a bit strange that Biden made his announcement via Twitter of all places and hasn't been seen in public since? We have no idea whether he wrote that statement, or even signed it. The only evidence of him "stepping aside" is a JPEG on Twitter. Personally, I think there is a real chance that he is seriously ill. The stress of the two weeks cannot have been good for his health.
On a more meta level, this seems to pattern match a behavior we've seen from the Democrats a lot. Instead of proactively using openness to refute conspiracy theorists, they seem to double down on secrecy. Why let the rumors swirl? Why not have Joe pop out to say hello?
Whatever happens, I expects some great books and movies to come out about this two week period. To be a fly on the wall in the White House!
Update: 12:20am Tuesday. There are some crazy rumors swirling on Twitter with one source claiming that Biden is in hospice care and might die soon. It's a very low status source, but they correctly called the Sunday resignation. (Humorously they are squabbling with another low status source and have a ban bet going). Back in normiestan, Biden's physician claims that he is nearly recovered from Covid and is performing all Presidential duties (odd statement, that). More facts: Biden was supposed to meet with Netanyahu today but it's been moved to Thursday. Polymarket currently has Biden with a 50% chance of finishing his term - with no movement in the last 24 hours.
He's recovering from an illness, he's not campaigning, and he's by all accounts been dialed out of his day job for a while now. It doesn't seem like "why is Joe Biden keeping a low profile" requires a ton of explanation.
He's President of the United States. He just made the biggest announcement of his career. Notably this announcement was a 180 from everything he had ever said until yesterday.
Many people are suggesting that he was coerced, and that sounds pretty reasonable.
No, this is not the time to hide in his beach house.
He's an 81 year old with a serious(for him) illness who has six hours of lucidity on a good day.
If he was lucid enough to write that letter he’s lucid enough to jump on TV for a couple of minutes.
He didn't write the letter (likely). He probably has barely agreed to the not running part. If he is ever healthy(as much as this word applies to him) again, there is probably going to be a time where he starts (correctly) accusing people of tricking him into agreeing to drop out.
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