By Mark Fowler

“At length, truth will out.” —Shakespeare in The Merchant of Venice

Members of the media, specifically Jake Tapper but others as well, have suddenly discovered what clear-thinking Americans long suspected: Joe Biden was seriously mentally and physically compromised during his presidency. Presumably wishing to atone for their investigative dereliction but also seeking to line their pockets, they declaim the obvious.

President Biden has never been an example of probity or intellect. Much of his adult career is tainted by the stains of mendacity and mediocrity. As a law student he plagiarized work, requiring him to repeat a course to expunge an “F” grade. He claimed this was a misunderstanding of citation rules. He was not, as he claimed, a “top” political science student. He did not receive a full scholarship to law school, and he did not graduate in the top half of his class. He graduated 76th out of 85. Statistical analysis was not his strong suit.

In 1988, he was forced to withdraw from the race for the Democrat nomination for president when some “gaffes” were discovered. At the time, he was caught repeating extended portions of a speech by British Labour Leader Neil Kinnock — not only without attribution, but as though it was his own life. He produced his law school record, which repudiated his claims about graduating in the top half of his class. On withdrawing from the race for the Democrat nomination, he said the “exaggerated shadow” of his mistakes had begun “to obscure the essence of my candidacy.” Even then he denied deliberately misleading his audience. That is, he lied about lying.

The essence of a campaign for the presidency includes an assessment of one’s personality, intellect, and moral fitness. He was deemed a liar. A perpetual liar with unremarkable intellect.

More recently, he lied about not being involved in his son’s dubious business ventures. He lied about never talking to his son’s partners when there were pictures of him having dinner with them. He lied about saying he would not pardon his son, Hunter, when an argument could be made he had every intention of doing so and ultimately did just that. He lied about the border being closed.

Most, if not all, politicians lie or embellish the truth when seeking power. That is no surprise. John Kennedy and Franklin Roosevelt withheld from the public the real nature of their health — Kennedy regarding Addison’s disease, and Roosevelt regarding being crippled by polio. Nevertheless, and notwithstanding this deception, their ability to govern was not compromised. Woodrow Wilson and his wife are examples of the most egregious deception. Wilson was essentially an invalid after his stroke, and it appears that Edith Wilson, his wife, was running the federal government, making her the de facto first woman president.

An argument can be made that Biden was not up to the job of being president when he ran in 2019. After all, President Barack Obama nudged Biden aside in favor of Hillary Clinton in 2015. And those who follow politics know of Obama’s declaration: “Never underestimate Joe’s ability to [mess] things up.” That was a very public and not-so-subtle message to Biden and the public that Joe was not up to the job from someone qualified to make that assessment.

A number of books written by insiders or people with substantiation from insiders indicate that Biden’s staff, his wife, and his son worked to conceal from the public his frailty. He seldom held press conferences, and they were scripted. He took questions known to him in advance from selected reporters who lobbed softballs. He held only a few cabinet meetings. He required floor markings on where to stand and how to exit. He often did not recognize his own staffers. He made wild claims about his childhood and about meeting foreign leaders who were dead at the time of the alleged meeting.

The debacle of the withdrawal from Afghanistan and the loss of Bagram Air Base and the ensuing chaos may all have been due to Biden’s failing judgment. A number of military officers testified that they opposed the withdrawal. Biden lied about that.

But worst of all, Biden deluded himself with the help of his staff into thinking he was up to four more years of a grueling job. Democrat voters were prevented from considering other candidates, leaving them with Kamala Harris, who had never won a primary. (All from the party always mau-mauing about Trump being a “threat to democracy.”)

Subsequent to the disclosure of this massive deception is the revelation that Biden has advanced prostate cancer. This may or may not be coincidental, but advanced prostate cancer takes years to develop and is unlikely to have been overlooked until stage 4, especially in the president of the United States. One wonders whether this was known some time ago and how it figured into the Democrats’ plans.

Kamala Harris is certainly implicated in this deception, much to her detriment. She could see on a daily basis that Biden was not running circles around his staff (looking at you, Karine Jean-Pierre) or that Biden was at his best ever (looking at you, Joe Scarborough). Jake Tapper called out Lara Trump for mocking Biden’s stutter when she was simply observing the obvious. He has since apologized.

We, as voters, must insist on candor from candidates. Candidates ought to think about the country rather than their own personal glory. The media ought to pursue truth vigorously rather than obscure the truth.

A second Biden term — or worse, a Harris term — might well have been the beginning of the end of this country.

Mark Fowler is a board-certified physician and former attorney. He can be reached at [email protected].