The Wall Street Journal began their feature story yesterday with this: "When President Biden met with congressional leaders in the West Wing in January to negotiate a Ukraine funding deal, he spoke so softly at times that some participants struggled to hear him, according to five people familiar with the meeting. He read from notes to make obvious points, paused for extended periods, and sometimes closed his eyes for so long that some in the room wondered whether he had tuned out."
Has he tuned out?
Reporters have observed the president is obsessing over Hunter's current trial proceedings, and can't stay focused on anything else.
The president's handlers and those with much to lose if he's not re-elected continue to claim he's "just fine." "Fit as a fiddle." "Nothing to see here."
Today is "D" Day. I'll be talking more about that on the radio today.
Be informed, not misled.
People close to Joe know.
The Wall Street Journal says, "In a February one-on-one chat in the Oval Office with House Speaker Mike Johnson, the president said a recent policy change by his administration that jeopardizes some big energy projects was just a study, according to six people told at the time about what Johnson said had happened. Johnson worried the president’s memory had slipped about the details of his own policy."
The Journal continues, "Last year, when Biden was negotiating with House Republicans to lift the debt ceiling, his demeanor and command of the details seemed to shift from one day to the next, according to then-House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and two others familiar with the talks. On some days, he had loose and spontaneous exchanges with Republicans, and on others he mumbled and appeared to rely on notes."
“I used to meet with him when he was vice president. I’d go to his house,” McCarthy said in an interview. “He’s not the same person.”
White House officials dismissed many of the accounts from those who have met with the president or been briefed on those meetings as motivated by partisan politics.
But the Wall Street Journal spoke to more than 45 people — Republicans and Democrats — over several months about these meetings, including to some who said Biden mumbled and spoke so softly people struggled to hear him behind closed doors.
Everyone knows he is failing mentally. The world knows and is laughing at the United States, wondering what happened to the "city on a hill."
Sen. James Risch (R-ID), who has been in these closed-door meetings, said, “These people who keep talking about what a dynamo he is behind closed doors—they need to get him out from behind closed doors because I didn’t see it.”
Joe Biden is in France to commemorate the 80th anniversary of D-Day but is closely following Hunter Biden’s trial, which Politico characterized as a “distraction.”
Politico, a Left-leaning news source, is, in my opinion, trying to create a storyline that leaves the public believing both Biden and Trump are having similar cognitive issues.
The Politico article talks extensively about how Trump is not talking about Hunter Biden anymore by noting that part of President Biden's cognitive issues are at least partly connected to his concern about his son, Hunter's trial that is currently underway.
Hunter is always on his mind.
In fact, some close to the president say he is "obsessed" with Hunter's trial.
NBC News reported that First Lady Jill Biden, who attended the first two days, and Hunter’s wife, Melissa Cohen Biden, are in court Wednesday (yesterday). At least ten Biden associates are in the gallery as well.
According to multiple reports this week, the president is also speaking on the phone directly with his son every day.
President Biden suffers from more than the distraction of Hunter's trial. And everyone knows it.
Takeaway
What does true leadership look like?
Joshua, of the Bible, was a national leader and military commander in ancient Israel. As Moses’ aide and successor, Joshua finished what God started through Moses: leading the liberated Israelites to settle in the Canaanite land God had promised them. Although a book in the Bible is named after him, Joshua shows up prior to the book of Joshua as a disciple of Moses, a spy, and a military leader.
Numbers 27:18 describes Joshua as a “man in whom is the spirit of leadership.” As such, Joshua models leadership habits that can help guide all who aspire to influence.
The first letters of the word "Leadership" form an acronym that defines leadership.
- Learning
- Exploring
- Advising
- Dissenting
- Encouraging
- Reminding
- Struggling
- Hearing
- Imparting
- Pointing to Principles.
I don't have space here to cover them all. However, a couple of thoughts on the first and the last words of "LEADERSHIP."
Learning
Good leaders tend to be lifelong learners. People look to leaders for guidance, and good leaders tend to know what to do because they’re learners.
Joshua learned leadership by learning character and conviction from Moses, with whom he spent decades being mentored. Moses’ core convictions became Joshua’s core convictions as together they experienced God’s work as well as the frustration of people’s fickleness.
The motto that most characterized Joshua’s leadership (“Be strong and courageous”) began with Moses, as Moses told Joshua to “Be strong and courageous, for you must go with this people into the land that the Lord swore to their ancestors to give them” (Deut. 31:7).
We first meet Joshua when he served as an aide to Moses. According to Numbers 13:16, Moses changed the young man’s name from Hoshea (“salvation”) to Joshua (“the Lord is my salvation”). Joshua was Moses’ assistant from his youth, and Moses regularly put Joshua in situations to cultivate his abilities, whether it be as a military leader, an explorer, or as his successor. Joshua learned valuable leadership habits at each juncture that would form him for when Moses was no longer around.
The last letter in the acronym, "P," speaks to the idea of "Principles."
Daniel Webster said, "If we abide by the principles taught in the Bible, our country will continue to prosper; but if we and our posterity neglect its instruction and authority, no man can tell how suddenly a catastrophe may overwhelm us and bury all our glory in profound obscurity."
Be Informed. Be Discerning. Be Vigilant. Be Engaged. Be Prayerful.