Incompetent Biden puts the world in grave danger

On Sunday, President Biden chose National Ice Cream Day to announce he will not seek re-election for a second term, endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris to take over as the Democratic Party’s presidential nominee.

Biden said in a letter posted to X that he will “stand down and focus solely on fulfilling my duties as President for the remainder of my term.”

But if he had any respect for the office he holds, the American people, our republic or himself, Biden would resign from the presidency immediately.

No one said campaigning for re-election was easy. The schedule is punishing.

A candidate must address supporters, schmooze with donors, pose for photo ops, and travel to events around the country.

He or she is expected to debate the other party’s nominee, and we all know how that turned out when Biden faced off against former president Donald Trump on June 27.

Biden’s sagging poll performance explains his decision to withdraw — much more so than any fake notion of civic virtue his spineless supporters are floating on social media to prop up the Democratic Party’s dismal chances and tarnished image.

A poll of voters in the vitally important swing state of Michigan, released just hours before his withdrawal, found Biden trailing Trump by a huge margin of 7 percentage points.

But no campaign-trail challenge comes even close to the immense responsibility of serving as president of the United States — which Biden, whose own staff members say has only a few lucid hours per day and cannot be disturbed after 4:00 p.m., is manifestly unqualified to do.

The world has become a dangerous place under Biden’s disastrous leadership.

Two active, large-scale shooting wars — both started after ruthless overseas adversaries looked at Biden and saw a tired, feeble old man who neither would nor could do enough to resist them — are in progress and could easily spread.

Our southern border is a shambolic nightmare, open to millions of migrants who enter the country illegally with horrific effects on our already crime-ridden communities, while the president lounges at his Delaware beach house like Nero without a fiddle.

Our standing in the world is a joke, with even sympathetic international leaders fretting about the mental soundness of a leader of the free world given to falling asleep and wandering off during NATO summits.

Ultimately, no amount of media gaslighting could convince a majority of Americans — or even a majority of Democrats — that Biden could carry on.

If now even he admits he is too weak and addled to kiss babies, he has no business commanding our armed forces, holding the nuclear codes or doing anything else that could affect the safety and security of our country and its people.

 “If Joe Biden can’t run for re-election, he is unable and unfit to serve as President of the United States,” as Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY), chairwoman of the House GOP conference, put it shortly after Biden’s withdrawal.

Her comment was joined by similar words from House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-Minn.), and National Republican Congressional Committee Chairman Richard Hudson (R-NC), all of whom, among a swelling chorus of others, have demanded Biden’s resignation.

“There is no middle ground,” GOP vice presidential nominee J.D. Vance posted earlier Sunday, hours before Biden withdrew. “Not running for re-election would be a clear admission that President Trump was right all along about Biden not being mentally fit enough to serve as Commander-in-Chief.”

Now we know with crystal clarity that Biden is totally unfit for the job — and probably has been for his entire presidency.

If he stays in the White House for the next six months while signaling to the malign forces of the world that he is too incompetent even to try to be re-elected, we will suffer more than just an October surprise before he finally stumbles out of the White House.

For the good of the country and the good of the world, Biden must enter the dustbin of history now.

Paul du Quenoy is president of the Palm Beach Freedom Institute.