 Welcome to American Issues Take One. I'm Tim Apachele, your host. And today I would like to introduce our esteemed guests, Jay Fidel and Winston Welch. Good morning. Good morning, Tim. Today's title is Joe Biden, one-term president. Jay, should Joe Biden be a one-term president? Oh, I don't know if he should, but he will. He'll be a one-term president. It reminds me of one of our hosts or contributors from far away in India. I asked him one time, you know, do you support Trump? I was really curious because he was so different than his thinking. And he said, yes, I do. I support Trump. I said, why? He said, because Trump is strong. And in a world where we have a lot of autocracies emerging around us, you have to ask why? Why do these people succeed? What is it about the global environment then, the national environment that makes a quote strong and quote executive so appealing to people? We seem to need that quote strength and quote. And I think that's part of it. And Trump plays to that. Biden does not play to that. Biden is a facilitator. He was a facilitator when he allowed Clarence Thomas to get consent in the Senate years ago. He was a facilitator on so many things, but not a leader. And he was vice president, but vice president is not really a leader, sorry. And now we find him as ostensibly a leader, but he doesn't have the goods. I don't think he has the strength, the focus, or for that matter, the courage. And people know this. They don't have to listen to think that to know this. They just know it intuitively that he's not wrong. And that's going to cost him the election next time, whether we think he should be elected or not. Jay, since when in this country or when did it occur that we need an autocrat type personality, when did that occur? Maybe everyone thought Franklin Delano Roosevelt was an autocrat of sorts. But can you pinpoint a time where that became a criteria or a main criteria for selection of a president? It happened right around November 2016, I think. I mean, it was there. No, I agree with you. I definitely agree with you. Yeah. And this kind of strength is what appeals to half the country anyway, the other half not. But at the end of the day, and I don't think the other half, that is, the Democratic half, is all that impressed with Biden's style, his, what do you want to call it, raw leadership. Well, for that matter, his achievements in office. He's not doing anything that really appeals to us. And I think when I say us, I mean, you know, the Democratic electorate, I would vote for him to avoid having a Republican. And a lot of people feel that way. But for a lot of people on the middle, independents on the line, they're not impressed. And you know what? There'll be another couple of years here where we'll see the same characteristics exhibited again and again. And if I'm right about what I'm saying, you know, that we'll have the same movie played again and again. But meanwhile, it matters a lot for November. This is a statement of, you know, of the Democrats and the Democratic position on things, values on things. And I'm afraid there's a lot of people in the country that take Biden as a guy who is not really selling the Democratic ticket. Well, J. I appreciate your honesty and admission that you would vote that way. I too will vote, but I will vote for Republican just so I don't get Trump. And a lot of people, a lot of people feel that Liz Cheney is the one distinctly because she's not Trump and she's got character of her own. And she may have a, you know, a very right-wing agenda, but it's not, it's not the modern GOP agenda. The hijacked agenda is the old GOP agenda, which is, you know, a lot of us bought into that years ago. And so if I could be sure that voting for Liz Cheney would stop Ron DeSantis, I would vote for Liz Cheney. Yeah. All right. Thank you, Jay. Hey, Winston, I don't know if it's me or not, but, you know, I've noticed, you know, over the years we've become very, the media has begun very careful on how they label individual candidates and, you know, we're very sensitive about how we refer to race identifications and sexuality identifications. But I noticed in the last 12 months, both pundits and candidates, they're just blatantly say that Joe Biden's strictly too old. He's just too old to be president of the United States. Number one question is, have you noticed people being fairly explicit about that, which, you know, kind of borders on some age discrimination issues? And number two is, is Joe Biden just too old to continue on as president of the United States? Well, you know, ageism is a reality whether we want to admit it or not. And, you know, Donald Trump is not a spring chicken either. You've got Mitch McConnell and Nancy Pelosi, and they are all octogenarians. However, we don't need to fire people because they're in their 80s. That's not what this is about. It's about being able to do the job and reasonable accommodation. No one, I was reading something the other day, I think it was a quote from Teddy Roosevelt that said it's, you know, the presidency is for the man who can spar in the ring or something like that. I thought, no, that's not what it's about. It's about having a gravitas of respect of old people and children, you know, or that quote's more applicable. And so we have to remember what was Joe Biden elected for. Joe Biden was elected because America had had enough of four plus years of absolute chaos and drama and trauma. And people just said not an overwhelming numbers to the point where today we actually have this idea that there's this quote unquote rematch. That's not why that's not what it's about. What it's about was that Joe Biden has reestablished a sense of normalcy to the White House. He's established normal behavior as the standard to which presidents should be held. He has regained respect for America in the world stage. He's calm. He is the baking soda that the country is needed. Is he sexy? Is he flashy? Is he fast? No, he's 80 years old. But you know what, a lot of people that I really know and respect are 80 years old or older. And we don't need to discount them because they can't run around the block in three minutes. Now, will he be a one term president is a different question. But what he's brought back to this nation just on the sense of normalcy and not when was the last tweet you read about Joe Biden or when was the last statement that he made that caused you to raise an eyebrow? Some people slam him for that and they say, oh, you need to be out here fighting every battle and raising your voice and screaming. No, that's what we had every minute before that. So frankly, one person who's just enjoyed the normalcy. Yes, do we have issues? Certainly. Has he addressed them as forcefully as people would like or that some of us might like? Maybe not. But on the whole, this is not even a contest. Has the media been unfair to Joe Biden and highlight some of the criticisms about he's slow and really kind of accentuate the age factor with Joe Biden? I think they've been reasonably fair to Joe Biden. But if you look at the right-wing media, of course, they talk about how he's had his campaign from the basement and he's being held up by sticks, but he's not. He's out there. He's traveling. He's doing what he needs to do as a president. He has a very competent staff. He's inherited a total nightmare on any front, no matter what you looked at. So considering the damage, he just walked into a post-hurricane basically and it doesn't matter where he turned. He had an enormous mess to clean up and he still does. He's still right in the throes of it. So people complain about inflation. Yes, is inflation a matter? Yes, it is. But is the integrity of the nation, the integrity of the office, are essential understanding of what this job is and how people should behave in it? If that's the standard that we're measuring him by, then he measures up. Is he the fighter that people want him to be or the loudmouth or the obnoxious bowl in the China store? No, he's not. Is that going to be enough to satisfy Americans? I don't know that it will and if they're just focused on inflation, well, you know, this inflation he inherited because the government, I think rightly so, pumped this economy full of money so it didn't collapse during the years of COVID, which is well before Joe Biden's time. So this is something he inherited as well. And I hope Americans can bear judging his record. Okay, before we go to Jay, should he run for a second term? Before you go to Jay. So that means a question to you. Yeah, should he run for a second term? I didn't have any coffee today. So the gentle viewer will notice I'm less stamped up. It's interesting what I've been reading and I've detected just sort of a change in the tone of the nation and in the media if I'm reading it right. And that is that Joe Biden will run, as he said, if Donald Trump is the frontrunner of that party. So a lot of things are still hinging on this other man's every word and action. But we're seeing cracks all over the place. We saw his former vice president, Mike Pence was supporting a different candidate in Arizona. So these cracks are starting to come all over the place. These other folks that are saying, whoa, let's wake up from this nightmare that we've been in on the Republican Party and let's try and reclaim what we can. That said, Donald Trump still has an enormous grip on the imagination of a lot of people. So unfortunately, I think will Joe Biden run or should Joe Biden run is dependent, sadly, on whether what's going on in Donald Trump's mind. So these hearings that we're going to have later today at two o'clock Hawaii time, if people haven't tuned in, they need to start at the beginning. This is absolutely compelling, required viewer viewing by the American public for anybody that cares about this nation. So in short, should he run, he needs to keep every option open, whatever he can do to continue a sense of this nation, getting back on as normal of a track as we can at this point. And I don't know what that's going to look like in two, three, four, five years from now. But I would much rather have a sane, competent, calm, rational kind individual in that office period. And if it's if it's Liz Cheney, okay, let it be Liz Cheney. We have to remember that she voted with Donald Trump like 96% of the time on his initiatives. And these folks never really raised their voice for the four years. We don't need to lionize them. They stood up at the at the last minute and they're doing what they need to do right now and should be applauded for that. But they were locked, stepped in and not at the beginning, remember until they got smashed down and no one then spoke out. That's not what this nation is about. It's fundamentally, I think our two party system demanding 100% fealty to the leader isn't serving us well and it would be but it's certainly opposed to the oath of office. It's what we have. So we got to deal with it. Okay, great. No answer to your answer. Okay, I like I'll take a no answer. I get them all the time. Oh, I know you will Jay. There are two questions before the house. One is, you know, is he is he going to be a one term president? That's the title of this discussion. And the answer is yes, he can't win. Sorry. Whether it's Trump or somebody else, the Republicans will put someone up and fund that person through dark money, what have you. And they'll get their half of the votes plus. And then they'll manipulate the voting system. It won't be free and fair. And at the end of the day, Biden will not be the president for the second term. And I think that's clear. We know that. Sorry. Sorry. I don't want to burst your bubble. Well, let's support that. Let's support that statement with a, you know, I know poll numbers aren't always accurate and they change very quickly. But you know, when you have 95% of the youth vote, which is to say under 28, and 95% of the youth vote says they don't want to see Joe Biden for a second term, or you have 62, 63% of all Democrats saying they don't want to see Joe Biden as the second term nominee. Do they know something? Yeah, well, they're reflecting what I'm what I'm saying. Yeah, you know, he doesn't have the focus on the on the agenda. I mean, this, this, this trip off this bounty was ridiculous. And of no consequence. And he was embarrassed in the, in the process and he wins. I mean, none of us would have done that really. The other, and I could go on and cite you additional circumstances. But the second question that you posed is, would he run? Can I actually wrote a commentary about that very question? And the answer is, you know, there are 330 million people in this country. Are we saying there's nobody but Joe Biden who can run a democratic ticket the next time that we can't say that? There are other people. And, you know, what, what I think his greatest mistake is not providing for a succession. There's no reason why Joe Biden can't provide for a succession. This is what you do when you can see that a, you are getting weak, you're not doing a great job in the minds of the public or the world. And, and B, you know, you need fresh, fresh blood in there, though you arrange for a succession. And he isn't doing that. He should have done that a while ago, but he isn't doing it now either. And, you know, he's holding, he dangling the possibility that he'll run. This is hurting, not only him, it's hurting democratic party and ultimately the country. He's got to wrap his arm around somebody who will succeed him. I don't think that should be Kamala Harris, but somebody in the field who would be a good candidate to beat Trump and to beat the Santas and, and to have the moral high ground that Winston likes. I mean, yes, this is achievable, but we just have to have somebody, may I say younger, maybe a little modern, maybe a little more focused, maybe a little more wrong in terms of his appeal and his gravitas. We need that. And he's not making any effort that I can see to provide us with a potential successor. He could, he should, but he isn't. Right. You know, there's been some talk and God forbid that this show should dwell on speculation. We are an editorial program, commentary program. Is Joe Biden waiting to see if Donald Trump runs or not? Is that a big part of his decision-making as whether or not he goes for a second term, Jay? Well, yes. The answer is he is waiting. I agree with that. And you've said it and Winston has said it, but, but I don't think you should. I think you should, you know, do this succession plan right now and start putting his arm around the shoulder of somebody who can succeed him. Wouldn't that make him a lame duck president for the next two years? Well, he's got to, he's got to handle it in a way that it doesn't. There's no reason why he can't be a real president, but also look into the future. I mean, you know, if it was any of us, we could manage that, that problem, that issue, and we could remain president, but also talk into the future. You know, I would like to hear him be stronger. I would like to hear him talk about what happens after the flood, so to speak, at Premois, when they lose. Remember that was Louis the 16th said that. I'm sorry. I just read his book last week, so I know exactly what you're talking about. There should be no, Louis the 16th, there should be no, no, you know, flood after Biden. He should set things up. You know, I think the people in Europe are losing, losing confidence in the sense that they look at the United States and they say, oh, Biden, you know, he's not unable to do this, that and the other thing, but he's not planning a succession. After him, and maybe it's Trump, the Santas, somebody else who opposes international cooperation. And so what are we going to do then? Should we have a coalition we know is going to be under fire by the United States? It's the originator in 2024. If I were a European, I would worry about that issue. And I'm sure they are. So Biden has got to give them some confidence about the succession of power in the United States. He's not doing that. And I fear that they fear what will happen. Let me follow up on something. If Joe Biden were to announce that he really is not going to run for a second term, that would communicate to the Republicans that, uh-oh, they might get a strong, strong candidate in as a nominee. Wouldn't that help the GOP run away from Donald Trump as far as the party's nominee? Maybe so. It is what it is. Right now, I think they think they could beat Joe Biden in a matchup, a second matchup. I pretty sure GOP thinks we could take them this time. But if Joe Biden were to do the country a favor and not announce a second term, speculation would force the GOP's hand to say, hey, we got to get a real candidate. Donald Trump's not that one. That's kind of contingent planning. I don't think it works. I think the transparency is better. If he's going to make it a one-term presidency, then he should stay so. If he's going to have somebody to follow him, he should stay so. So, I mean, if the three of us got together and decided how he would cast a one-term presidency, it's not like we would be unable to do that. We would say, here, I got, what, two and a half years more. Here's what I'm going to do. This is my agenda. And I know I'm going to run into trouble with the Republicans, but it's on their head that there's going to be more storms and extreme weather. It's on their head that we're going to have all these social problems resulting in the Roe v. Wade issue. It's on their head that we're going to have all these shootings in all these schools. I'm trying, and this is my agenda. I hope you come along with me. This is what I want to achieve before my four years are up. It's not like these guys are running for life, and nobody can make that assumption, or for that matter, running for two terms. We've had too many two-term presidents, in my opinion. So, what he's got to do is make an interactive decision about what his agenda will be for how long he's in office, and then try to convince people it's right, and they should follow him. I don't think that the question of succession enters into that. He should be speaking from his heart, and speaking from what do you want to call it, a connection with the public. All right, great answer, Jay. Winston, I'm going to kind of repeat the question is, would Joe, excuse me, Joe Biden be giving the nation a favor by forcing the GOP's hand to select a different candidate than Donald Trump? Do you agree with the chess game maneuver that I just suggested, or do you agree with Jay that Joe Biden should just be more transparent and announces true intentions, and not wait for Donald Trump? Well, there's reality. I like what Jay had to say, and it makes a good sense, is that if he continues on with this calm, steady grandfather of the nation as it is right now, that he could make a moral pitch that he's essentially a caretaker government while we while we repair our wounds and get and rebuild and just become a stabilized country, and that he says this is, you know, I'm upholding the best that vision for America for itself, while you all figure out, have the people that the reformed people on the right who say, yeah, actually, that was just a bad dream, and we are going back to principal conservatism, and it would allow for some succession on the Democrat side as well. And we have to remember that there was a pretty robust field of candidates in 2020 before Joe Biden came to the top, and that wasn't really for sure a thing that he was going to until South Carolina, which I thought was interesting. And Donald Trump viewed him as his main threat, as he still does now. But if the question were posed to people, you know, you mentioned about the number of Gen Zs or under 28s that don't want Joe Biden to run 60% of Americans don't want Donald Trump to run either. So it might just be like, you know what, we had enough of that out with the old in with the new Joe Biden is going to be there for a couple more years, he can just keep the ship steady at the helm, or even just sitting in the harbor without letting it sink. Interesting article that was just about this that the editorial by Jennifer Rubin and Washington Post on July 19, which was just yesterday, and it was whether or not Biden runs he must not bank on Trump. And as she says, that it's just a short article, but he says his greatest service to the country was defeating Trump and establishing a normal presidency and that any minimally competent Democrats should be able to beat Trump if he focuses or she focuses on one question, do we really want to relive the Trump years? And the thing is, is Trumpism doesn't need Donald Trump anymore, you've got DeSantis, you've got a Chris Christine, you've got all over the country, this is just sprung up. So do we want to relive that with the personality of it? Absolutely not. The question of the thinking behind it is still going to be there. But her, I do recommend that people go to that Washington Post article, but he says, you know, actually Joe's performance Joe Biden's performance, he's rallied NATO against Russia appointed a lot of really great federal judges, massive vaccination campaign oversees an economy that is not collapsing. It's far better than his putrid poll numbers suggest as she says, but she also suggests that there are challenges that would be well served by Joe Biden doing something like like Jay suggests, which is sort of stepping back and saying, you know, folks, I get it. And maybe this was just designed to be a one term presidency. And I don't need to hold out that that idea that I'm going to do this anymore. And it may just open the floodgates to to compare anybody to Donald Trump if he says, oh, well, I'm going to run now. Well, I don't think that the maybe the appetite for him has that ship assailed to and if I'm just sort of reading these these cracks in the cup, it may be that time that that happens. The Republicans have a very a lot of strong people on their side, I will give that to them. And so there's no shortage of good of not of strong candidates on that side. But maybe this opens it up so that we might be looking at new people. She suggests, you know, Pete Buttigieg and Amy Klobuchar. But I think you've got a lot of others like the Gavin Newsom, since she doesn't even mention here, or, you know, a better or work or something where he might be a strong like vice presidential candidate. But she says it's not a shoe in for Kamala, but by throwing it open, the cream will rise to the top. Okay, great. Well, you know, Jay, I wanted to ask you another question, but it looks like we're almost out of time. But I'm going to ask it anyway. You know, I suggested that by announcing now that he wouldn't run for a second term, he'd be a lame duck. Isn't he already a lame duck, thanks to Joe Manson? Yeah, Manson made him a lame lame duck on day one. Yeah, all the significant initiatives have been sidetracked by Manson. Manson is a Republican in disguise. So yeah, he is a lame duck and not only is he a lame duck, but everything he does is subject to criticism by the right wing and everything he does. So that's the good going to, you know, paint, characterize the rest of his term. By the way, let me take a moment and react to Winston's suggestion. I just had an idea. If Biden said, hey, I want Pete Buttigieg to be my successor, I'm going to put my arm around him and I'm going to recommend him to you. That would be a mistake. It reminds me of what happened in one of the big companies here in Hawaii when the fellow who was in charge said, I don't know which of these individuals is going to succeed, but I'm going to set up a competition between the two of them. And we'll see the best man or woman wins. And he did. And that's the way it worked. And the competition was limited to candidates, so to speak, that he identified. If you just have one, it makes people nervous. If you have two, then you're setting up a kind of election between the two and it excludes anyone else, or at least it could exclude anywhere else. So what I'm thinking is this, you don't go out on the front page and say, I am suggesting A or A and B to be my successes. What you do is you call them in. For example, if a judge was somebody that Biden wanted to promote, he would call them in for a special consultation and even get that newspaper. If Gavin Newsom was somebody he wanted to promote, he'd call them in, he'd talk with them, and you'd have pictures of him and Gavin together in the Oval Office. And he'd do that every 60, 90 days. And the message would get out pretty quickly because all the wags in the press would be making some kind of expectation on that. That's the way he should do it. It's not a matter of being explicit. It's a matter of being proximate. And it's not just one person, it's a couple of hand-selected people. And that would be the message that the public is waiting for. All righty. We have run out of time. So let's wrap up. Winston, your final thought. I agree with exactly what Jay is saying. I don't know if I would... He should not say, here's my successor, even though it's got Biden, Harris, everywhere. Our country's all about the best and the brightest, floating to the top, right? The cream rises to the top. So let's open this up to people that we might not have considered when you think about like, like Pete Buttigieg, who was a tiny mayor's town mayor that has had rose to national prominence. No one could have predicted that. We may have the same thing again in this next election. But the idea that people are started being invited to the White House just to have thoughts from thought leaders of the nominal folks that could win this race, absolutely. I wouldn't say 60 to 90 days, I'd say every week, have them come in and rotation just to get their thoughts on things. Is he a lame duck president? Yes. That's okay. Everybody understands that, that there's gridlock. Nothing's going to happen. If they can pass this election reform bill that just came out today this morning that just says, hey, you can't overturn these elections willy-nilly like this. If we can get those sort of basic structures in, and I think there is an appetite for that, if there can be the most minor stimulus bill, I think there's an appetite for that. But really, again, he's a caretaker president to get us back into normalcy. So while we don't have any expectations of them that are very high at this point, if he is just, the expectation is that he is baking soda, he is calming us down, he's returning us to normalcy. So whatever comes about in 2024 will be at least folks with a grip on reality, kindness, a pitch towards all of America, leading our nation as a nation rather than these weird, the weird situation that's developed because of what we had for the prior four years. So that is my hope is that he could do something like that and that we just accept reality as it is and try and move forward as we rebuild from the chaos that we just experienced. Great points. You know, I like the fact that you said a caretaking president, yeah, he's a caretaker and four years is probably enough of caretaking. Jay, your final thought. Well, I actually think he ought to, Joe Biden ought to invite the three of us into the Oval Office once in a while. I know you do. Or at the very least, Tim, that we send him a link to this show. Because I think there's some real resonance here in what we've been discussing. It really, our discussion here cuts through a lot of the fog and it would be good advice for Biden's take. And at this time, I want to be clear, I agree with at least some of the things that Winston has said. Good. I never ever disappointed in comments made on this show. So guess what? We've run out of time and I'd like to thank our guest, Winston Welch, my co-host Jay Fidel. Unfortunately, Cynthia Lisa and Claire could not make it today, but I hope to see her next week. And I hope to see you view in and join us all at American Issues Take One, next Thursday, 11 o'clock. Won't you join us? And until then, I'm Tim Apatial, your host, Aloha. Thank you.