Commentary
Even before the disastrous debate, people were wondering who’s actually making decisions in the White House, and with First Lady Jill seemingly always at his side, if not nearby, it’s reasonable to assume. She even assisted him off the debate stage.
You will recall during the last trip to Europe, she flew back the U.S. to be seen at Hunter Biden’s trial, but she returned to be at Joe’s side for French President and Mrs. Macron’s state dinner.
Popular podcast host and comedian Joe Rogan recently slammed the First Lady as part of an inner circle “running the White House in hopes of maintaining power. It’s very clear watching Joe Biden talk, very clear, that he’s not making all the decisions.
Referring it like a “power thing,” he added, “She’s in power. She doesn’t want to not be the first lady anymore.”
Then there’s the untimely cover story in the elite Vogue magazine, with her name in a font nearly as big as the Vogue banner, and the words, “We will decide our future.” Really.
Vogue claims to be the magazine of “confident, sophisticated women, who seek to stay ahead of the curve in the world of fashion and culture. In its demographics, Vogue reports 80 percent of its readership to be female with 40 percent between the ages of 25 and 34.
Tina Brown, of Vanity Fair and The New Yorker “fame,” told the New York Times that an appearance on the cover of a fashion magazine is “always a risk,” but at the moment, the Vogue cover, “is not particularly helpful.”
One media editor asked if the Vogue audience was “really the path to victory in Michigan, Wisconsin and Nevada?”
Future Scenario?
Although I am a writer of political commentary, I got to thinking about what might be said about Jill’s role after it’s all over for the president. It might read something like this:
“Dr. Jill never left his presence, working together from a private upstairs office. He gave her access to classified documents codes. At the president’s insistence, the first lady sat in on his meetings. She denied his advisors access to him if she determined the president couldn’t be disturbed.
“When he took ill, Dr. Jill stepped in and began making decisions. Consulting with physicians, she would not even consider making her husband resign and have the vice president take over. She and the president came before the formal functioning of the executive branch of government.
“The first move in establishing what she called her ’stewardship’ was to mislead the entire nation, from the cabinet and Congress to the press and the people. When individual cabinet members came to confer with the president, they went no further than the first lady. If they had policy papers, she would first look over the material herself.
“When she heard that the secretary of states had convened a cabinet meeting without the president’s permission, she considered it an act of insubordination, and he was fired.
“For all of the protection she had provided for her husband, Dr. Jill may well have damaged what he had dreamed for as a legacy.”
Far-fetched? Not really. If you read this, replacing all references to Dr. Jill with the name Edith, you will be reading a true account from, “Edith Wilson: The First Lady Who Became an Acting President Without Being Elected,” from Famous Political Figures, written by Cori Anthony.
However, if you consider that Edith sat in for President Wilson in 1917, the thought of it taking place in 2024, the era of the 24/7 news cycle with a much broader landscape of news outlets and, of course, the social media, it most likely couldn’t take place. But it doesn’t mean Jill isn’t closely involved in all decisions regarding Joe’s daily schedule of official and campaign activities.
NOTE: This blog edition is not intended to demean the role of our first ladies, however, I continue to be critical of Jill Biden, who I believe did a disservice to her husband and America by supporting his reelection, knowing in her heart that he was not competent to perform as our president.
May God continue to bless the United States of America.
