I had a couple directions I considered going today. One involved the Wall Street Journal article on how President Biden's closest aides worked to shield his decline not just from the American people but from others in his administration. Another involved the looming government shutdown, which hadn’t been looming until Elon Musk and Donald Trump came out against the House’s bipartisan spending bill. Profligate though the bill may have been, part of Trump’s objection was it failed to raise the debt limit/eliminate it altogether. This despite the president-elect’s vow to cut government waste, which presumably involved cutting government deficits, which presumably meant the debt ceiling shouldn’t have even been a consideration for him. Maybe I’m missing something. Unless Trump knows extending his tax cuts will add to the debt and he doesn’t want Congressional Democrats to use that as a cudgel when he and Republicans try extending them unilaterally. Maybe I’m onto something. (By the way, I’m not opposed to tax cuts, but there’s a time and a place. With the national debt what it is, this doesn’t seem to be the time. If states can cut taxes and keep their budgets balanced, though, go crazy.)
Anyhow, none of this is what today’s link is about. Today’s link is about David Gergen, who his daughter announced is in the early stages of dementia. Gergen was a political and cable news staple for decades. That’s not typically a recommendation for someone, but Gergen was different. He didn’t buy into the screaming and performing so many pundits engage in. He was thoughtful and nuanced and eager to see the merit in both sides (he worked for both Republican and Democratic presidents). This maddened some in his party — Rush Limbaugh called him “David Rodham Gergen” — but Gergen didn’t come off as disingenuous or preachy. He was decent, understanding, and generous with the benefit of the doubt. We needed him then and we really need him now. My gratitude and thoughts are with him and his family.