Note: This “Moore to the Point” commentary aired on NewsTalkSTL on Friday, July 8th. Below is the audio.
Boris Johnson, the British Prime Minister, waved the white flag on Thursday and said he was stepping down as PM after vowing not to budge from growing demands for his resignation. While it signals quite a shake-up, this is hardly an unheard-of event in British politics – in fact, several of Johnson’s recent predecessors also resigned.
However, it is almost fifty years since Richard Nixon, the US President, resigned following the Watergate controversy. In fact, that was the only time a US President resigned from office — though several others were impeached, none were removed from office.
But I do have to wonder if we aren’t edging ever closer to a second presidential resignation? We’re only a year-and-a-half into his term, and President Biden is providing us with almost-daily doses of his declining mental acuity. I don’t say that lightly, or to be cruel – it’s simply an observation that’s difficult to escape. In addition to his plummeting approval ratings, and what seems to be an escalating Democratic shellacking in this year’s midterms elections, it may bring us closer to another President who is stepping down. While that may be welcome news to some, given his VP, it’s hard not to ask if that won’t – unfortunately — be a stepdown in multiple ways.