Tea at Trianon: Mentally Unfit

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Sunday, March 13, 2022

Mentally Unfit

Anyone who has ever cared for a dementia patient can see that Biden is suffering from such an affliction. From Conservative Brief:

The most recent poll is a good news and bad news situation for President Joe Biden. On the one hand, he got high marks on his handling of the situation between Russia and Ukraine after his State of the Union address and hit his highest mark in 2022, Mediaite reported. But on the other hand, less than half of respondents believe he is mentally fit to be president, a startling number for a man who has his fingers on the nuclear codes.

According to a new Morning Consult/Politico survey, 45 percent of Americans approve of the president’s job performance, while 51 percent disapprove. That’s a 4 point increase from the last Morning Consult/Politico survey, completed Feb. 27, and it represents Biden’s best approval rating in the poll since Dec. 13. It’s also consistent with an NPR poll out last Friday which gave him a 7 point bump after the State of the Union.

Voters are giving the president a passing grade on Ukraine, the Morning Consult/Politico survey found. In all, 46 percent of respondents approve of Biden’s handling of the Ukraine crisis, while 42 percent disapprove. That’s up 6 points from the Morning Consult/Politico survey completed two weeks ago.

Still, the news wasn’t all good for the president. Just 45 percent of voters believe that he is “mentally fit.” That number has gone unchanged over the past two months. It also tracks with an ABC poll last month which found 54 percent of Americans do not believe that Biden has the “mental sharpness” for office. (Read more.)