Harris would be as much a figurehead as Biden and wed be ruled by the swamp

We’re seeing a lot of fuss and bother over the 2024 presidential election. But do we even need a president?I ask because we don’t have one now. And we haven’t had one for all practical purposes for something between a few months and three years.Independent journalist Glenn Greenwald recently tweeted, “The US has no functional president and has not had one for months, and it’s barely noticeable and barely matters because there’s a permanent unelected machine that runs the government.”Rep.Thomas Massie (R-Ken.) replied, “Where’s the lie?” Elon Musk commented, “Bingo.”Joe Biden may be capable of lobbing insults at half the country, but he certainly isn’t running things.  His dementia became impossible to hide, even with the help of an eagerly cooperative media, by June of this year, and was in fact obvious to anyone who cared to notice well before that. He’s been a figurehead for a long time.Kamala Harris isn’t running things, either. The vice presidency is not an executive position.  All the executive power the Constitution grants is lodged in the president; the veep isn’t a co-pilot or second-in-command or junior president, but merely a backup.

And the only way to deploy that backup is for the president to die or resign.So who’s running things now? Good question.  During Biden’s term, we’ve heard rumors that Biden’s wife Dr.Jill Biden, various named and unnamed staffers, or assorted Obama administration operatives were actually calling the shots.  There’s at least some precedent for a first lady to run a shadow presidency: Woodrow Wilson’s wife Edith effectively ran the government for a year and a half, after he was incapacitated by a stroke.And of course a whole collection of bureaucrats, interagency committees and even lobbyists (who often write federal legislation and agency regulations) may be basically steering the ship of state in the absence of an actual captain.What’s surprising, though, is how lit...