Isn’t it noteworthy that we haven’t heard any (official) update about Joe Biden’s state of health?

It goes to show just how timely Original Sin, by high-profile journalists Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson, really is. If the subject weren’t so tragic, it would almost be entertaining at times. A highly recommended read.

The authors describe Biden’s health decline as a slow, painful process that’s been unfolding for years. According to the authors, the first major blow came with the death of his son Beau. Anyone who saw Biden after that noticed he looked aged. It’s a human reaction, and perfectly understandable.

Then came the 2020 campaign, which COVID turned upside down. Ironically, the pandemic worked in Biden’s favor because everyone was grounded. He didn’t have to make those marathon days of five or six campaign stops, which helped hide just how much he’d aged even before taking office. Everybody who was unhappy with Donald Trump could project into Biden what he wanted to see in him.

But once he moved into the White House and the spotlight was fully on him as the incumbent and especially in the second half of his presidency the health decline accelerated. The authors remind us that this isn’t new: presidents have been hiding their health problems forever. We probably still don’t know when Reagan’s Alzheimer’s truly began. And by the way, there’s no law forcing presidents to disclose their health issues.

What Tapper and Thompson do well is gather the facts, putting them together and tell the story as it unfolded. But I kept wondering while reading: how was this allowed to happen in today’s media environment? The book is surprisingly light on the media’s failure to report on what was obvious to anyone paying attention. Coming from two seasoned journalists, I expected a much tougher critique there and it feels like a missed opportunity.

Another truly shocking part? How many people inside Biden’s own party must have known or at least doubted his fitness but stayed silent. The partisanship we’re seeing now in the USA has reached dangerous, new levels — power at any cost.

PS: Check out my channel on YouTube where I discuss this and other books.