The Biden camp no longer has the COVID umbrella to shield him from doing things publicly. Joe will have to hold press conferences and attend events. The long, tortured days of glad-handing voters for a national campaign are back, and it’s fair to assume this 80-year-old doesn’t have the stamina to do it. If he can’t kiss babies and shake hands, can he govern, keep the nuclear codes safe, or stay awake for classified intelligence briefings?

Maybe the one person, or shall I say staff, that’s relieved about the Biden fall is Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), who has been hounded by the press and her Democratic Party colleagues about whether she can finish her last term in office. Feinstein has been dealing with many health crises, the latest being a lengthy shingles infection. Progressive Democrats aren’t concerned about her health—they’re mad at her for clogging up a host of Biden judicial nominations while absent. The same arguments the left is making for Feinstein to go could be weaponized against Biden. Now that he fell again, expect radio silence on the anti-Dianne bashing, at least for now.

Looking back, Bob Dole didn’t have a shot at beating Bill Clinton, despite seeing the 1994 Republican Revolution as Slick Willy’s political epitaph. But Dole’s age—73 then—was always peppered into the coverage. He also fell at a campaign event. Jimmy Carter couldn’t manage to get through a six-mile race before collapsing. Hillary Clinton collapsed during a 9/11 memorial in 2016. All these events impacted their candidacies. Will Joe be the exception due to the changing political landscape? We’re more partisan now.

Surveys show voters are not pleased with Joe and think his age and fitness are issues, but they are unwilling to give Donald Trump a second go at the White House. Public opinion is shiftable sand, and Trump could make inroads within some slices of the voter coalition who are now dead set on stopping him. You won’t do that by going insane, hitting DeSantis on COVID while praising Grim Reaper Cuomo. The former president has been unhinged in going after his former aides, some of whom were the most loyal and competent staffers he had. Republicans have a golden opportunity to make a red wave year happen in 2024, which did not materialize in 2022 due to the Trump stigma.

I can vote for Trump again, no problem. But it’s not Republicans that Trump needs to win over. It’s other groups who are persuadable and ones that also are probably not keen on a presidential candidate who’s facing potentially three indictments. Democrats played the long game. We rightfully mocked and pilloried the host of legal actions against Trump as political theater and witch hunts. The fact remains that Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg indicted him over a shoddy claim that his hush money arrangement with Stormy Daniels constituted campaign finance violations and fraud since this alleged tryst was vital to the voters’ interests. It wasn’t—Trump reportedly messing around with porn stars isn’t disqualifying. The legalese was even more absurd, as these are misdemeanor charges elevated as felonies. In a sane world, they couldn’t even be considered, as the statute of limitations has long expired. Supposedly, the COVID pandemic permitted Bragg to pursue these charges; Cuomo stopped the clock or something.

There’s no shot Trump will go to jail, but there will be a trial in March 2024. And we don’t know how the 2020 Georgia election interference probe will end or the classified document controversy. Trump could be indicted in both investigations, rendering him incapable of campaigning effectively. You cannot run for president and talk about the issues while facing potentially three trials, legitimate or not. It’s on the docket—perpetual defense never wins. And that’s not to say that DeSantis is our savior, either. If Trump is scandal-ridden, albeit by media manufacturing, and DeSantis is woefully unprepared for primetime, age and competency are the least of the GOP’s worries.