
This quote, which is attributed on the Internet to either Oscar Wilde, Franklin Roosevelt, or Dr. Who, which, besides raising the parallel question of whether a man can be judged by the quality of the people he plagiarizes, can be asked regarding the current crop of Presidential candidates, in some cases with excruciating results.
Trump, of course has his main enemy as E. Jean Carroll, a woman he attempted to rape in a dressing room many years ago. This is a nearly eighty-year-old woman who will never collect a dime of the 5 mil he owes her as a result. She is not a fearsome foe. His other enemies are Antifa, Communists and Democrats, vague collections of bogeymen he checks for every night under his bed at Mar al Lago. Nobody else worries about them in the least.
Ron DeSantis’ enemies are Mickey and Minnie Mouse, and their folksy ally Goofy. ‘Nuff said.
Nicki Hailey, Tim Scott and most of the other Republican wannabees are not even each other’s enemies. Nor are they enemies of Trump’s. They can’t stop praising him for stuff he actually didn’t do, like building the wall, standing against the pandemic or pooping sufficiently on China. They refuse to criticize him for things he did do, like violating the Constitution as if it was a roofied sophomore girl at the senior prom or collecting legal judgments like he was looking to get the complete set.
Mike Pence, whose enemy is Satan. Unfortunately, Lucifer will not be on any primary ballots, possibly due to his lack of existence.
Vivek Ramaswamy, whose enemy is himself, for not changing his Hindu name to Nicki Hailey.
Asa Hutchinson’s enemy is Donald Trump. Unfortunately, that sits him at about 1% in the polls, but it gets him on CNN a lot.
Joe Biden, on the other hand, collects enough worthy adversaries to start a museum of them. International criminal Vladimir Putin for one, who would love to murder Biden during the President’s nap time. Kevin McCarthy, who is willing to crash the world economy to cut off food stamps to the indigent. Old age, the enemy of us all, whom Biden meets and defies every morning as he brushes his teeth.
Quality foes all. Can’t think of anyone the President would have to take second place to, this side of Zelensky.
Or, maybe, Dr. Who.