Joe Biden has finally stopped being busy enough to visit the disaster site in East Palestine, Ohio. Or maybe it’s an election year and his poll numbers are plummeting because he’s bad at his job. You make the call.

As readers will remember, the train derailment in Ohio, which ended up dumping toxic chemicals in East Palestine, happened one year ago this coming weekend. At the time, Biden administration officials had to be arm-twisted into acknowledging anything bad had actually happened. There was zero accountability that the decisions made on the ground – including the decision to BURN THE RAIL CARS, as confirmed by the EPA’s timeline – were going to negatively affect the local wildlife or population. It took a visit from Donald Trump to goose Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg into visiting the area – and Trump showed up the entire Biden administration in the best way possible.

Should Donald Trump win the presidential election in 2024, it will be because of actions like this, while Joe Biden sat on a beach in Delaware.

The Biden administration has claimed that Old Joe is too busy to visit East Palestine for the last year, while continuing to let him take vacations and shuttling him off to blue state Hawaii after the devastating wildfire on Maui (and the equally devastating “no comment” blunder that Grandpa Brandon made). Red state Ohio would just have to wait. And wait, and wait, and wait. The people noticed, but to the Biden administration, there was no rush.

330 days ago, Biden promised he'd visit East Palestine, Ohio, "at some point."

146 days ago, Biden said he hadn't yet because "there's a lot going on."

Biden has had time for a lot of vacation, ice cream, and doing nothing for days on end — just not East Palestine. pic.twitter.com/CjwBRfURsc

— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) January 27, 2024

But with the one year anniversary of the train derailment coming up this weekend, it’s time to send Joe in. Sometime. Soon.

“In February, President Biden will travel to East Palestine, Ohio, to meet with residents impacted by the Norfolk Southern train derailment and assess the progress that his Administration has helped deliver in coordination with state and local leaders to protect the community and hold Norfolk Southern accountable,” an administration official said.

Much urgency, such wow. The people are not impressed.

One East Palestine resident, local business owner DJ Yokley, slammed Biden’s plan for a belated visit.

“The American people have awakened to realize that the leader of our country did not show up to the greatest catastrophe of 2023. And now he’s going to show up because it is an election year,” Yokley said in a “Fox & Friends” interview Wednesday morning.

“President Trump came and supported us when he didn’t have to … Now it’s, ‘Hey we have to go visit East Palestine because we haven’t done that yet — and check it off the books.’”

Biden is most definitely being sent to East Palestine to blunt the incoming attack ads – but that still isn’t going to make the optics look any better. Neither does the fact that Biden will likely be on the ground with a Democrat Senator who is desperate to keep his seat.

U.S Sen. Sherrod Brown, a Cleveland Democrat who is up for re-election this year, has visited eight times.

In a Tuesday Senate floor speech, Brown said residents of the community want the contamination cleaned up completely.

“They want continuous monitoring of the air they breathe, the water they drink, and screenings to see if their long-term health has been impacted,” said Brown. “We’re fighting for all of it. We’re not giving up. And we’ll keep asking and listening and making sure they get what they need.”

Brown has good reason to be worried about his re-election chances in this situation – he is currently the only statewide elected Democrat in Ohio. The state primary to choose his Republican challenger will happen on March 19th, and in bright red Ohio, Sherrod Brown’s chances are not looking good. That is why he has not forgotten about East Palestine, and when Biden finally gets to Ohio, you can bet Sherrod Brown will be right behind him.

The biggest problem for Joe Biden is, of course, that the political moment has long passed in East Palestine. A visit now looks wholly political, not helpful. Biden failed at the entire perfunctory mission of being president when he didn’t show up a year ago. He can offer no excuses for going to Maui over East Palestine, except political ones. We all know that there is nothing a president can actually do on the ground when a disaster occurs, and yet they are still expected to show up, offer help, and act like they care. Joe Biden, who campaigned on being Mr. Empathy, has turned out to be a selfish, senile, empty suit when it comes to caring about the troubles of others, including his own grandchild. Joe is only told to care about things once his camp gets the polling data.

Here’s a fair question to ask: which Palestine does Joe Biden think he’s going to be visiting? If he gets to Ohio and makes a comment about Hamas derailing this train, the election is over. Would he actually say something that crazy, and would Sherrod Brown then faint on camera to distract everyone from such a massive gaffe? We all know that Biden is in cognitive decline. The campaign is desperate to keep him in bubble wrap and out of the spotlight. Sending him to East Palestine is a risk, but the political winds are blowing, and Joe has to go. Sometime. Soon.

Featured image: original Victory Girls art by Darleen Click