1 February—The picture above, without the text balloon, evidently was posted on the Bob Stefanowski campaign’s Facebook website or page or whatever you call those things. It was taken by whomever a couple of Sundays ago as some old fart held forth (however briefly) at the yellow-ribbon demonstration on the Green.

The text balloon was added by a smart-ass friend who thought he’d be yanking my chain when he handed it to me in person. Well, Norman, the joke’s on you. Given what seems to be developing for the 2024 presidential race, you never know.

A sentence in this morning’s Republican-American editorial reminds readers, “It will be hard to take seriously anything Mr. Biden says about partisan opposition to his nominee [for Justice Stephen Breyer’s replacement on the Supreme Court].”

Based on Joe Biden’s life-long career and record in politics, however, it would be more appropriate to say, simply, “It will be hard to take seriously anything Mr. Biden says.” Period. Full stop. Biden certainly is less obnoxious than Trump in every way possible, but there’s more to being president than not being a narcissistic con man. Which most politicians are anyway.

And here’s a scenario to consider for another Trump presidency, that could make him number 47 as well as number 45. Until we have another term-skipping POTUS, Grover Cleveland, 22 and 24, remains the only president to leave the White House and return for a second term four years later, 1885-1889 and 1893-1897.

Suppose that private citizen Donald J. Trump were to be tried, convicted, and sentenced for crimes in New York and/or whichever other states would like to do the right thing because Trump has usually done the wrong thing. And suppose he actually gets locked up in a state penitentiary. Wishful thinking, perhaps, but hope springs eternal.

Now, even if Trump serves hard time, there’s nothing in the Constitution that prevents an incarcerated convict from running for President of the United States. And should Trump be elected, there’s nothing in the Constitution to keep him from serving his presidential term while behind bars serving his jail term.

But if Trump were to be convicted on federal criminal charges, that’s another story, since he could campaign from the slammer, go to DC in handcuffs for his inauguration, and fully pardon himself as his first presidential act. But he couldn’t do that if a state were to get him first.

And if Trump wants to get elected again, he’d better behave himself and not do too many off-putting things like promise to pardon all the violent crazies who invaded the Capitol last year. As it is, he shamefully abused his pardoning privilege even more than Willy Clinton had done . . .