DAVID WOIWOD: Joe Biden’s political wounds are deep and terminal

If this was Australia, aides would’ve already packed Joe Biden’s toothbrush and duffle bag.

His signature aviators would be waiting for him on the dash of his precious vintage hot-rod, as he and Jill drove off into the Delaware sunset.

Yet as our former prime minister John Howard pointed out this week: the American system isn’t as brutal or swift in dispensing with elected leaders.

But the US President’s political wounds are deep and terminal. And Friday’s double-dose of foot-and-mouth disease has left Biden’s candidacy inoperable.

He called President Zelensky, President Putin.

He called his own VP, Vice President Trump.

Minor stuff-ups in isolation. Deeply unsettling, when you connect the dots.

Even Joe’s Secretary of State Antyony Blinken winced, watching his boss unpick 50-years of public service, in a rambling hour-long press conference.

Blinken knew this was a bad day. And it was a bad day made worse by the fact Joe just won’t be convinced it’s time to go.

Biden’s grip on the presidency is becoming a white-knuckled grab for power that’s leaving claw marks on the Oval Office furniture.

And allies like Australia, many of whom gathered in Washington for this week’s NATO Summit, should be quaking at the octogenarian’s insistence he’s ready for four more years.

Look at the alternative.

Donald Trump was a NATO-skeptic in his first term. Now, he’s positively NATO-phobic.

He has called the political and military alliance “obsolete” and earlier this year said he’d “encourage” Russia to attack NATO allies who do not pay their bills.

Trump’s anti-NATO message of US isolationism and anti-globalism plays well to the grievances of his MAGA base, who feel taken advantage of by foreign allies.

And the only person standing between Donald Trump and NATO right now is an old bloke struggling to express himself on the world stage.

Allies realise this. It’s why leaders attempted to ‘Trump-proof’ the NATO pact this week.

They locked in government spending and other commitments well into the next four years, hoping that if Joe gets his way — and the polls call his demise correctly — at least there’d be a bit of red tape around their bloc that might slow any MAGA attempt to shred the alliance.

Leaders here in Washington won’t explicitly knock Donald Trump. It’s just not good business.

But what they won’t do either is level with the current US President and express their nervousness at the idea that he wants to stay in this race.

Today for example, the Finnish Prime Minister declared he had “absolutely no concerns” about President Biden’s capacity to do the job.

It’s time to jump out of the sauna mate, I think you’ve overcooked it.

Joe Biden’s weakness is NATO’s weakness. Their fortunes are in parallel right now.

And in order to safeguard American democracy and our global democratic order, Joe Biden must step aside to give Democrats the best chance of defeating Donald Trump in November.

David Woiwod is the 7NEWS US Bureau Chief