How Low Can You Go?

The phrase “How low can you go?” is generally associated with the limbo, a Caribbean dance that originated in Trinidad in the 1800s. It became popular in the 1940s with U.S. servicemen and was even adopted as a training exercise. By the 1950s, the limbo craze had spread worldwide.

Originally, the dance started with the limbo bar placed low and then raised with each subsequent round of dancers. It was designed to depict the cramped quarters experienced by Africans as they were transported across the Atlantic Ocean on slave ships. Eventually, the dance became a game where the bar was placed high and lowered bit by bit, with the winner being the one to pass beneath the lowest bar without disturbing it.

The world record for the limbo is held by Dennis Walston, who successfully navigated a 6-inch bar in 1991. Shameka Charles holds the women’s record of 8.5-inches, a mark she set in 2010.

In politics, “How low can you go?” can apply to both polls and practices. For instance, President Biden is currently tanking in the polls, losing to former President Trump in the latest NBC poll by two points and among young voters by four… and by nine points in an ABC poll that was considered an outlier of sorts. According to Reuters, President Biden’s approval ratings are also underwater with 56% disapproving of his job performance and only 39% approving. Even more disconcerting for “Geritol Joe” is the number of potential voters who think he is too old for the job, including a whopping 69% of Democrats. Ouch!

As I’ve said in the past, if President Biden is still a “dead man walking” in March, look for the Democrats to kick him to the curb via a forced health issue or personal crisis. However, if Joe refuses to go voluntarily, the Democrats will have no choice but to rally behind a late-blooming alternative candidate. Trust me; there is a reason why Gavin Newsom just returned from a trip to the Far East and then met with Chinese President Xi Jinping when he visited San Francisco last week. Burnishing his foreign policy credentials is a sure sign that Newsom is chomping at the bit… and just waiting for the DNC to give him the green light.

Like I said above, “How low can you go?” can also refer to political practices, such as Creepy Uncle Joe complimenting a six-year-old girl on the fake cat ears she was wearing at an event in Newport News, Virginia earlier this week and then asking if she was 17. It could also apply to Donald Trump – in an awkward attempt at highlighting Biden’s incompetence – calling former President Jimmy Carter “the happiest person anywhere in this country right now” because he was no longer considered America’s worst-ever president.

Yes, that Jimmy Carter, whose wife of 77 years went into hospice care the day before Trump’s callous remarks and then died the day after. Couldn’t someone in Trump’s entourage have reminded him to lay off the Jimmy Carter jokes until the 99-year-old had finished grieving over Rosalyn’s rapidly declining health and imminent death?

Apparently, presidential politics has hit a bar lower than the one Dennis Walston passed under in 1991.