Less than 48 hours prior to the Republican National Convention gaveling in to officially nominate Donald Trump for an historic third time, the country came within an inch away from being thrown into turmoil.

Perched on an inexplicably unsecured, unmonitored rooftop a mere 147 yards away 20-year old Thomas Crooks opened fire upon Trump and attendees, hitting the president’s ear, fatally wounding fireman Corey Comperatore (father of two daughters), and seriously wounding two other attendees.

The image of Trump down with blood running across his face was jarring; his defiance to signal that he had survived to relieve the anxiety of tens of millions of Americans was stirring.

How could a man who just had bullets fly so fatally close to his head muster such strength?

Likely because since he glided down the golden escalator in 2015 to announce his candidacy for the White House, that reality crossed his mind every day.

And with the radicalization of Democratic rhetoric, the pushing of fake news narratives, and an increasingly irrational leftist base, the prospect of an attempt on his life had to transition from a matter of if to a matter of when.

And then there was near mortal wounding of Steve Scalise by a Bernie Sanders supporter.

When Trump said “Scalise took a bullet for all of us,” the president was not engaging in rhetorical exercise. He meant it.

None of us can comprehend the ever looming possibility that the bed you roll out of in the morning could be replaced by day’s end with the medical examiners table at the local morgue.

That is the life he chose and why I respect the president.

As for the how did this happen, Congress will be asking questions this week. While accountability is not a strong point of the current administration, hopefully the public’s demand for answers to such an egregious security failure will be forthcoming. Sloped roofs be damned.

On the Democratic side, the consequences of the June debate with Trump fully manifested as the Biden reelection slipped off its own sloped roof after the media couldn’t manage to spin that performance and curated choreographed rallies couldn’t repair the damage self-inflicted by the president- who amazingly enough spent days prepping.

By the way, good news for Richard Nixon- nobody is ever going to talk about his first televised debate with Jack Kennedy. Political science researchers will be delivering lectures on that gem for decades to come.

And yet after winning every primary and caucus and garnering 14.4 million votes (87%) and the nomination mathematically secured via committed delegates months ago, President Biden meekly shuffled off the stage via a signed letter.

For a sitting president to scuttle his candidacy during the campaign is not without precedent.

Both Harry Truman and Lyndon Johnson did so at the start of the race. Truman bailed after losing the New Hampshire Democratic primary to organized crime buster US Senator Estes Kefauver of Tennessee while LBJ exited after winning the Granite State primary in 1968, though by an uncomfortable margin.

What Biden has done is without precedent.

However after 14 plus million people went to.the polls to back you and then quit?

This is after Biden INSISTED on turning the Democratic Presidential Primary calendar on its ear as a petty revenge move on the historical early states for having delivered embarrassing 4th and 5th place showings in Iowa and New Hampshire?

Yes it’s a terrible look but it’s certainly legal.

First, Biden was not the actual nominee but the presumptive nominee. Perhaps nuanced but this is a fact. Until the DNC, convention, or whatever new methodology they utilize certifies the nominee, Biden is a man in possession of a barge full of committed delegates. Hence his original obstinancy..though even then the DNC has a conscience clause in their rules.

As for the ballot, that is more of a technical issue on a state by state basis but one overcome, if need be by the courts. Bear in mind the nomination time frame hasn’t changed even if the candidates have.

We vote for presidential electors not presidential candidates. Yes their names are on the ballot but if you look closely in the fine print you’ll notice two names with “at-large” and others with congressional districts by the remaining names. Those are whom you’re actually voting for.

And once those electors are elected, they can vote for whomever they want, as we’ve seen in limited instances. I’d expect that any state where there isn’t time to remove Biden’s name from the ballot those Democratic electors will sign an affidavit pledging to vote for the nominees.

And before complaining too loudly, remember this: the Democrats badly want to get rid of the electoral college. And nationalizing federal elections is probably on the back page of their political wishlist.

I’d tread lightly on the litigation talk as you might end up with something you weren’t expecting from a creative Democrat-appointed jurist.

It has been a week of political tumult and for once Donald Trump is truly the victim and can’t be blamed for any of it.