Jill Biden is becoming the Edith Wilson of America.

Edith Wilson was President Woodrow Wilson’s second wife.  She ran the country for a year and a half after Wilson was incapacitated following a massive stroke in 1919.

The public never knew.

This is not to say that First Lady Jill Biden, 73, is running the country today. It is to point out that she is running Joe Biden, 81, which may amount to the same thing.

Edith Wilson’s first move after Wilson’s debilitating stroke was to mislead the nation regarding the bedridden Wilson’s ability to function, let alone continue to serve as president.

The stroke was of such an intensity that it incapacitated Wilson, leaving him permanently paralyzed on the left side of his body and blind in one eye.

While Wilson was confined to his White House bed and barely conscious or rational, Edith Wilson, in effect, took over the presidency—and the country.

Even after Wilson went from a sick bed to a wheelchair, his health continued to deteriorate. His mind wandered and his memory diminished.

There was no 25th Amendment to allow for the replacement of an incapacitated president as there is now. That amendment was only passed in 1967.

And back then, thanks to his loyal wife, nobody outside of the White House knew what a basket case Wilson was, including the press and the public. He died at age 67 in 1924 after leaving the White House.

Before that, Edith Wilson became sort of acting president. She allowed only a few trusted friends to see the bedridden Wilson.

Those prohibited from seeking and conferring with President Wilson included genial Vice President Thomas P. Marshall, Cabinet members and members of Congress.

If they had policy issues or other business with the president, they would present the matters to Edith Wilson, and she would then allegedly confer with the stricken president and return with a decision.

Whether the decisions were President Wilson’s or hers remained an open question.

Edith Wilson, who died in 1961 at age 89, later denied making any decisions regarding public affairs. “The only decision that was mine,” she said, “was what was important and what was not, and the very important decision of when to present the matters to my husband.”

Translated that means that to get to the president on important matters of state you had to get to the unelected president’s wife first, not the vice president, the Speaker of the House or the President of the Senate.

Edith Wilson became the “first” woman president, the unelected decider in chief.

It also means that an unelected individual cannot get much more powerful than that in this representative democracy.

Joe Biden is nowhere as bad off as Wilson was, despite his obvious decline both physically and mentally. He will continue to get worse, not better.  He will not do any better at a second presidential debate. Time does not work that way.

And as demands that he not seek re-election continue to persist, the role of Jill Biden as the president’s hovering caretake and advisor have become Edith Wilson-like. Biden can barely walk or talk without her at his side.

One way out of his dilemma, and the dilemma of the troubled Democrat Party—as well as for the good of the country — is for Joe Biden to step aside and nominate Jill Biden for president.

A Jill Biden for president – a woman! — would give Donald Trump something to worry about.

Biden could do it at the Democrat Party convention in Chicago in August by turning all his delegates over the Jill Biden.

She could then keep Kamala Harris on as a running mate or replace her with California Gov. Gavin Newsom.

Jill & Joe could — in a role reversal — campaign together. Joe would become Jill’s caretaker and advisor instead of the other way around.

And Hollywood would make the movie starring George Clooney and Julia Roberts. Go Jill.

Peter lucas is a veteran political reporter. Email him at: peter.lucas@bostonherald.com