After Americans reeled in horror at 90 minutes of President Joe Biden slurring, trailing off, butchering his sentences in a raspy whisper and staring, slack jawed with drooping eyes, the pundit class (and their Twitterati brethren) immediately declared the performance a disaster there’s no coming back from. The next day the New York Times had four (four!) op-eds and an editorial calling for Biden to bow out of re-election.
But, the next day, the big guns circled the wagons. Obama, Hillary and Bill Clinton, Gavin Newsom (I guess). Biden swore he would not step down; that, much like in 2020, he’s the only candidate that can beat Trump. The smaller political operatives quickly scurried back when it became clear he wouldn’t end the campaign, and began to promote the spin that “anyone can have a bad debate.”
The next day, they appeared to have shellacked Biden in spray tan and stuck him in front of a teleprompter at a rally, where he mustered up the energy to shout.
“When ya get knocked down ya get back up!” he yelled, shaking his fist.
“Now that’s the real Joe Biden!” everyone who wants a cable gig/job in Washington pretended. But, he still slurred his words. It’s admirable that he was able to raise the decibel level, but that came across, to me at least, not as forceful and inspiring, but a grumpy old man yelling at the kids to get off his lawn.
Trump II is going to be utter Hell. I had the faintest, faintest hope that because Trump doesn’t care about anything, while Biden is basically a cult member when it comes to Israel, that he’d pull some unexpected “Genocide Joe” maneuver. Nope! He’s begun to use “Palestinian” as a slur. He will visit unimaginable horrors on asylum seekers and other immigrants.
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