This is about politics. If you can’t handle that, skip this.
And if you think “Oh, boy, I love to talk politics!” but you want to give me a bunch of MAGA talking points (like the guy who recently messaged me, “Make jokes now, loser, you’re going to be crying in a few months”) you will be blocked and deleted. Again, skip this.
You have been warned.
So how about that debate, huh? Tired of talking about that yet?
I think Joe Biden’s done a good job as president — just righting the ship of state after 2017-2021 was a tremendous accomplishment, akin to what FDR had to do in 1933.
But the administration has done great things to advance consumer-friendly legislation, infrastructure improvements in both urban and rural areas, protection for working families; it’s been a solid four years. Other than Merrick Garland, most of his cabinet and judicial appointments have been good, too. I haven’t agreed with all of his foreign policy decisions, but Biden’s position on the Israel-Gaza conflict is, for better or worse, solidly in line with every American president in my lifetime.
However.
And as Paul Harris says, “There’s always a ‘however’ in life.”
Joe Biden was a relatively spry-looking 77 when he ran for president the first time. He was riding his bike, taking selfies with people in ice cream stores, shaking hands with crowds, sparring with reporters.
Now? He looks every minute of 81 years old. We already knew the presidency ages people. It had a head start with Biden.
I follow several YouTubers (Cold War Motors, Fran Blanche, VWestLife) and as a result, I see a fair number of YouTube ads. Lately I’ve been getting a bunch of fundraising ads for the Biden campaign — in some, he does a little dialogue with Barack Obama that’s supposed to be funny.
But it’s not. Instead, the commercials make me feel bad for Biden, and scared. As Christopher Titus said last week, “Biden looks like a skeleton trying to eat soup.”
(Also Titus, describing his appearance during the debate: “He looked like they had just wheeled him out of his ninth chemotherapy appointment and the doctor had just told him, ‘Well, there’s nothing more we can do.'”)
If he can’t pull it together for a 30-second, heavily edited commercial, then something is seriously wrong. We’ve all been wondering why he hasn’t been giving more speeches or press conferences. It’s starting to become obvious that he wasn’t just bypassing the media; his handlers are shielding him. Something has happened — more likely than not, just the natural aging process, plus the stresses of the office.
His handlers say his shockingly bad debate performance can be blamed on a cold and a hectic travel schedule. Well, in that case, they should have cancelled it. Why didn’t they?
Trying to tell us that he’s still the same Biden of 10 years ago, or even five, is gaslighting. As Chico Marx said, “Who you gonna believe, me or your own eyes?”
The debate itself was an unforced error. Biden and his campaign team insisted on holding it. Why? Was it hubris? Arrogance? Stupidity?
It’s one thing to step on a rake accidentally; it’s another thing to put the rake in front of yourself and then step on it repeatedly.
The media loves Donald Trump, despite his obvious disdain for them. And why wouldn’t they? Covering Donald Trump is like going to a circus every single day. He’s great for ratings. Everything he says is comedy gold to his followers, and red meat to enrage liberals. Either way, websites get clicks and TV gets viewers.
Getting the media — and therefore, the voters — to focus on Biden’s accomplishments was already going to be an uphill climb. Now, Biden’s own campaign — through its candidate’s arrogance, or its own incompetence — has made his age and apparent fragility the only issue.
Good work, everyone.
Speaking of Paul Harris, I agree with him:
This failure will echo for quite a while, and not just in clips the Trump campaign is already pulling to use in commercials. Biden’s fiasco will leave a lot of Democrats uninspired, including young people, a demographic Biden desperately needs. He may even lose some who voted for him in 2020. I don’t know how anyone can be undecided in this race, but he may have lost whatever chance he had with them — and those pro-choice suburban moms, too. They may not vote for Trump, but if they leave that line at the top of the ballot blank without checking the box next to Biden’s name, the result will be the same.
Meanwhile, I saw several people on social media posting that they were so upset by the debate that they were sending him a donation to support him.
They were posting messages like, “I was horrified by Biden’s debate performance, so I’m donating money to the Democratic National Committee, because we can’t give up now.”
I replied:
I’m not saying “give up,” but you realize that by rewarding bad behavior (literally! with a monetary gift!), you are an enabler, right?
That prompted a bunch of the “vote blue no matter who” types to pile onto my feed: “YOU’RE ANTI-DEMOCRACY” they told me, and “THIS IS THE STUPIDEST THING I’VE EVER READ.”
(Really? I’ve written much stupider things.)
Several people told me, “You know TRUMP would be worse, RIGHT?!”
Oh, Trump would be worse? Really? Wow, that’s new information, thanks, that changes my whole perspective.
If “Trump would be worse” is now Biden’s entire campaign, we might as well make reservations for Trump’s second inauguration. Hillary Clinton’s entire campaign in 2016 was “Trump would be worse.” It didn’t work then, it won’t work now — and Hillary Clinton wasn’t shambling around.
Look, if you were horrified by the debate performance, why are you donating, is my only question?
Because the DNC and the Biden campaign are going to use any donations that come in as evidence that “see? everything is OK! people support us.”
Everything, as Marsellus Wallace said, is pretty fucking far from OK.
For the record: Yes, Donald Trump is terrible! He is the most terrible U.S. president of the past 150 years! Anyone who isn’t a conservative Christian or a fascist sees that!
The Republican Party should not be running Donald Trump for president! They should be running virtually anyone else!
Unfortunately, they’re not, and they’re not going to run anyone else. Yelling at the Republican Party “be less terrible” is like Homer Simpson pounding on the TV and saying, “be more funny!”
Republicans are no longer reachable by shame or logic, and appeals to their better nature are pointless, because they’ve repeatedly demonstrated they have no shame or better natures.
Like it or not, we’re left with the Democratic Party. God help us.
As much as it pains me to link to the New York Times, I tend to agree with Ezra Klein, who wrote this week:
Biden sits for fewer interviews than any other recent president. He gives fewer news conferences than any other recent president. The idea that this is all just coincidence, that none of it reflects capacity, isn’t plausible. Not anymore …
The Democratic Party may not end up with another choice — it may truly be too late — but it should be trying to make one possible. Because there is not a plausible way for Democrats to convince voters that the man they saw on Thursday’s stage should be president three or four years from now.
If President Biden is the candidate in November, I’m going to vote for him, even if the Jim Henson Company has to attach sticks to his hands and manipulate him like Kermit the Frog, and Jill Biden has to make his mouth move up and down.
Asking the average voter to get excited about that choice is a heavy lift, though.
I would have been happier if Biden had done a better job — any job, really — of grooming Kamala Harris to be his successor, and then, last year, announced his retirement so that she or someone else could step forward.
Well, he didn’t, and we can’t go back. His campaign is in denial. The vote-blue-no-matter-who crew is in denial. Together, they’re whistling their way past the graveyard and slouching into a disaster for the entire country, and for our allies around the world.
Maybe Biden will rally. He’s doing an interview with George Stephanopolous this weekend. Maybe he’ll come out tap-dancing and singing a Gilbert & Sullivan medley, then he’ll crack jokes and do a couple of magic tricks.
I am skeptical. If Biden plans to stay in the race, then for the country’s sake, I guess all we can do is pray for a speedy recovery from his “cold” and his “travel fatigue.” Unfortunately, prayer is not a political strategy, despite what the MAGA Christian right would have you think.
I know this much: Vladimir Putin must watch the chaos unfolding in the United States right now and laugh until he can’t breathe. His dream of causing the American empire to crumble is closer than it’s ever been in history.
Happy Fourth of July, everyone!