“I feel like a hostage to Joe’s ego — and the chip on his shoulder. I can have a president fighting for women to control their own bodies as long as I don’t care that Biden isn’t sharp enough to serve until he is 86. He can handle an Annie Leibovitz photo shoot. But he has to stall for two weeks before having a live White House news conference to reassure those freaked out by his brain freezes at the debate — and his acknowledgment afterward to donors that he “almost fell asleep” at the lectern.”- Maureen Dowd, Joe Biden’s Blind Spot, NY Times, Saturday July 6
President Biden faces
a dilemma: As bad as his debate performance may have been, his inadequate
efforts to respond to the fallout have only deepened anxiety among Democratic
officials, operatives and donors. Tepid outings in controlled settings provoke
even more hysterical news coverage suggesting (falsely) he is barely
functioning. That overreaction, in turn, causes him to double down on
insistence nothing is amiss (also false).- Jennifer
Rubin, ‘What Do Democrats Do Now?, Washington Post today
“It’s devastating to say it, but the Joe Biden I was with three weeks ago at the fund-raiser was not the Joe “big F-ing deal” Biden of 2010. He wasn’t even the Joe Biden of 2020. He was the same man we all witnessed at the debate. Was he tired? Yes. A cold? Maybe. But our party leaders need to stop telling us that 51 million people didn’t see what we just saw. We’re all so terrified by the prospect of a second Trump term that we’ve opted to ignore every warning sign. The George Stephanopoulos interview only reinforced what we saw the week before. Is it fair to point these things out? It has to be. This is about age. Nothing more. But also nothing that can be reversed. We are not going to win in November with this president. On top of that, we won’t win the House, and we’re going to lose the Senate. “– George Clooney, NY Times, 'We Need A New Nominee'
“Thank you Mr. Clooney for writing this. Voters are longing
for first hand observations of President Biden's demeanor and behavior. The
debate scared us, plain and simple. The spin that followed has not been useful.
Thank you for being brave enough to share your assessment. It cannot have been
easy. I hope more people will offer information of personal contacts they have
had with the president. The country will be grateful.”- NY Times commenter
“Biden needs to persuade the country — not just Democrats — that he is up to the job he seeks. The best, and perhaps the only, way to do it is to put himself in the situations that voters now doubt he can survive. That means doing town halls and news conferences and lengthy interviews — lots of them, starting right now. He could go further: If Biden is as capable as he claims, he should consider accepting Trump’s challenge of additional debates...Biden needs to prove himself in public, under pressure, repeatedly. He needs to talk to Hill Democrats in private, without a teleprompter, until they are confident in his capacities. This is not too much to ask of a president running for re-election. It is the bare minimum.
” – Ezra Klein, NY Times, ‘Democrats Drifting to Worst of All Possible Worlds’
As the clock struck 7 p.m. Friday evening Janice and I were ensconced in our recliners awaiting the George Stephanopoulos ABC interview with Joe Biden. We both felt this might be a 'make or break' event for Biden's political future and we hoped he'd nail it. This meant especially torpedoing the continued tropes that he "was too old" to do the job, but also seeing and hearing him admit he did have certain issues he has to deal with- like the rest of us 'old-timers'. After all 'De Nile' isn't just a river in Egypt. And one thing no human will never beat is aging, it only propels one to more decrepitude each year, not less.
That Biden's debate with Trump was an embarrassment is well known and I already wrote a previous post on how Biden was unable mentally to keep up with Trump's barrage of lies, much less fire comebacks, e.g.
Biden One-Upped By Trump's "Flood The Zone With Lies" Strategy - But Don't Look For A 2nd Debate
Therein I noted:
Joe Biden sounded weak when we needed him to sound strong as he had in the State of the Union address. While making subsequent comments through the first 15 minutes of the debate against Dotard Trump, his voice sounded less reedy and raspy, though he coughed at least one more time and never did clear his throat. But the weak, thready voice - compounded by frequent stammering - left its residue in viewers' minds (and ears), certainly mine. The impact was that 90% of his points were lost because either they weren't heard properly or were too weakly delivered. The impression left was one of "an enfeebled candidate"
But the weak voice and jumbled sentences were only one of the aspects we noticed (and others did as well) especially Dr. Sanjay Gupta - who reported on specific signs of decline in a CNN spot three days ago:
He pointed out five signs that were giveaways to regressing cognitive function:
1)Slow response time
2) Word retrieval mix-ups
3) Rambling Speech
4)Reduced Voice Volume
5) Reduced Facial Movements
All the preceding were evident in Biden's responses in the June 27th debate. All were glaring and none could be "unseen" or "unheard". Hence, the red alarm bells ringing in Dem quarters cannot be unrung. Hence, it begs credulity to hear a candidate dismiss or diminish them in a subsequent interview as we heard Biden do on Friday night.
We especially despaired at many of Joe’s defensive answers, particularly being unwilling even to acknowledge the obvious truth that he has lost several steps steps over the last 3½ years. The deal breaker? A goofy, irrelevant response when Stephanopoulos asked about taking a cognitive test, i.e.:
"Look. I have a cognitive test every single day. Every day I have that test. Everything I do. You know, not only am I campaigning, but I’m running the world,”
No, Joe, you are not "taking a cognitive test every day" nor are you "running the world". You are performing the day-to-day tasks entrusted to the leader of one nation (USA) and these are basically pro forma- defined in the Constitution. Also, they do not test any particular aptitude, whether quantitative, verbal or analytical thinking.
More deflections ensued when Stephanopoulos asked whether Joe disputed that there have been more mental lapses lately. Biden answering:
“Can I run the 100 in 10 flat? No, but I’m still in good shape,” Biden replied.
Again, deflecting. Running a 100 at all or being "in good shape" doesn't mean one is in good cognitive shape. I know I'm not and I'm 3 years younger than Biden. Often when writing blog posts I have to constantly search Google for synonyms of words because I can't think of alternative words right off the bat - say to avoid repeating the same word in a paragraph or post. Physics and astronomy posts generally require going back to my college textbooks and reviewing material.
My memory is also cratering on a more generic level but I've found it helpful to keep note cards around with important reminders, i.e. Rem: turn off stove after breakfast, helps. So pardon me if I am skeptical when Biden claims he has bested the aging 'demon', because no one I know has. Aging only progresses to worse and worse effects and all aging people know it. As Peggy Noonan wrote in her recent WSJ column (7/6/24, p. A13):
"Old age involves plateaus and plummets. It gets worse not better."
Thus, it is disingenuous to deny the effects of aging which includes jumbling sentences, memory glitches, losing one's train of thought and other deficiencies. Yeah, it is also true the media has been "piling on" to a degree and not had half the focus on Dotard, but hey - that's how it is when you blow a debate while trying to dispatch an ongoing age trope. Biden had the chance to put the dotage shit to rest and expose Trump for the traitor turd he is but came a cropper.
Then instead of owning up and his team being honest he and they trotted out endless brazen excuses which even the most menial low IQ voter could see through. (Well, ok, except perhaps the MAGA maggots). All Joe had to do was to be square with viewers in this 'last chance' Stephanopoulos ABC interview and not blow out the malarkey. But he didn't. He fobbed off the targeted questions that might have given a lifeline to him had he just been straight, honest. Instead he came off in certain moments in the "I alone can do it" Trump mode.
For example, Stephanopoulos pointed out that Biden is behind in the polls, such as the Times/Siena one and a CBS one. His response:
“I don’t buy that.”
But Biden now trails Trump by six points in both the New York Times/Siena College and Wall Street Journal polls. The latest CBS News/YouGov poll finds that, post-debate, 72 percent of registered voters don’t think Biden has the mental and cognitive health to serve as president. That’s up from 65 percent before the debate. In other words, Biden is "batting on a losing wicket" but he denies it.
Stephanopoulos, a former campaign strategist for Bill Clinton, also informed Biden he’d never seen a president with a 36 percent approval rating get reelected.
“I don’t believe that’s my approval.”
Don't believe? At this point viewers and Dem politicos began to question Joe's contact with reality. This is but one step from the cruel portrayal by the WaPo proto-MAGA harpy Kathleen Parker who babbled in a column five days ago: "And he seems to be reduced, like so many elderly, to a mere fascination watching dust balls doing the hokey-pokey on a table in sunlight."
Another followup by Stephanopoulos: Is he more frail now?
“No.”
But Stephanopoulos was merciful here in not pressing Joe on why he now needs shallower steps to ascend Air Force One. Or why he has a specific schedule of activity which is confined to between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. with naps in between.
Biden’s determination not to give an inch in conceding the toll taken by age was also belied by his delivery and facial appearance in the ABC interview. Thus we beheld again some of the same mouth-agape looks as Stephanopoulos proceeded with his questions. There were the meandering answers given where he again seemed to lose his train of thought. As well as blatant dodges and unsettling efforts at diversion. It was a most unbecoming 22 minute portrait.
Then there was the total lurch into unreality when he said he hadn’t watched the debate himself, the one that threatens to sink his candidacy. Saying: “I don’t think I did, no."
How many Americans would buy that twaddle? Exactly zero. Because we all know if in the same position, being hammered by critics in the aftermath, and with bad polls to boot, we'd damn sure watch that sucker - a dozen times over if need be. If for no other reason than to ascertain what all the hullaballoo was about. But the worst was yet to come:
Stephanopoulos asking:
“If you stay in, and Trump is elected, and everything you’re warning about comes to pass, how will you feel in January?”
“I will
feel, as long as I gave it my all, and I did the — good a job as I know I can
do, that’s what this is about,” Biden replied.
NO, NO, NO! Not Russian troops!
Ukrainian troops! As Dr. Sanjay Gupta pointed out in reference to his five signs of cognitive regress:
“All these things including word retrieval mix-ups, could be connected. Decreased cognition shows more flattened affect, as in the face, or respond as quickly or loudly. If he were my patient or even my dad I would want to get more testing done"”
After the so-so interview segment following Stephanopoulos citing a NY Times/Siena poll and Biden dissing it, pollster Nate Silver wrote:
“This is a pretty incoherent answer including a non-sequitur [complaining] about a New York Times poll, which he incorrectly claims had him down 10 points before the debate,” Silver wrote on X, sharing a clip of the interview. He added that The New York Times survey only had Biden down 3 or 4 points.
“I wimped out in today’s column and deleted a line saying he should formulate a plan to transition the presidency to [Vice President] Harris within 30-60 days, but I’m there now,” Silver said. “Something is clearly wrong here.”
Sadly, I now have to concur - and after vigorously defending Joe the past 3 -plus years - admit it is time turn the reins over to his next in line, Kamala Harris. As for "re-energizing the campaign" that opportunity has come and gone. The June 27th debate was the chance to do it, but the performance was so wretched and the images so engrained now in so many millions of minds that nothing short of an immediate new debate in which he trounces Trump soundly will do it. No rallies, no interviews and certainly no campaign stops with teleprompters.
Is this fair? No it bloody well is not, given a terminal turd and traitor ought to be totally eliminated from any campaign or candidacy from any party - given what the shithead roach tried to do on January 6th. But that is the reality we are in right now, after the Supreme Court's decision last week to effectively shield Trump from prosecution for the many acts he took as president - by granting "presumed immunity" for official acts. Thereby the highest Court basically destroyed any chance of bringing the orange cockroach to justice. They did it by first by taking the January 6th case from a totally competent Virginia Appellate court and dragging it out for months, then drove the spike into our rule of law with their "presumed immunity" horse shit. But as Jennifer Rubin put it in her column today in the Post:
Media hysteria and imbalance do not justify Biden staying in the race to prove they are wrong. Biden’s debate and post-debate conduct have given the media every justification for focusing solely on him, not on Trump’s greater personal defects and menace to democracy. That is a serious impediment to reelection.
So no surprise that as recent surveys by the WSJ point out (7/6, p. A5) - even 1/3 of voters who otherwise wouldn't vote for him are now prepared to look the other way given the orange roach displays "more energy". Never mind all that energy is feral, misdirected, manic and in other situations ought to have him in a padded cell at Bellevue. Especially after Jimmy Kimmel recently showed a video of Dotard literally foaming at the mouth, e.g.
Trump Literally Foaming at the Mouth, Loses Gun License & Guillermo at NBA Media Day - YouTube
So no, life isn't fair and it's not fair to Biden, who basically had his one chance to dispose of Trump last month, blew it totally and now desperately wants "re-dos". But there are none worth an ounce of doggie lickspittle, that the 50 million voter viewer debate conferred. That's just a cold, hard fact. There is simply no coming back from a calamitous spectacle in which your primo candidate – in front of 50 million viewers (not 500 or 5,000 at a rally): repeatedly forgets his lines, loses his train of thought (‘I beat Medicare’), confuses his policies, and stares slack jawed as Trump rattles off unsubstantiated claims with a loud, barking voice unchallenged. And given a golden opportunity to skewer Trump on abortion and reproductive rights veering instead into claptrap on incest, immigration and rape.
The full diagnostic extent of Joe’s debate wipeout was charted
in The Financial Times using a trading chart for Predictit.
This could well be a snapshot of the moment Joe Biden's campaign terminated. And since confirmed by the crash in polling, e.g.
Thus Joe should be content that he did yeoman service staving off the Trump threat for nearly 4 years. But his failing cognition as demonstrated in the debate - which no one can unsee or unhear- has paved the way for the next logical candidate. His Vice -President Kamala Harris. And despite the reactionary Right’s efforts to bury her, belittle her and dismiss her, there is a memetic resurgence in social media (KHive) for Harris:
But say one thing say the next: As WaPo's Ruth Marcus wrote:
I will vote for Biden over Trump no matter what happens from now to Election Day. The risk of diminished Biden is far less than that of empowered and reelected Trump.
I am foursquare behind that position and as Bill Maher has so often put it: "Biden's head in a jar of blue liquid is still better than Donald Trump." But having said that, I do not plan to pour any further donations into his campaign. I'd prefer we get fresh blood injected into the campaign now, rather than risk Trump's Project 2025 coming to fruition. Joe had one shot to take down the traitor slime on June 27th in a debate before 50 million, but alas, he screwed the pooch - and there are no re-dos I can see. Building a terminal campaign on false hopes and pseudo-optimism is not a plan.
See Also:
by Robert Becker | July 8, 2024 - 5:14am | permalink
Often it takes an unfolding process before the best and right choice emerges
Talk about not digging yourself out – by denying the size of the hole. Proposing that anxious voters should banish empirical evidence of frailty not only dooms Biden’s chances but jeopardizes an equal challenge: holding the Senate and retaking the House. To lose all three prompts Shakespearean tragedy.
Though Biden’s increasing flaws (and pressure for alternatives) are self-evident, how telling is it that Biden scoffs at calls to withdraw, thus further underlining for months the implicit WH cover-up.
If the debate weren’t bad enough, adding to Trump’s lead, the president’s rigid defiance belittles his own honest doubters, making a bad situation worse. As with cognition, time rolls on: taking too long to withdraw (or obstructing) will amplify party divisiveness beyond the nonsense that his deranged, more demented opponent spouts daily.
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