They never learn
I think this is the real Dark Brandon super-power. Everyone always thinks he’s a doddering fool and when he turns out not to be they are completely unprepared:
Since the 2020 Democratic primary, Biden’s secret weapon has been the low expectations set for him by his opponents. Rather than approach him as the flawed but formidable politician that he is, Biden’s critics on the left and right have consistently presented him as a befuddled individual who is unable to finish his sentences. They have cocooned themselves in clips of his gaffes, both real and fabricated, and convinced themselves that the Biden they see in their social-media bubble is the Biden that exists in actuality.
The only problem with this caricature is that it does not survive contact with reality. It’s true that at 80 years old, Biden is no longer as adept an operator as he once was. He speaks slower and struggles more to control his stutter. And of course, he has been prone to comical verbal stumbles his entire career. But Biden’s experience working a crowd, his empathetic human touch, and his sense of humor remain intact. His ability to unite disparate factions of a fractured party remains undiminished. It’s no wonder that a handful of unruly political neophytes at the State of the Union failed to knock him off his game. He’s been playing it for longer than they’ve been alive.
The refusal to acknowledge and contend with Biden’s strengths, not just his weaknesses, continues to hobble his opponents. By consistently lowering the bar for the president’s performance, they have repeatedly enabled him to easily vault over it. As much as anything Biden himself has done, this persistent misapprehension of his capacity has fueled his surprisingly productive presidency.
Americans always underestimate wisdom as a balance to the physical infirmities of age. We’re not a culture that values experience. Sure, Biden might go senile in the next couple of years or his body might fail him. That’s a risk. But the fact that he’s old and has been around the political block is actually a big strength in our current environment. He doesn’t panic when things go wrong, he trusts his instincts because they have been honed by years in the trenches, he’s confident is what he believes and all of that may be just what the doctor ordered right now as we face this massive case of arrested development on the right.