One of the more frustrating aspects of this “But He’s Old!” theme that the media has made into this year’s “But Her Emails!” is the fact that Biden is not slipping and we know this because he’s always been gaffe prone. It’s his personality, not his age. I suppose if people really don’t like that about him, that’s legitimate, but then they are back to square one deciding if this guy is the better choice:
“When I say that Obama is the president of our country they go: ‘He doesn’t know that it’s Biden! He doesn’t know,’” Trump said Wednesday. “So it’s very hard to be sarcastic.” He went on to say: “I’m not a Nikki fan and I’m not a Pelosi fan, and I when I purposely interpose names, they said: ‘He didn’t know Pelosi from Nikki, from tricky Nikki.’”
“I interpose [the names], and they make a big deal out of it,” Trump said. “I said: ‘No, no, I think they both stink. They have something in common—they both stink,’” he added. “And remember this: when I make a statement like that about Nikki that means she will never be running for vice president.”
That is the lamest, most ridiculous attempt to wriggle out of his obvious mental glitch that I’ve ever seen. Good God, the man not only is incapable of admitting he did something wrong, the gyrations he goes through to pretend that he meant to do it are just jaw dropping.
Anyway, back to Biden. Public Notice (subscribe to Public Notice ) did a service today by posting some examples of Biden’s older gaffes, just for the record:
While filing the paperwork in 2007 for his second failed presidential run, Biden made a racially tone-deaf comment about fellow candidate Barack Obama: “I mean, you got the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy. I mean, that’s a storybook, man.” This was obviously not how he wanted to lead a news cycle after launching his candidacy.
There were other incidents of what the media diagnosed as Biden’s “foot in mouth” disease. He told donors at a private fundraiser just a few weeks before the 2008 presidential election that there would be an “international crisis, a generated crisis” in the first few months of an Obama presidency that would “test the mettle of this guy.” John McCain’s campaign leapt on Biden’s remarks, and the Obama team scrambled to play clean up.
This was a common theme, sort of like the running gag in a political sitcom. The New York Times described Biden in 2008 as a “distinctive blend of pit bull and odd duck” with “weak filters” that made him blurt out “out-of-nowhere comments” and “goofy asides.” The gaffes were usually minor and amusing — describing the Affordable Care Act as a “big fucking deal” or publicly mourning the Irish Prime Minister’s mother who was still very much alive (see video below) — but occasionally, they were politically perilous.
Biden revealed to House Democrats at their 2009 caucus retreat candid White House discussions about the $900 billion economic-stimulus package and how Democrats could face major political blowback in the upcoming midterm elections. Obama later joked, “I don’t remember exactly what Joe was referring to, not surprisingly.”
Then there was Biden’s 2009 appearance on the Todayshowwhen his response to a swine flu outbreak seemed to border on outright panic.
“I would tell members of my family, and I have, I wouldn’t go anywhere in confined places right now,” he said. “It’s not that it’s going to Mexico, it’s that you are in a confined aircraft. When one person sneezes, it goes everywhere through the aircraft. That’s me.”
This infuriated the airline industry, and once again the White House need to smooth over Biden’s remarks. It wasn’t surprising that many Democrats believed Hillary Clinton was a more reliable heir apparent to Obama. (The Washington Post had even asked prior to the 2012 election if Biden was a “liability for Obama.”) However, no one ever suggested Biden was senile. He was perceived more like your wacky uncle after his second beer — good for a laugh but perhaps not the ideal political candidate.
After Biden launched his 2020 presidential campaign, The Guardian observed that over his “decades-long career in politics, he has cultivated a reputation of being gaffe-prone, often stumbling on his words — if not outright saying the wrong thing at the wrong time.” What’s revealing is that the article never makes Biden’s age the issue, and he was already 76. There’s no idle speculation about whether he’s losing a step or outright sundowning. This wasn’t an oversight. If Bill Clinton or Barack Obama suddenly lost their rhetorical mastery, we might assume a possible cognitive decline, but Biden never boasted a reputation as a great communicator or savvy political operator.
Biden has if anything toned done the gaffes with age
In 2015, CNN questioned a potential Biden candidacy after a series of public gaffes. During former Defense Secretary Ashton Carter’s swearing in, Biden held his wife Stephanie’s shoulders and whispered into her ear.
This became another embarrassing viral moment that dogged Biden during his 2020 campaign. However, it’s vanished as a major issue today. Biden, responding to feedback, released a video in 2019 where he apologized for his past handiness and promised to “much more mindful” of personal space. He adjusted his behavior and has had no issues of this sort since. That is not typical of a confused elderly person who’s mentally slipping.
Yes, Biden has a habit of Paul Bunyan-esque tall tales about his life, including vastly overstating his personal involvement in the Civil Rights Movement, but that’s not a recent development. He’s done this for almost 40 years, and there’s no evidence that it’s worsening or that he’s become disconnected from reality. A character quirk shouldn’t trigger the 25th Amendment.
Just like their sham impeachment efforts, Republicans have no actual evidence that Biden’s senile and incompetent. They sound alarms over Biden confusing world leaders with their dead predecessors, but flubs like this are fairly common among past presidents, regardless of age.
During the 2008 campaign, Obama said he’d visited “57 states.” This was obviously a slip of the tongue and a not a sign of early onset dementia. Trump, however, has recently suggested Obama is still president multiple times, to the point where he’s had to try to explain it away by claiming he was being sarcastic. But the sarcasm defense wouldn’t explain Trump in 2019 claiming the Continental Army “took over airports” during the Revolutionary War. That he blamed on the telepromter.
This is key:
The Biden administration has run far more smoothly than one might’ve expected from the Joe Biden who once provided reliable fodder for late night comedy monologues. It wasn’t long before journalists privately and publicly complained that Biden was simply dull — arguably what the media finds more offensive than his advanced age. Politico complained in 2022 that Biden had “over-delivered” on boredom and that this carried “a political cost in a Permanent Washington that, for better or worse, thrills to displays of executive-branch social fireworks.”
Those “fireworks” are more fun for the press to cover than a quietly competent presidential administration. It’s as if they would prefer the Onion parody Biden.
He’s not old, he’s boring and that the news media will not abide. They loved Obama, for instance, and gave him a pretty easy time not because they cared about his ideology but because he’s cool. He’s good looking, played basketball, killed a fly with one hand during an interview and was funny and wry. He could even sing. The Kewl kidz thought Obama was fun in a positive way while Trump was even more fun in a negative way. Either way, it’s all about how much fun they’re having.
Here’s more Trump last night, FYI. I don’t think it’s senility. He’s always done this. He’s just mentally and verbally incontinent and always has been.