They say that the rote function of reading aloud is one of the last things to go. That, some maintained, explains why Joe Biden turned in a decent performance at his February State of the Union address but bombed the first presidential debate. The thing is, they were saying that just two weeks ago. It seems that what was supposed to be the last faculty to go already went.
“The idea — the idea — that corporate-owned housing is able to raise your rent three, four hundred bucks a month or something,” Biden told an audience at the annual NAACP convention. Here, he paused, leaned toward the teleprompter, and squinted. “What I’m about to announce,” Biden strained, “you can’t raise it more than” — he paused again before whispering with palpable insecurity — “$55 dollars.”
Biden stared blankly, mouth agape, as the crowd erupted into applause. Just imagine their crushing disappointment when they realize, if they couldn’t at the time, that such a cap would be economically calamitous, crushing the housing market and dramatically truncating existing inventory. It didn’t seem to occur to anyone in the room that Congress would be extremely unlikely to lend its imprimatur to such a disastrous scheme. It dawned on precisely no one that Biden had just mangled the details of a plan he only revealed last Thursday and which his White House has spent the better part of this week promoting.
It’s obvious what happened here. Because the percent sign looks to weakened eyes like the Arabic numeral “5,” Biden misread his plan to cap rent hikes at 5 percent annually as a proposal to limit the absolute value of all rent hikes at this ludicrously low figure. This is not an “it can happen to anyone” moment. It was a terrible lapse, not just of Biden’s capacity to read aloud but also to apply critical faculties to what it was he was trying to read. And it seemed like a breaking point — at least, in the press, whose sympathy for Biden’s condition is all but spent. The manifestations of the president’s age-related infirmities no longer elicit pity for him or their own evaporating political prospects. Now, it’s a joke.
For weeks now, the mainstream press has been plastered with quotes attributable to anxious Democrats who had convinced themselves that their party would be better served if Biden had another humiliating performance akin to the first presidential debate. Maybe then, Democratic elders and elites could summon the courage to push Biden off the ballot. Maybe then, Biden and his insular, self-interested inner circle could finally see the writing on the wall. But it’s entirely unclear what criteria Democrats are using to evaluate Biden’s stumbles. If this objective debacle doesn’t suffice for a moment mortifying that it merits a public intervention, the benchmarks Democrats apply to gauge Biden’s acuity are entirely subjective.
It’s not like the president turned in an otherwise stellar performance but for this one hiccup. In interviews, on the trail, and even in this very address to the NAACP, Biden’s halting, mumbling, and generally ungainly presentation hasn’t improved from the first debate. If anything, his execution as a campaigner has gotten worse. Maybe Democrats’ standards will decline to the point that they meet their diminished expectations for Biden, but the shock of this particular episode should be sufficient to convince all who still can be convinced that this cannot go on.
Biden’s rapid deterioration has become even more visible amid his efforts to prove his critics wrong about his infirmity. It’s not going to get better. We can, therefore, assume that the Democrats who cannot bring themselves to bring the hammer down on Biden have developed an insatiable appetite for public humiliation. If this isn’t enough, it will never be enough.
I can’t be sure how dumping Joe Biden would play out for Democrats, whether it would improve their position, further erode it, or — perhaps most likely, given how dug in most voters are — not change it much one way or the other.
Regardless, this should end. In interviews and out on the stump, Biden is simply embarrassing — it should be embarrassing for him, his family, and his inner circle, and it is certainly embarrassing for the country.
We’ve never seen a president of the United States like this. Wilson was incapacitated, but we didn’t see him. FDR was desperately ill, but he, too, hid it. JFK willed himself into the picture of youthful vigor even though he was riddled with terrible ailments. Other presidents have been diminished by the pressures of the office and of events.
This, though, is completely new.
A president who can barely stumble his way through teleprompter speeches.
A president who is giving a series of the worst interviews we’ve ever seen from someone occupying the office, but getting a passing grade from commentators because the standard for judging his performance is now so abysmally low.
A president who can’t even impress when sitting down with sympathetic influencers.
A president whom foreign officials have long been worried about, with one leader betting months ago that he wouldn’t be on the ticket in November.
A president who at times looks blank and confused, and often seems in danger of falling down.
Joe Biden is a proud man. If his pride has always outstripped his talents, still, he used to be better than this, and not too long ago. Whatever Biden lacked in precision or eloquence in his expression, he made up for in blustery self-confidence.
Now, without meaning to or probably even realizing it, he is disgracing his office.
The president of the United States is a representative of the country. That is one of the reasons we surround him with various trappings that are meant to create a certain majesty around his person and around the office.
Biden’s current state undermines all of that.
You shouldn’t feel sorry for a president of the United States. It shouldn’t make you nervous to listen to him. You shouldn’t worry about him hurting himself in a fall. You shouldn’t have to wonder what he meant to say. He shouldn’t remind you of an elderly relative who began to walk and talk in a certain way before everything fell apart.
Whatever you think of Biden, he shouldn’t be doing this to himself or to the country. Some people obviously like the president and support his policies, but can anyone feel proud of him in his diminished state? Have confidence in his energy and capabilities? Believe that he is projecting an image abroad that is good for the country?
It is tricky for elected Democrats who realize all or most of this, because if they publicly call on Biden to go, they have undermined their nominee in an election that is already very difficult for them to win. It is Biden’s ever-shrinking inner circle that should do the right thing. It doesn’t take data or complex electoral analysis to come to the correct conclusion.
All it takes is looking at Biden during any given interview or event, and wanting to protect him and the country from further embarrassment.
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