Brief Rant on Biden: Why “Come-back kid,” “One bad night,” “Trump was the loser” aren't good enough.
From someone one month older than Joe.
One of the things I learned as a young lawyer was how to behave at trial when someone just kicked you in the teeth – like a witness you were cross examining. When you’ve somehow let yourself in for an unexpectedly damaging answer, instead of looking like you were punched in the stomach, you calmly say, “Well, let me ask you this, . . .” and immediately turn to another subject. Perhaps the jury won’t have caught the bad answer. Perhaps you’ll get something good on the next part of your cross.
Of course, I also learned that you cannot count on the jurors not remembering – or the opposition not reminding them – so eventually you have to be ready to address the problem.
The responses of Team Biden seem much like stage one of the above, after Joe totally blew the debate. A brave effort to turn away from something bad that just happened. “Come-back kid.” “One bad night . . .” “Trump didn’t win with his crazy nonstop lies.” “Look at how full of energy Joe was at that rally!” And: “No, of course Joe is not going to withdraw.”
Don’t be surprised if Joe and Jill and their managers (enablers?) continue to flatly reject any argument that Biden did himself in. But perhaps they’ll be ready to face bitter reality after we see the polls in the next week or two, because a brave front won’t make the problem disappear. The polls will likely show a frightening slide at the time when Biden very much needs to reverse Trump’s lead – and lay to rest the persistent concerns about his age and his fitness to serve for four more years. It’s not clear how he can.
Biden confirmed voters’ misgivings. And there’s likely no going back.
The excuses and defenses are not going to work because they rest on a flawed way to think about what happened.
Biden didn’t “lose a debate.” He didn’t “have a bad night.” Or a cold. He failed a test. And few of those who watched are going to give him a second chance.
Most voters think Joe’s too old, and the test was whether he is already starting to lose it. He confirmed their misgivings for 90 minutes. You might or might not think this was representative of his overall mental capacity, but it was much more than a one-off slip.
Showing that Biden also can be lucid at other times cannot erase the perception – the reality – that he was not in focus during a critical hour and a half. And people want a president who can always be in focus.
I am one month older than Joe, and I think of myself as pretty lucid (for now :-) ). But am I confident that Joe and I will be firing on all cylinders when we are 84, 85 or 86? No one can honestly claim to have that kind of confidence. Given that consideration, even if Joe hadn’t just given us reason to doubt his mental acuity, it is frankly a disgrace that Joe Biden chose to run. And a disgrace that his wife and other family members and colleagues didn’t tell him that America doesn’t want to take a chance on a 86 year old president. That the time had come for someone else to beat Donald Trump
I will vote for Biden over Trump no matter what, if that remains the only real choice. But I don’t think that attitude is true of all independents or swing voters or low turnout voters. They are going to believe their own eyes and ears, not anyone’s post-debate spin. I can’t see how Biden can make it better.
Biden needs to suck it up and acknowledge that he’s become a long-shot to defeat Donald Trump. That’s not good enough. We’re entitled to something better, Joe.
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You may also be interested in my thriller Mississippi Reckoning. Read an excerpt.
“Gripping and harrowing . . . deeply disturbing yet also revelatory. Punches the reader in the gut . . .”–Los Angeles Review of Books
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Fortunately, you have a small audience of brilliant people around you. I am on page 200 of your book. Hey, followers, have you bought Mississippi Reckoning yet?
As you say, Mitchell, we still may have to vote for him. But the beauty of this scam is just that, our votes are being held hostage. Meanwhile the orchestrated media images are getting more and more tawdry and surreal -- Hunter attentively beside him, offering god knows what advice, and Jill on the cover of Vogue. I think we need at least to stop being diplomatic and call it out for the embarrassment to our ethics that Biden's clinging is. At least our guy isn't resorting to inciting violent insurrection, but honestly! It's bad!