25 Jun Biden’s Last Chance to Impress — or Depress — His Base
Thursday night – at 9:00, well past both men’s bedtimes – President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump will debate one another for 90 minutes. In response, no votes will be swayed, and no opinions will be changed.
Actually, some opinions may be changed, just not about whether voters like Biden or Trump better.
I am firmly of the belief that this debate is being held so much earlier than debates have been held in the past for one reason and one reason alone: the Democratic powers that be want to see their guy in live-action one time before they make a final commitment to him at their convention. They want to make sure that he can continue to fool enough of the people enough of the time to win reelection. If he can’t – and if he shows it on Thursday – then they will, at long last, do what they’ve wanted to do (and what I’ve predicted they’d do) for a looooong time now. They’ll pull the plug on Sleepy Joe and find someone else, someone less impaired, to take on Trump.
For my money, they won’t even have to watch the debate to see if Biden is up to the job. All they’ll have to do is watch his entrance to the debate stage.
Now, I know that the smart folks at the White House and at various mainstream media outlets have insisted recently that videos of Biden are not to be believed, that the Republicans are altering “deceptively editing” footage of the president to make it look like he’s lost or frozen or whatever. They’re lying, of course, and even the unedited video shows pretty clearly that Biden has a tendency to lose focus and wander off. Still, I don’t care about any of that. I care about the way the guy moves. And lately, he’s been moving like someone who should be in a rest home rather than the White House.
To be clear, when I say that, I am not making fun of the president or trying to be snarky. Longtime readers may recall that I have long believed that Biden is the victim here, that he stays involved in public life because people that he loves and trusts– his wife, Edith Jill and Barack Obama, to name just two – tell him that he has to, that there is no other option to “save” the country. Nevertheless, the guy looks terrible and moves terribly.
You don’t have to take my word for this. Look at some videos of him walking over the past month or so. Compare those to how he walked/moved just last year. Or better yet, pay attention to what the people close to him are doing to make sure you don’t get the chance to watch videos of him walking:
The 81-year-old Biden, the oldest-ever chief executive, had typically taken the walk to the presidential helicopter alone or with members of his family over his first three years in office.
However, aides began flanking him around mid-April, attracting rampant press speculation.
On Friday, in one of the clearest examples yet of the new routine, six staffers including press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre positioned themselves between Biden and the waiting cameras and microphones upon his return to the nation’s capital from New York.
Axios reported Friday morning that some Biden aides believe the change shows the president to appear more agile and expect the practice to continue….
In March, the president was seen walking to and from Marine One five times — either by himself or in the company of relatives.
But since April 16, the president has made the trip to the chopper with his staff or lawmakers nine out of 10 times.
I don’t know if Biden has an injury of some sort. It’s entirely possible. I’m almost 30 years younger than he is, and I’m almost constantly carrying some part of myself gingerly. Of course, I also do physically strenuous things for “fun,” which Biden does not do. He doesn’t appear to do much physical activity at all since he was seen falling off his bike almost exactly two years ago.
If Biden does not have an injury, however, and if he is not compensating of late for some undisclosed purely physical ailment, then he appears to be in some very serious need of rest at a minimum. And again, you don’t have to take my word for this. You can take the words of various medical studies, for example, which suggest that “Dementia-related gait changes (DRGC) mainly include decrease in walking speed provoked by a decrease in stride length and an increase in support phase.” Heck, you can even take the words of various “experts” who are occasionally quoted by left-leaning media in their attempt to make the case that Donald Trump’s gait patterns may suggest dementia – because why would they pay attention to Biden’s more obvious issues when Trump’s are potentially more fun?
In any case, the pressure is all on Biden this Thursday – by his own party’s design. Personally, I think they should have put him out of our misery long before now, but they didn’t ask me. They never do.
Watch the debate if you want to, if you feel the need to punish yourself for some misdeed or another. Who knows? You may hear something interesting or learn something fascinating – although either is vanishingly unlikely. If you’re short on time, however, or have a life to live, just watch the introductions. Watch how Biden moves. It may tell you all you need to know about his chances of keeping the nomination, much less keeping the presidency.
