We all make mistakes. Mistakes are forgivable. But when the President of the United States shows a pattern of making mistakes while he is being observed for mental acuteness and questions swirl about whether he is capable of being president, those mistakes take on new meaning.
Last night during the highly-anticipated press conference with President Biden taking questions from reporters, Biden made mistakes that are worthy of noting. In his opening answer to the first question about whether VP Kamala Harris is capable of running the country, Biden said he wouldn’t have picked “Vice President Trump” if he didn’t think she was capable of running the country. Biden also introduced the president of Ukraine as “Putin.”
Later Biden was answering a question about whether he can assure the American people that he is up for the task of benign president when he said that he is following the advice of the “Commander-in-Chief” - but then corrected himself and said the “Chief-of-Staff.”
While making the point that it’s early and the polls don’t matter, Biden said the election doesn’t really start until after September - after Labor Day. Well, Labor Day is at the beginning of September.
Admittedly, these are small mistakes but they collectively portray a man who seems to have difficulty focusing.
It was not only the mistakes Biden made, but he rambled on and on about Putin, Russia, and China. I felt there were times that Joe was just talking until he could figure out where he was in the point he was trying to make. If I would have taken a shot of vodka every time Biden said that he served a long time in the Senate, I would have a terrific hangover right now.
Another repeated thought spliced throughout Biden’s answers during the press conference was that he has to “finish the job we started” and “there’s more we can do.” However, President Biden did say that the only way he will drop out is if he is told there’s no way he can win and he said no one is saying that right now.
President Biden walked to the podium - he did not shuffle and during the press conference he explained that he broke his foot but didn’t wear the boot suggesting that his slow shuffle when walking may be because his foot did not heal properly, which is quite plausible. Maybe that information should have come out a lot sooner to explain why Biden’s gate seems so strained. In fact, there has been a lot of criticism of the Biden Team for keeping Joe’s overall condition under wraps only to have us shocked at his performance during the debate.
Biden was strong during the first part of the press conference, but he showed definite signs of frailty toward the end. Arguably, many of Biden’s answers had substance, but his performance seemed disjointed with random recurring comments throughout.
Biden was asked if the delegates who are committed to him would be free to vote for any person they want to and Biden said yes to that. I respect that Biden continued to say that he believes he is the most qualified person to beat Trump and lead the country for another four years. But the question of whether that’s true remains to be answered.
In a random thought toward the end, Biden tried to put a positive spin on his age saying, “The only thing age does is it creates a little bit of wisdom.”
But the chorus of Democratic voices calling for Joe Biden to step aside continues to resonate and clearly the Democratic Party is deeply divided. The Republican Party had been divided over Donald Trump but the Democrats now make the Republicans look like a united party.
The Democratic Convention is August 19 - 22 in Chicago. I have often talked about the turmoil in society today reflecting the turmoil in 1968. I’m not making a prediction, but the Democratic convention in 1968 was in Chicago and the protests and the unrest were historic. Let’s hope the Republican convention set for next Tuesday in Milwaukee and the Democratic convention is August are peaceful and productive.
