What have they been watching?
Democrats scramble following President Biden's debate performance Thursday
Joe Biden has a cold.
With apologies to Gay Talese,1 that was the beginning of the story Thursday night, within only just the first seconds of the CNN presidential debate between President Biden and former president, Donald Trump.
Biden’s voice was raspy, wispy, and as Trump liked to argue about Biden, whether on the border, the military, or tariffs, “weak.”
It would have been a bad performance for a college-level freshman public speaking course. The fact it occured during a presidential debate, by the sitting leader of the free world, in a debate that he personally called for, with ground rules dictated by his team, made it all that much shocking.
“That was painful,” said CNN analyst Van Jones, a former advisor for Barack Obama. Jones was not alone, even among Democrats.
MSNBC’s website even touted how “bad” Biden’s performance made him appear. MSNBC!
It was so bad, they sent Vice President Kamala Harris out to try and smooth things over. More about the veep later.
The question we should all be asking ourselves, however, and maybe especially Democratic voters and those important “undecided” voters is, “What have you been watching the last four years?”
CNN’s John King, pointed out that his cell phone had never blown up with messages as it did last night during the debate. They were all about Biden.
Despite what the White House and other democratic operatives try to lead the American public to believe about Joe Biden, last night showed an elderly man, who did not look healthy, had trouble making clear points, and was often seen looking off blankly into the distance while a television camera was focused on him, which made him appear lost or absent minded.
Let’s also be clear that Donald Trump’s performance was not great. He evaded questions about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the events on January 6th and others. But standing next to Biden for 90 minutes, viewers had to come away with the impression that Trump is clearly a better “functional” candidate than Biden.
I mean, who would you have let drive you home last night?
The almost immediate reaction and panic by Democrats and democratic leaning television personalities was stark. Biden must go.
In one of the first segments following the debate, a panel of commentators suggested Biden refuse the nomination at August’s Democratic National Convention, allowing the delegates to nominate a new candidate for November.
One smart commentator pointed out many in the Democratic party don’t want Biden to step down from the presidency because that would leave Harris able to run as the incumbent, and as the person pointed out, “She’s even more unpopular than the president.”
At least before Thursday night.
Joe Biden is 81. He will turn 82 before January 20, 2025. He is asking the American public for four more years as president.
Four more years of Joe Biden is as ill advised as any decision one can make, if you really care about America. And it has nothing to do with politics.
It’s time for Democrats to open their eyes. None of them saw the groundswell of support for Trump in 2016 against Hillary Clinton. They were shocked when she lost.
They’ve been in denial for the last four years about Joe Biden. And so now here they are, just 130 days away from the election, and are completely blindsided by the fact their candidate is an 81-year-old man who looks frail, feeble, lost, and not only because he has a cold.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Sinatra_Has_a_Cold