They're Not Just Gaffes

The Clear Decline of President Biden in Three Videos (and One "Yes, Minister" Joke)

Thanks to Issues and Insights for running this piece. You can visit the website at: https://issuesinsights.com/

I embellish for impact, you are a fabulist, he is a bald-faced liar.

Versions of this emotive, or “irregular,” conjugative form of speech were made famous by the BBC comedy “Yes, Minister/Prime Minister,” a show that to this day offers a clearer view of political reality than, well, anything else ever.

Usually, this technique is deployed to cover one’s own odd actions while simultaneously trashing another person (not in the room) for acting the same way; for example, to quote the show:  “I have an independent mind, you are eccentric, he is round the twist.”

But now, thanks to the Washington Post and the New York Times – who both recently published pieces desperately defending President Biden’s obstinate, decades-long battle with the truth – this form can now be conjugated in a different way: we tell the truth, he is a folklorist, those who oppose him are hateful evil miscreants who will destroy civilization as we know it.

The collaborationist – word used advisedly – media has been covering for Biden since he aimlessly wandered into the ring in 2020 (though, prior, as a senator he was regarded by the press as a feckless sketchy plagiarist lightweight and, as veep, a running gag.) 

Joe being Joe, oh, you know he stuttered as a child, he’s folksy, he can be snippy but he’s straightforward, sure the details may not be there but he’s connecting with people heart-to-heart which he can do because of the tragedy he has seen, etc. have filled the airwaves and pages of the Acela corridor.

Until recently-ish, these explanations – while wrong and enabling serial falsehoods and embarrassing to Biden if Biden could be embarrassed – papered over his numerous shortcomings; he’s a gaffe machine, we’ve all used the wrong word now and again, just get over it you hypocrites, the public was told, bunny incident notwithstanding:

Parody Parity

But there are gaffes – ordering a Singapore Slang, for example – and then there are lies – the very name of the Inflation Reduction Act – and then there is abject cognitive disconnection – the incomprehensible claim that his executive order wiping out student loan debt was passed by… Congress, maybe?:  “I got it passed by a vote or two,” Biden said of the program recently.

Biden is not a gaffe machine – he is a malfunctioning machine.  The issues abound – an odd gait (note arm position at start) -

literally blanking out during interviews, clear spatial disorientation, whispering to tell audiences “a secret” as you would with a four-year-old nephew before you gave them a quarter (or asked them to pull your finger,) inappropriate flashes of anger, utter dependence upon others for help walking, let alone while chewing gum, and talking, and the wandering off and the slurring and the incomprehensibility and the off-topic references to events from years ago and the guy who runs that place over there and the eyes and the forgetting and the fog. 

It all adds up not to “oops!” but to a mentally and physically disabled person being propped up by a coterie of handlers for their own benefit. 

It all adds up to elder abuse.

But I’m not a doctor you say? 

I don’t need a weatherman to know it’s raining out. 

Biden’s just getting old like everyone else does, you say?  You’re just cherry-picking bad days and I hope I’ll be that spry when I’m 80. 

First, no, you really don’t, second, you’re not the leader of the free world, and third, he is not getting old in the same way, at the same pace, as everyone else does.

To whit:

Joe Biden, 2016, Democratic National Convention:

The passion, the clarity, the presence – love it or hate it, it was all there just a few years ago.

Joe Biden, 2020 victory speech:

Not quite as fiery, showing a bit of age but far from incoherent.

Joe Biden, 2022, at the Rep. Jackie Walorski event: 

The only thing these three Joe Biden’s have in common is their birth certificate.

It really doesn’t matter what you think of his politics – maybe we should all – especially those around him – just be thinking what’s best for him.  And what’s best for our country.

Go home, Joe.

Oh, wait – there’s Kamala.

Sigh.