If President Joe Biden‘s goal in tonight’s press conference were to avoid being outed from office through the 25th Amendment, he would have succeeded. But in trying to save his campaign, he utterly failed.
Biden clearly showed he is not completely non compos mentis. In general, he is aware of what is going on, and when he isn’t in a bad spell, he can essentially keep track of policy. What he did not come close to doing, though, is to convince anybody with half a brain that he will be up for the job for four more years.
Biden looked and sounded old. Biden rambled a lot, even if not entirely insensibly. He committed yet another howler of a mistake by referring to Vice President Kamala Harris as “Trump” on the same day that he referred to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as “Putin.” He repeatedly did that weird and unsettling thing where he suddenly lowers his voice sometimes almost to a whisper, for effect, but rather randomly, without any real reason to do so. He almost never speaks distinctly, showing that even on a comparatively “good” night for him, he still garbles words, runs words together, and repeats phrases in odd ways.
Biden barely reassured watchers that he has the vigor expected of the leader of the free world for the next six months. There is no imaginable way that he can still be doing so in 2027 or 2028 — or, frankly, even by this time next year.
It is utterly irresponsible to ask the country to elect him to serve until January 2029. Again, this is not about whether he can kinda-sorta-semi-manage the presidency now. This is about grappling with China, Russia, Iran, North Korea, terrorist Islamists, and others when he is 85 instead of 81.
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A doddering old man cannot project even reasonable strength, much less power. But a president who cannot project power leaves 330 million people at risk, not to mention perhaps billions more around a world that could become far more unstable if the president is weak and ineffective.
Biden is acting like a selfish man refusing to accept reality or put country above self. He ought to withdraw with dignity before he is shoved aside like frayed, torn old furniture.