In 1976, Romanian gymnast Nadia Comaneci became the first female Olympian to record a perfect score. Until then, the conventional wisdom was that no one could be perfect. Watching President Joe Biden last night in an almost hour-long press conference, I felt like I was awaiting Comaneci to address the parallel bars. His every stutter or stammer in his presentation overrode his evident command of foreign policy and recent economic successes, including a drop in inflation. Unfortunately, Mr. Biden's abysmal performance at the debate with Mr. Trump a few weeks ago has set up his daily approach to the political balance beam, and the only remedy is a perfect score every time.
President Biden's comprehensive answers on the conflicts in Gaza and Ukraine were proof of his intelligence dominance over his opponent, Donald Trump. Mr. Biden outlined the promises of Donald Trump to destroy democracy: capitulating to Putin on NATO, invalidating Medicare, and taking away women's rights to healthcare, naming a few of many examples. Most Americans would agree the race to November is not about intelligence, competence, honesty, or character; if so, Donald Trump would not stand a chance. I have asked on many occasions, and Biden offered up the question himself last night, asking where the weaknesses in his governance are. So far, it has all been speculation, Republican mudslinging, and Democratic self-imposed fearmongering.
After the Barack Obama/Rev. Wright's messiness and the endless Hillary Clinton on her deathbed lie in the Democratic campaigns preceding Joe Biden; one would think Democrats would at least wait for proof or truth. Instead, the lifeboats are being lowered into the political seas as if the unsinkable Molly Brown had sounded the alarm. Like most Democrats, I was baited into overanalyzing every gaffe, misspeak, or mixing up of names as if it were unique to Joe Biden. Donald Trump quickly pointed out that President Biden had transposed the names of Harris and Trump in an extemporaneous answer about her viability for the office should he decide to withdraw. Of course, the repeated mix-up by Donald Trump confusing Nikki Haley with Nancy Pelosi amidst his lies about former Speaker Pelosi being responsible for the security failures on January 6 is excused as just Trump being Trump.
We are at a point where no matter what Mr. Biden does or says, every comma or stilt in his speech will be examined like the Zapruder film (Did his voice go back and to the left?) I am okay with Mr. Biden being old and accepting his word that if he felt he was not up to the task, he would say so. While we still have a democracy, assuming it stays out of the hands of Mr. Trump and Project 2025, the safeguards of government are there to keep a would-be despot from destroying the world. I am unsure if people believe Mr. Biden will walk to the Oval Office in a demented stupor, push the button, steal the treasury, and skip off to the Cayman Islands, or just circumvent the Constitution (oh wait, that's the other guy). Just as one debate should not decide the fortunes of the man vying for the presidency, I hold no false impression that one press conference will 'allay' the fears.
Vote Against Guns