The argument Democrats are making is that Biden lost a step on the campaign trail but his ability to govern is unaffected and the problem is superficial. That’s Biden’s line. “I know I’m not a young man,” he said Friday. “I don’t walk as easily as I used to. I don’t talk as easily as I used to. I don’t debate as well as I used to. But I know what I know. I know how to tell the truth. I know right from wrong. And I know how to do this job. I know how to get things done.”
Biden’s speech calmed some Democratic nerves. He was stronger, clearer, more fiery. Closer to the Biden of the State of the Union than the Biden of the debate. Democrats asked: Where was this guy? Come on. It’s easier to read a teleprompter than deal with the chaotic and unexpected demands of a debate. We cannot say that the Biden of the teleprompter is a true reflection of the man but that the Biden of this debate is not:
For example, we have a trillion dollars in America – I mean, billionaires in America. And what happens? They’re in a situation where they’re actually paying 8.2 percent in taxes. If they just paid 24 or 25 percent, either one of those numbers, they would have raised $500 million – billions of dollars, I should say – over a 10-year period. We could wipe out their debt. We would be able to help ensure that all of these things that we need to do – child care, elder care, making sure that we continue to strengthen our health care system, making sure that we’re able to make sure that every single person is eligible for what I was able to do with the – with, with, with Covid. Excuse me, having to deal with everything that we have to do with – listen, if – we finally beat Medicare.
You don’t have to believe that Biden is senile to believe that he is diminished by age, as we all will be. I worry that his worst moments come when he is unprepared, as in the debate, or when he stopped to answer questions after his press conference to rebut the special counsel’s report and conflate Mexico and Egypt. I worry that people around Biden will tell me that they were not surprised by his performance, that they have seen him like this many times. This is not the president I want in a high-pressure, high-stakes dialogue with Benjamin Netanyahu or Xi Jinping.
The Biden campaign could show us that these are flukes, that the president is quick and convincing. There is no end of conflicting podcasts, TV shows and interviews they could get him to do. In the polls, he is losing a lot among voters who get their information on social networks and YouTube. Why not sit down for a long interview with Lex Fridman or Joe Rogan or Charlamagne tha God? Why didn’t Biden do the Super Bowl interview? Biden participates in fewer interviews than any other recent president. He gives fewer press conferences than any other recent president. The idea that this is all just a coincidence, and that none of this reflects ability, is implausible. No more.
I’ve heard some Democrats point to Fetterman, who suffered a debilitating stroke during his Senate campaign, as some kind of sinister role model. He also had a poor debate performance, but he still won the seat. But he was recovering from a stroke. It was reasonable to expect his abilities to return, and they have. Biden will not age backward.
What do political parties do? One of their jobs, and perhaps the most important, is to nominate candidates. We have a two-party system. Voters will have two viable options in November. The Democratic Party is responsible for one of those options. It must make that choice responsibly. What is its role if not that?
