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The US President proved himself capable of speaking in full sentences during his press conference on Thursday evening.
This is noteworthy because before the press conference, President Biden’s ability to speak publicly had been questioned. First presidential debate In an interview at the end of June ABC News Last week, Biden repeatedly failed to speak coherent English on command.
In a perfectly rational world, Biden’s previous poor public performance should have Increase The demand on him at a news conference on Thursday was: If you have only proven yourself to be the worst candidate, then winning the party’s trust requires proving that you are an absolute outstanding Do the best you can. Otherwise, why should your fellow party members tolerate your obvious unreliability?
But not all Democrats see it that way.
Many in the party are reluctant to publicly oppose the president, who has made it clear that he wants to remain in the 2024 race. Lack of confidence in Vice President Kamala HarrisHe is by far the most likely Democrat to replace Biden as the presidential candidate. For these reasons, some Democratic lawmakers are willing to believe that Biden’s reasons for leaving office are not very clear. But the president’s poor performance in the debate forced these Democrats to accept the view that Biden is the pillar of their party. As the media revealed, Biden has Suffering from such mental disorder The frequency is getting higher and higher—— Polls Showed to the President His political party Slippage — Interest in the insurgency is growing. Ahead of Thursday’s press conference, CBS News Reported “Dozens” of congressional Democrats are considering calling for Biden to step down following this incident.
Yet some of those reluctant rebels apparently found reason to waver during Biden’s news conference. From the end of that press conference until midday Friday, only a handful of Democratic lawmakers called on him to step down. Others, meanwhile, said they were reassured. “I think he convinced a lot of people that he should stay in the race,” Rep. Steve Cohen (R-Tenn.) said. Tell CNN. Democratic Senator Chris Coons of Biden’s home state of Delaware Declared“Tonight, President Biden was knowledgeable, charismatic, and capable.
Democrats who are skeptical of Biden’s candidacy believe his performance has hindered their cause. In a report by New York Times reporter Anne Carney Summary “This could make an already slow decision-making process even slower,” they said.
But Democrats must not succumb to the gross irresponsibility of having too low expectations of their candidates. Nothing Biden did Thursday night suggested that supporting him was the best option for the Democratic Party. Democrats have a civic duty to put forward the strongest candidate, because their failure would return the insurgents to power.
Biden’s performance Thursday night did suggest that he remains capable of performing the basic functions of his office — more Much more capable of doing so than his Republican opponent. The president, at least most of the time, has demonstrated a mastery of foreign affairs and an ability to express his ideas clearly.
Nevertheless, the rigor and persuasiveness of his geopolitical remarks Serious exaggerationOne example: At a NATO summit, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky urged the United States to give Ukraine greater freedom to use American weapons offensively. Zelensky argued that Ukraine could not win the war without greater freedom to strike military targets inside Russia. A reporter asked Biden if he found that argument persuasive. Biden’s responseAccording to White House records:
We allow Zelensky to use American weapons in the short term, to attack Russia in the short term. Whether he has — we should — he should be attacked — for example, Zelensky — he doesn’t, but if he has the ability to attack Moscow, to attack the Kremlin, does it make sense? It doesn’t make sense.
The question is: What is the best use of the weapons he has and the weapons we give him? I gave him more HIMAR – I gave him more ranged capabilities and defensive capabilities.
So our military is working — I’m following the advice of my commander in chief — my — my — the military chief of staff and the secretary of defense and our intelligence people.
Biden initially struggled to articulate his thoughts in response to the question. But by the end, he had done enough to convey the broad outlines of his position to those who already knew the situation: He feared a direct conflict with a nuclear superpower, so he didn’t want Ukraine to be able to launch American weapons at major Russian cities. He believed he had already provided Ukraine with all the necessary weapons, but he was prepared to make adjustments if his military advisers directed him to do so.
Of course, he didn’t articulate those ideas in a way that the average voter could understand. Even when his answers were more succinctly worded, they still weren’t fleshed out; Biden didn’t acknowledge that Ukraine had been losing for a long time, nor did he explain how that trajectory could be reversed without a shift in U.S. policy. In other words, he didn’t really engage with the arguments he was trying to refute.
If the content of Biden’s speech was mediocre, the delivery was even worse. The president sounded frail and coughed frequently. He failed to read his opening remarks from a teleprompter and stuttered repeatedly. He referred to Vice President Kamala Harris as “Vice President Trump.” Clip The latter gaffe quickly amassed more than 8 million views on TikTok.
That performance doesn’t make a convincing case that Democrats are best positioned to prevent Donald Trump from being elected under Biden. However, on Thursday, the president said he shouldn’t need To make such a case.
Asked if he would resign if his team presented him with polls showing Harris doing better against Trump, Biden responded: “No, unless they come back to me and say, ‘There’s no way you can win.'”
Presidential poll numbers Already fallen since the debate (before the debate he was already on a losing track, according to polls). But to say he can’t win is an exaggeration. Polarization has given Biden a solid base of support. If he sweeps Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, he’ll likely win reelection. He’s more 5 points behind Trump In Pennsylvania, but behind Trump, according to the RealClearPolitics polling average smaller Margins In the other two states, Biden’s victory would not require particularly large polling errors or historically unprecedented shifts in the political winds.
However, if Biden believes his assessment of Donald Trump, he should not feel particularly comfortable with the fact that his chances of winning are not 0%.
The president is historically unpopular and has remained so for much of his term. popularity Nearly 37%. Many voters blame him for inflation, and (wrongly） More confident Trump’s ability to lower prices. More than 70% Biden is too old to run for reelection. Before the debate, he failed to catch up with Trump in swing states, even as the media focused on Republican felony convictions and Republicans have yet to start advertising against him in earnestBiden is unlikely to gain support easily because 1) he has repeatedly confirmed voters’ concerns about his cognitive decline, and 2) the media Revealing his team has been deliberately misleading the public about his condition, and 3) every false statement he makes between now and Election Day is sure to attract intense media attention.
Polls can be wrong. But in 2016 and 2020, they were Overestimate Democratic support. It would be unwise to assume that polling errors obscure Biden’s strength rather than exaggerate it.
Kamala Harris is not an ideal candidate. She is likely to be a replacement for Biden. But she does have Low opposition rate Rated higher than the president and performed better one Than him Opposition to Trump in several recent polls. Most importantly, she is a capable, coherent public speaker who doesn’t come across as archaic or eccentric, a quality that sets her apart from the current standard-bearers of the major parties. I think some Democrats have forgotten what a normal presidential candidate looks like. I encourage anyone impressed by Biden’s performance on Thursday night to watch it side by side with Harris’ speech in North Carolina that day:
Common sense tells us that a party will not maximize its chances of winning by nominating a candidate with far-reaching influence. unwelcome At 81, he lags badly in the polls, cannot speak reliably and coherently, and the vast majority of voters consider him unfit for reelection. A sober reading of the available data suggests as much. The Democratic Party should not settle for a standard-bearer who sometimes comes across as incompetent when he speaks publicly. Nor should Biden be content to retain External Opportunities Defeat Trump. The Democratic Party must field the strongest candidate this November to minimize the chances of an authoritarian insurgent taking power. Biden’s performance Thursday night confirmed that he is no longer that candidate.
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