Someone once said that “a week is a long time in politics.” The last week in American politics has been longer than most. It began with continuing doubts about President Joe Biden’s mental fitness and ability to remain in office, and ended with the attempted assassination of former president Donald Trump.
This week, as the Republican National Convention begins, Biden once more faced the press in a way he should have been doing for the past three years, speaking with Lester Holt of NBC News in a prime time interview. As with the last interview with ABC’s George Stephanopolous, it presented the public with the image of a man who is faded, but not all the way gone.
The President sounded fine. Not sharp. Not especially well-spoken. Not even all that well-enunciated. But fine. He didn’t freeze up, he kept the meandering sentences to a minimum, and he didn’t trail off and forget what he was saying more than a couple times.
That seems to be about the best Biden can do these days, and he certainly is trying. But the question remains: can the campaign keep doing this? An appearance every week or two where the president appears not insane but not especially good or competent?
Unfortunately for Biden, where 50 million watched his debate and millions more saw clips of it afterward, merely getting by is not good enough. Having seen him fall flat in June, each stumble from now until November will confirm to the people what they already know. Biden has zero room for error. Any politician would find that daunting.
The substance of the often comparative interview last night focused mostly on Biden’s opponent. After the shooting, Biden addressed the nation and called for greater calm and civility. The “political rhetoric in this country has gotten very heated,” Biden said a day earlier. “It’s time to cool it down.”
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