Joe’s disastrous interview
Apparently George Stephanopoulos was selected to administer the coup de grace to Biden by interviewing him:
Driving the news: In the 22-minute interview, Biden insisted he has the stamina to take on Trump and refused to take a cognitive test.
The president rejected polls indicating he’s trailing his Republican rival and minimized the extent to which his Democratic allies have pressured him to withdraw from the race.
And Biden made clear he’s not dropping out: “If the Lord Almighty came down and said ‘Joe, get out of the race,’ I’d get out of the race. The Lord Almighty’s not coming down.”…
Another House Democrat said their colleagues feel Biden’s interview was “not impressive” and that “he’s toast” in November.
Said a third: “The interview hardly inspires confidence. It changes nothing.”A fourth House Democrat said they were “shocked” by Biden’s “refusal to recognize reality” in terms of polling and his “failure to make an argument about why he wants a second term.”
But that’s not new. If they say it is, they’re either lying or have been in flagrant denial equal to that of Joe Biden. What’s going on is that they’re perceiving the Biden ship as sinking, and some of the rats are leaving. Others are staying and praising Biden.
Those quotes were from an Axios article, but here’s a description from RedState, with the following quote:
ABC: "What's your plan to turn the campaign around?"
BIDEN: "You saw it today … how many (incoherent) drew crowds like I did today?"
ABC: "I don't think you want to play the crowd game. Donald Trump can draw BIG CROWDS!"
BIDEN: "Who's he have!?" pic.twitter.com/GstMXRWHrJ
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) July 6, 2024
Biden has exhibited that sort of bluster and denial for his whole career. In fact, he’s been far more out of touch with reality and full of exaggerations and BS than Trump, although the left usually concentrates on the latter and ignores the former.
And then there’s the “now it can be told” Parkinson’s question:
A top Washington D.C. neurologist had a meeting with President Biden’s personal doctor at the White House earlier this year, visitor logs reviewed by The Post show.
Dr. Kevin Cannard, a Parkinson’s disease expert at Walter Reed Medical Center, met with Dr. Kevin O’Connor, and two others at the White House residence clinic on Jan. 17, according to the records, which emerge as questions continue to swirl about the 81-year-old president’s mental health in the wake of his debate debacle last week with former President Trump.
This may or may not have any significance. But I’ve long thought that Biden has Parkinson’s. The slow and jerky gait, the fogginess, the masklike expression, the balance problems. These are all symptoms of Parkinson’s (I know, because I am very close to two people with it and have read a great deal about it). It doesn’t necessarily mean he has it, however. But it certainly is a good possibility. One of things things about Parkinson’s is that there’s no definitive test for it. Doctors who are experienced in the field go by the symptoms. And if you think Biden can’t have it because he lacks a tremor, Parkinson’s doesn’t always involve that classic symptom.
Other hallmarks of Parkinson’s that are less well-known but very common are extreme fatigue. Biden certainly has that. And cognitive decline is, unfortunately, part of the Parkinson’s spectrum for many sufferers.
I have learned from various reports that delegates to the Democratic National Convention are not necessarily bound to vote for their state primary winner on the first ballot. They have a “conscience clause” which they can use to weasel out of the primary result. So if Biden won’t voluntarily withdraw, it’s possible there will be an old-fashioned open convention. That might be the only way they could get rid of Kamala Harris as well.
I imagine there are messages and phone calls going on around the country recruiting delegates.
Did they leave Biden in the toaster too long or is he competing for Baddest Orange Man in the Whole Damn Town?
To keep Biden in the race, Trump should tell Biden to think of him as Corn Pop.
After the debate I was in the bag immediately for Joe Must Go. I calls ’em as I sees ’em, but make no claims to omniscience.
However, if we are already seeing blood in the water and the sharks are circling …
But it’s Kremlin time in Demville — feeble Biden’s been exposed.
I flew a high-performance sailplane for about 5 years with a friend who had been diagnosed with Parkinson’s. He wanted me to fly with him because the meds he was on caused him to perform poorly in stressful situations — the very worst time to be performing poorly. We had many very good flights of 4-8 hours, covering thousands of kilometers and setting five state records. Also including a number of stressful situations where I intervened (as planned) and got us down safely.
Four years ago yesterday I met him for dinner at a casino in Carson City, following which I was heading into interior Nevada for a fishing trip and he was heading to Utah to fly with another pilot. When I got back into cell service area four days later I had a stack of calls waiting for me from other glider pilot and his wife, and I feared the worst.
Indeed, he and the other pilot had impacted the ground at a high rate of speed and both were killed instantly.
Parkinsons is an insidious and difficult disease. Worse, the recommended medication appears to have bad side effects for people taking it. We will never know what caused my friend’s crash, but the deck was stacked against him eventually and he knew it himself. We had discussed it, and in fact he had told me at dinner this would be his last season. Alas, it was.
If Joe Biden is facing the same progression, even he must understand he cannot continue in the White House. The sooner he recognizes this, the better for all of us.
Dr Ted Noel has also long suspected Biden could be showing signs of Parkinsons. He writes today of what he and others have been seeing.
One of my BILs passed away some years ago after developing an early onset dementia doctors couldn’t pin down at the time. His symptoms developed over years and were baffling because his off moments were few and far between until his disease had advanced to the point it couldn’t be explained away by anything else anymore. At that point he declined rapidly and passed within a year. Autopsy confirmed Lewy Body Disease.
The Bidens appear determined to cling to power to the end but it seems unlikely the powers that be will go along with that. Time will tell.
https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2024/07/the_diagnosis_is_in_and_joe_s_not_going_to_get_well.html
Andrea Widburg on this topic.
As part of the progression of his Dementia/Alzheimers has Biden become a very sloppy eater?*
* See https://news.meaww.com/joe-biden-appears-in-public-with-noticeable-food-stain-on-his-suit-internet-says-its-just-a-snack-for-later
Now it gets interesting, I don’t think Joe and his crowd will go quietly, what would it take?
Now that my wifi has been restored and I’m not tethering off my cell…
Biden in the Stephanopoulos interview was better than the debate. He didn’t freeze and trail off into incoherence or absurdity. I guess they’ve got the dosages figured right for a 30 minute interview. The time in the tanning booth helped too.
Biden did make it clear that no way, no how, will he be tested cognitvely and the results released to the public. He refuses to buy any arguments that he is behind in the polls or that he is anything other than the best shot for beating Medicare. Sorry, Donald Trump.
What I found most interesting was that Stephanopoulos asked the toughest questions a liberal journalist to my knowledge has ever asked Biden. Stephanopoulos practically cross-examined him.
Stephanopoulos does seem to represent the Joe Must Go coalition. I assume the Biden team knew that too. Which makes me wonder why Biden agreed to the interview.
I guess the Biden team realized Biden had to make some major appearance to counteract the disastrous Presidential debate. The JMG folks said, OK, let’s see how you handle Stephanopoulos. It won’t be softballs.
No minds were changed. Perhaps we could call it the first public skirmish between Biden and Joe Must Go.
Every election cycle the Press acts like they’re tough ( usually late in said cycle) to restore their credibility. The debate performance caught them off guard, so it has to be earlier in the cycle.
Tell me something I didn’t know already, Andrea.
Parkinson’s yes.
Physician for 37 years
They do have a scan for Parkinson’s which can tell if a person has a decreased amount of dopamine receptors in the basal ganglia of the brain. Though not definitive, together with the appropriate symptoms, it is a strongly suggestive test.
When Biden ran for the first time there was talk that he would only be a one term president. That talk dried up quickly enough after he was elected. Biden had time to groom and prepare successors had he wanted to (and been in any condition to). Harris obviously could have used an immense amount of teaching and training, but there were other possibilities. That didn’t happen because nobody was really running things, but also because the Bidens were holding on to the presidency with a death grip.
Instapundit linked to a 2000 CRB article by William Voegeli that accurately predicted what a Biden presidency would be like. This lept out at me:
Biden has spent half a century in politics, a field of endeavor that favors a man skilled at getting others to believe what they need to believe in order for them to do what he wants them to do. Those too fastidious for such exertions seldom last long or go far. “In Washington,” George Packer, then with the New Yorker, wrote in 2012, “elected officials considered themselves a higher breed.”
Biden was no exception—loyal to “a small circle of long-serving aides,” in Packer’s words, but “if you just worked your ass off for him for a few years he wouldn’t notice.” One of the unnoticed was Jeff Connaughton, whose mixed feelings about Biden included some admiration but also the belief that the senator was an “egomaniacal autocrat.” In fairness, to be a senator at 30—one of the higher breed, but also younger than many of the staff members who toil as mere courtiers—puts you at great risk for self-adoration.
Politicians tend to be narcissistic, and “egomaniacal autocrat” is something the media says about Trump, but the description is also spot-on when it comes to Biden. What matters in Washington, DC is acceptance by the political Establishment and the media. If they accept a politician, the politicians faults go unnoticed.
Here’s a conservative YouTuber, Courageous Media, clipping Jon Stewart going after Biden’s debate performance. Hilarious.
______________________________
We know the bar they have both been set up to pass. Biden has to not to look old and not have a senior moment. Go!
[Biden rambles off into his classic senior moment ending in “We finally beat Medicare!”
Stewart responds with his classic “I can’t believe I’m hearing this!” expression.]
–“Democrats SHOCKED!! Jon Stewart TURNS on Biden: ‘I’m DONE!
https://youtu.be/cUojjvDVNoA?t=171
______________________________
Later Stewart even gave a nod to Trump for making a coherent response.
I’m under no illusion Stewart has any credibility as an equal opportunity, Speaking Truth to Power, comic. However, I can’t deny his comedic powers when skewering his political kin.
But the important thing I notice about Stewart, going back to Occupy Wall Street, is that when he gets around to skewering the left, he’s not only dead-on, he does so because he realizes that the left going to hurt the Democrats.
After Stewart went after Occupy Wall St, a few weeks later the Dem city governments cleaned out all the Occupy Wall St encampments in their cities.
I strongly suspect Stewart is clued into the Joe Must Go movement.
What is happening to Biden and the Democrats appears to be a collapse in brand. I think the number of people who voted Democrat are turning away from the party is growing. I think the internal polling is showing an increasingly frustrated voter base who don’t feel their concerns matter to the party leadership along with the impossible to hide failure of leadership.
I think this is why the Democrats suddenly realized this old suit isn’t working and the pressure to change the laundry is increasing. They hope a newer coat of paint will bring back the disaffected Democrats or will slow the rate of departure.
My question is has the disaster of Biden focused on the individual or has it affecting the entire party regardless of who replaces him if that is even possible?
Your question, Frank B., may have an answer, but we won’t know until thew election.
I saw it opined by a pundit that, if Biden can hang on for the next two weeks, the DNC nominating committee will be meeting, and they will be committed to go with the winner off the national primary – none other than Joey B. That cements his candidacy.
Here’s why that matters.
“The DNC Convention is scheduled to begin in Chicago on Aug. 19, but the state of Ohio requires that presidential candidates are formally nominated at least 90 days before Election Day.”
https://news.yahoo.com/news/exclusive-dnc-moves-ahead-virtual-120025562.html
Time is running out for them to change the nominee. We’ll see.
If Joe is the default nominee, I expect the Democrat Party to go all-in to try to salvage the election. Major attack ads, lots of ballot harvesting/creation, protests at the RNC convention, etc., etc.