President Joe Biden achieved the worst possible outcome for Democrats at his NATO press conference on Thursday night.
He delivered neither a solid performance that would have unbalanced critics in his own party who want him to quit the presidential race nor a repeat of the worst-in-history debate performance of June 27 that would have sealed his fate.
Instead, Biden muddled through a performance that was pretty bad, but not unlike his other gaffe-filled appearances as president.
The result is likely to be a frozen race in which the political death watch continues and Democrats are seen to be in a state of chaos, threatening not only the presidential race but Democrats trying to hold on to congressional seats. However, Biden’s elder-abusing family and White House staff will have him hold out and maintain his candidacy. (RELATED: ‘Worst Case Scenario’: Biden Avoids Total Collapse In Gaffe-Heavy Presser)
Biden started with a so-so read of his comments from a teleprompter. In an answer to an early question, he referred to “Vice President Trump.” This was on the heels of a gaffe earlier in the day when he accidentally referred to Ukrainian President Volodymyr “Captain Undershirt” Zelenskyy as “President Putin,” the leader of Russia. Such gaffes would be harmful to most presidential candidates, but were seen as just another day in public for Biden.
Biden mumbled. He coughed frequently, which can be a symptom of Parkinson’s disease. He lost his train of thought saying that a NATO conference dominated by questions of his competency was somehow a success. He had trouble following a simple list of reporters on whom to call.
Biden did his weird whisper, including during his claim that he has done more for unions than any president in history. This feat was actually achieved by Franklin Roosevelt, who died in office, and whose portrait stares down at the kindred ailing president in the Oval Office.
But the performance was not the complete fiasco of his debate with Trump.
The list of reporters his staff gave him contained only safe and friendly outlets, including state propaganda outlet NPR and the wire services. He received an embarrassing softball from a Polish radio reporter asking about how much of a meanie Trump would be. He asked New York Times reporter David Sanger to “be nice”—an odd concern about a reliably leftwing outlet. In fact, Biden had reason to be concerned: he received a friendly but complex question about keeping China and Russia apart and responded alternately that he would and would not meet with Russian president Putin. But whatever.
Biden couldn’t have asked for a more sympathetic environment in Washington. The palace eunuchs of the press corps were relatively gentle. In the days before his presser, he was surrounded by leaders of NATO, the one-way alliance that lets wealthy European moochers neglect their own defense in order to fund lavish welfare states.
The magnificent beggars attending the NATO summit are determined to run this grift as long as possible, and are terrified that Biden might lose to Trump. Before the press conference, Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof called Biden a “strong president.” Britain’s new lefty prime minister, Keir Starmer, said the president “was on good form.”
Finnish President Alexander Stubb said, “I have absolutely no concerns about the capacity of the current president of the United States to lead his country and to lead our fight for Ukraine and to lead NATO.”
Biden actually boasted of Finland’s membership in NATO—a new unfunded mandate that supposedly obligates the United States to defend Finland’s 830-mile border with Russia. Stubb also said he was concerned about “polarization” of the American political climate, which he called “toxic.” You can bet he wasn’t talking about the Democrats’ descent into woke McCarthyism or their perversion of the legal system to get Trump at all costs. He might as well have cut a campaign ad for Biden. A friend in need is a grifter indeed.
The overall outcome for Biden was not great, but probably good enough to keep him going for now.
Biden benefits from other trends. While some polls have registered a collapse in support for him following his debate with Trump, others misleadingly show him still to be competitive. For example, the RealClearPolitics compilation of recent polls has separate Wall Street Journal and New York Times polls showing Trump six points ahead of Biden, but an ABC News/Washington Post poll has the two men tied.
In reality, all polls probably overstate Biden’s support by over-sampling left-leaning young voters who are unlikely to turn out this year. The same is true among others on whom Democrats would typically rely who lack energetic interest in the race. How many Biden-Harris bumper stickers have you seen lately?
The Republican National Convention begins in Milwaukee next Tuesday, will feature a grand reveal of Trump’s choice of nominee for vice president, and then culminate on Thursday with an acceptance speech by Trump himself. Between now and then Biden will hit the campaign trail with stops in Texas and Nevada. He seems to be going nowhere soon—other than massive defeat this fall.
Christian Whiton was a senior adviser in the Donald Trump and George W. Bush administrations.
The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of the Daily Caller News Foundation.
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