These Aren’t Gaffes, They’re Manifestations Of Capability
This morning I did an appearance on Chicago’s Morning Answer Show with Dan Proft and Amy Jacobson to talk about a couple of things – but most notably the rather alarming spate of idiotic utterances by our president and vide president…
Of course, if you missed all this we have the video.
There was Biden at the podium, attempting his smarmy-politico act to include gladhandling and faux congratulation of the other smarmy politicos, until it just went wrong.
Then, of course, there was the “explanation” offered by the White House spokeslesbian (we can call her that because she held it out as a qualification for her job, which she is not good at) Karine Jean-Pierre, which went badly…
This idiotic “top of mind” assertion, like Proft said, wasn’t helpful to Team Biden’s cause. Just say he slipped, it was unfortunate, and take the hit. This stupid “top of mind” thing fuels the idea that Biden was looking around for the ghost of Jackie Walorski in the hall.
She’s actually almost as bad as Biden is. She goes on babbling forever saying the same stuff, and it’s clearly irritating to the reporters.
James Rosen clowns her pretty badly when he says “I have John Lennon top of mind just about every day but I’m not looking around for him anywhere.” And what he gets back is a bunch of combative snark and a look that pretty much accuses him of being a racist for making that crack. Then someone notes that “These moments of confusion are happening w/increasing frequency.” Jean-Pierre won’t allow her to ask a question. And EWTN’s Owen Jensen pipes up to say “Why don’t you just apologize? Sounds like you’re making excuses.” She won’t answer that, either.
Then RealClear Politics’ Phillip Wegmann gives it one last shot and asks if Biden would rather have it back. She won’t budge on that one, either.
My explanation that I offered to Dan and Amy stands. It’s because this isn’t below the Biden standard. It is the Biden standard. If KJP says “yeah, he’d like that one back, it was a mistake and it’s regrettable,” that’s an admission he makes mistakes.
Which is blindingly obvious, because it happens all the time.
But if you admit it, you’re now opening the door in every press avail following Biden giving speeches or presentations to the after-action review asking what’s a mistake and what’s policy. And Team Biden already knows they can’t go there. They just have to fake it and hope the media gets bored and just accepts these stupid bungles as part of the game.
Because they are. And it isn’t just Biden and KJP. Here was the vice president, in case you didn’t see this episode we also talked about on the air in Chicago this morning…
So is it a mistake, or is it policy?
Of course it’s a mistake. But only in the sense that it isn’t the alternative. But when mistakes are your standard, when you can’t do anything without it being a Charlie Foxtrot, they aren’t really mistakes, are they?
If your field goal kicker shanks every single kick beyond 25 yards, at some point you have to accept the fact that he simply isn’t accurate past that point. You may think he has enough leg for a 35-yard field goal, but the evidence is that he can’t make it.
And that’s what we have in the White House. We have people who aren’t capable of doing even an average job.
Joe Biden isn’t mentally capable of conducting himself in a professional manner as befits a president. Kamala Harris lacks the talent as a public speaker or even an interviewee to make sense while giving a speech or answering a question. Karine Jean-Pierre is an utter hack who cannot communicate normally even in situations where it isn’t difficult. All she had to say here was “yeah, the President momentarily forgot Jackie Walorski was dead and he feels terrible about it.” But she can’t, because she isn’t capable of spinning all of the poor performances in a way that upholds any confidence in her boss.
KJP is terrible at her job, of course, but in her defense it’s an impossible job. This is an impossible regime. It’s like asking the Bad News Bears to go out and win the AL East. It should never have been a thing, but it is, and we have to live through the daily rigamarole of failure and excuse until at least January of 2025 while everything gets progressively worse.