Nate Silver… Wasn’t he the bad guy from Time Cop?
Nate makes some very valid points, unfortunately. We needed Biden to step down and someone like Whitmer, Polis, or Newsom to run six months ago.
A lot of commentators that I respect have pointed out that Biden ought to do more public events that would help to allay public doubts about his mental sharpness. The problem is, one can infer the reason that Biden is not doing them — namely that the White House comms team is rational and has inferred that the cost of doing them outweighs the benefits because Biden is too likely to come across poorly.
Biden has done fewer interviews than any recent president, and it’s not close. By this point in their presidencies, Barack Obama had given more than 400 interviews and Trump had given more than 300. Biden has given fewer than 100.
Mr. Biden has especially shunned interviews with major newspapers. Since taking office, he has not done a single interview with reporters from a major newspaper.
How much longer can they keep hiding him and covering for him?
He’s given plenty of speeches recently but they aren’t covered.
Even the non-rightwing press is being pushed into the RW talking points.
You might read the article a bit more carefully.
Silver is distinguishing unscripted speeches and/or interviews from scripted speeches, of which yes, there are many.
The question isn’t whether Biden can read from a script it’s whether he can respond off the cuff.
I’m not convinced this is valid criticism as much as supposition.
The guy is busy actually doing the job. He doesn’t nesc have time right now to fanny around giving leisurely interviews. Stuff is happening, you know?
Criticizing Biden for not making public speeches when he has been in fact making plenty public speeches makes it not a valid criticism
That probably has more to do with his stutter than anything else. Look up lifetime interviews for the average politician with a record close to Biden’s. He probably has less all across the board. Because a stutter makes you look bad in an interview, even though it shouldn’t matter.
At this point its obviously not a stutter, and anyone still claiming that is in denial
He does have a stutter but that’s no excuse to not do public interviews and press conferences. If he can’t do the bare minimum…
Id be fine with that, but ill take Biden level mental slowness and gaffes and older age over Trumps absolute chaos agenda and sheer madness any day. The difference is incredible and the fact that people pay attention to Bidens age so much tells me how un calibrated to reality the usa is
seems like you already have your own bullshit answers to your own wacky conjectures.
it’s really quite simple, one candidate is an elderly man with some policy problems. the other guy is an elderly mentally deranged fascist who’s openly agitating for democracy’s end, he literally wants to be a dictator and brags about it.
HOW FUCKING THICK DO YOU HAVE TO BE TO SEE THIS AS A HARD DECISION?
I’m sorry you’re being downvoted for this comment. What you’re saying is absolutely true, the moderates just don’t want to hear it.
It’s the candidate’s job to assuage voter’s fears and convince people to vote for them. If Biden is too frail to do interviews, how is he going to do an election campaign? How is he even able to do this job? We have other people, why does it have to be Biden?
I liked how Jon Stewart put it - when the barbarians (Trump) are at the walls, you want Conan up there leading the charge, not a feeble old man who’s afraid to appear in front of the public.
A lot of it is them not wanting to face reality and instead bury their head in the sand. Hoping it’ll just magically all work out. It’s kind of terrifying Biden is “the best we got” to go against Trump.
Right. And they dismiss these really valid concerns as right wing propaganda or both-sides-isms. Polls right now show Trump polling marginally better than Biden. Shouldn’t this be sounding the alarms for more of us? Biden should be stomping Trump in polls but instead they’re neck and neck. And this is the guy that they’re determined to push.
I don’t even agree that Biden is “the best we got” but somehow everyone is convinced of that. I have a sad theory that DNC strategists see Biden as the most viable candidate because he’s a white male from a rust belt town. This profile lines up with many conservative voters that they think they need to win elections. This explains why they wouldn’t run someone “woke” like Whitmer or Newsome or maybe Michelle Obama. In other words, there aren’t any good ole boys left in the democratic party, or at least any popular enough to actually win (e.g., Joe Manchin).
From the perspective of an ordinary citizen though, Biden didn’t win because of conservative voters. He won because of a large coalition of different kinds of people - moderates, women, minority races, and leftists. Biden has upset that coalition by not pushing harder for codified reproductive rights, his stance on Gaza, and a weak relationship with labor. I worry that while moderates will turn out, that has never been enough to win.
