I have patiently waited for some pundit to invoke the “dead cat bounce” cliché to Joe Biden’s victory in South Carolina. The closest I have come is Nate Silver, who posits it as one of five hypotheses explaining the outcome of the South Carolina primary. (Silver helpfully links to the technical stock market definition of “dead cat bounce.”)
I have also patiently waited for some operative or pundit to claim “Joementum.” I’m afraid it’s down to me, and my use is facetious, but Drudge does headline “Joe Mo” this morning, with a link to an AP story. The Washington Post also serves up Matt Viser and Clem Wootson’s “After humbling start, the 18 days that resuscitated Joe Biden’s candidacy” (the link goes to the accessible Jewish World Review version of the article).
Biden put several of his weaknesses vividly on display during his victory lap with Chris Wallace on FOX News Sunday. After discussing his gaffes, Biden thanked “Chuck” for the interview. Flustered when Wallace corrected him, he explained that he had just done “Chris” earlier. “I tell you what, man, these are back to back,” Biden explained. “Anyway, I don’t know how you do it early in the morning too,” he added. It was “early” for Grampa Joe.
Quoting this exchange with Wallace, Spectator USA’s Dominic Green has a hypothesis of his own to explain Biden: “he’s sleeping on the job by breakfast time.”
This was all in the closing seconds of the interview (video below). The Examiner’s Zachary Halaschak reports that earlier in the interview Biden explained that his blunder about being a Senate candidate was “in the context of how I said I ran” years ago and that his recent claim that he was “arrested” while trying to see Nelson Mandela in South Africa was mistaken. He “should have said I was detained.” More realistically, he shouldn’t have said anything, but it seemed like a good idea at the time.
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