Dominic Green’s New York Post column explains the offense the escapee from Madam Tussauds has given his British hosts. The column is “Biden opens European tour with slap at Brits.” However, Prime Minister Boris Johnson appears to be taking it well.
Green is deputy editor of the Spectator’s world edition as well as a historian and journalist of the first rank. While our mainstream media serve Biden like the courtiers and townsfolk in “The emperor’s new clothes,” Green plays the part of the the little child, but with the eye of an educated adult:
The press would have asked Biden about why he’s resumed Obama’s strategy of insulting your friends, but Biden didn’t hold a joint press conference with Boris on Thursday. Now, it’s true that my colleagues in the British press make a blood-crazed Rottweiler look like Snoopy. But it’s also true that taking one in the face from Fleet Street comes with the territory.
This is the first time in modern history that the president of the United States has dodged the press after his inaugural meeting with Britain’s prime minister. It’s obvious that Biden isn’t up to the biggest job in the world.
Jibberin’ Joe repartee isn’t exactly razor-sharp on a good day. Multiply the blatant decline of the presidential faculties by a five-hour jet lag, and Biden would come off looking like one of those lost tourists in “If It’s Tuesday, This Must Be Belgium.” Banterin’ Boris, meanwhile, is a natural comedian who can recite Homer in the original Greek.
The jokes in this European Vacation are on the United States. And also on the Queen. The Bidens are going to tea with Elizabeth II on Sunday. It will be a memorable occasion — for her, anyway, as her memory is still working.
Green’s Telegraph column “President Biden is crumbling before our eyes” anticipated these observations this past March.
Green’s observations provide a useful contrast to the superficial pap served up by Alex Thompson and Theodoric Meyer at the top of Politico’s West Wing Playbook last night:
As world leaders gladhand and pose for countless photos at the optics-heavy G-7 summit this weekend in Cornwall, England, one visible detail jumps out: President JOE BIDEN is the eldest of all the statesmen. In fact, of all the leaders Biden is set to meet with in the U.K., only the 95-year-old Queen of England will be his senior.
The White House, nevertheless, seems to be trying to project an image of Biden, 78, as a vigorous peer who can hang with the likes of Canadian Prime Minister JUSTIN TRUDEAU, 49, and French President EMMANUEL MACRON, 43, rather than that of a wise graybeard.
He sported running shoes while grabbing a Coca-Cola at the hotel bar in Cornwall. Standing alongside his fellow world leaders near the Atlantic Ocean, he joked, “[e]verybody in the water.”
Biden is more active than most septuagenarians. But there’s also been a meticulous White House effort to make him seem, well, younger. There are the bike rides past photographers and the jogging up the steps of Air Force One (he’s become more careful since he fell doing so).
The White House has blocked news photographers from taking overhead shots, which some photographers believe is because of Biden’s thinning hair. During the campaign, it was a rule among staff to not post photos of Biden from behind because of his bald spot. The White House declined to comment.
Biden is far from the first president to try to deflect questions about his age, vigor, or appearance with careful choreography….
Forget the senior moments, the vacant stare, the dependence on written texts he struggles to follow and to articulate, the pitty pat/short step gait and all the other telltale signs of a man well into his dotage. Talk about the top of Biden’s empty head. That’s the ticket.
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