The Wall Street Journal has four bylines and five contributors noted on today’s page-one (5,500-word) story “How the Bet on an 81-Year-Old Joe Biden Turned Into an Epic Miscalculation” (behind the Journal paywall). Some call it “miscalculation,” and that is the framework the Journal story fills in.
None dare call it conspiracy, to borrow a phrase. The “miscalculation” to which the headline refers would more accurately be described as the Democrats’ bet that President Biden’s patent incapacity could be covered up as long as necessary:
President Biden had just finished trying to persuade a group of congressional Democrats to pass a $1 trillion infrastructure bill when Nancy Pelosi, then the House speaker, took the microphone.
In 30 minutes of remarks on Capitol Hill, Biden had spoken disjointedly and failed to make a concrete ask of lawmakers, according to Democrats in the room. After he left, a visibly frustrated Pelosi told the group she would articulate what Biden had been trying to say, one lawmaker said.
“It was the first time I remember people pretty jarred by what they had seen,” recalled Rep. Dean Phillips (D., Minn.), who would go on to mount an unsuccessful primary challenge against the president.
That was October 2021. That month was the last time Biden met with the House Democratic caucus on the Hill regarding legislation.
On a local note, let us assimilate this laughter is the best medicine quote bearing on the adjacent post:
Many Democrats were heavily critical of anyone who suggested alternatives to Biden. At a Center for American Progress event, Democratic Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota—the co-chair of the DNC’s rules committee—dismissed concerns about Biden’s age. “Everybody who says, ‘I wish he was younger.’ I wish I was skinnier!” he said. “There’s a responsibility for us not to buy into that.”
The story of the Biden administration, if not the 2020 presidential campaign, is the story of the cover-up of Biden’s senility. The Journal story begins gingerly to make it out (“That fall [of 2022], a former senior cabinet agency official began telling associates that Biden shouldn’t seek re-election, saying he wouldn’t be an effective candidate”). There is more to come.
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