The slurring Joe Biden blues

President Biden gave his farewell speech last night. He promised it was his final such address near the top of his remarks. The White House has posted the video below on YouTube, but has not yet posted the text. The New York Times has posted a transcript here for those who might prefer to take it in without the full Madam Tussauds effect.

Behind the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office, Biden slurred and struggled his way through a reading of the text from the teleprompter. Without a live throng to cheer him on, the text elicited no shouting. The speechwriters vainly strove to endow the text with an eloquence that is beyond them and that rings false in Biden’s reading. The 17 minutes running time feels more like 17 hours.

When Biden turns to the real-life events of his presidency and transmutes them into famous victories, the effect is nauseating. It’s time for him to go. It’s past time for him to go. It would be better if he had never come.

Biden drew on his well of wisdom from his long years on the public payroll and the Biden family business. With Hunter in the room off-camera, Biden stated: “People should be able to make as much as they can, but pay — play by the same rules, pay their fair share in taxes.”

What you mean “people,” Kemo Sabe? If lack of self-awareness were a lethal disease, Biden would long ago have shuffled or pitty-patted off this mortal coil.

Referring to California and North Carolina, Biden held that “the existential threat of climate change has never been clearer.” Sane observers may infer that the existential threat of left-wing mythology and liberal misrule constitute the real existential threat.

Dear Lord, protect us from those who would exercise their power to protect us from this:

Americans are being buried under an avalanche of misinformation and disinformation enabling the abuse of power. The free press is crumbling. Editors are disappearing. Social media is giving up on fact-checking. The truth is smothered by lies told for power and for profit. We must hold the social platforms accountable to protect our children, our families and our very democracy from the abuse of power.

In other words, protect us from the likes of Joe Biden.

Say it one more time:

We need to get dark money — that’s that hidden funding behind too many campaign contributions — we need to get it out of our politics. We need to enact an 18-year time limit, term limit, time and term, for the strongest ethics — and the strongest ethics reforms for our Supreme Court. We need to ban members of Congress from trading stock while they are in the Congress. We need to amend the Constitution to make clear that no president, no president is immune from crimes that he or she commits while in office. The president’s power is not limit — it is not absolute. And it shouldn’t be.

In the timeless words of William Buckley: “We must cut the crap.”

In his concluding paragraph Biden gave us his word: “After 50 years of public service, I give you my word, I still believe in the idea for which this nation stands…” That should probably read “my word as a Biden.” Most of us have learned what his word as a Biden is worth. Who cares what Biden believes after 50 years at the public trough with an assist from the Biden family business?

Buckley’s admonition also applies to Biden’s reflections on “oligarchy.” Like President Eisenhower’s warning against “the military-industrial complex,” Bide warns us: “Six days — six decades later, I’m equally concerned about the potential rise of a tech-industrial complex that could pose real dangers for our country as well.”

Along the same lines, Biden drew on the clichéd version of the “robber barons.” Biden saw fit to warn us of “an oligarchy [that] is taking shape in America of extreme wealth, power and influence that literally threatens our entire democracy, our basic rights and freedoms and a fair shot for everyone to get ahead.” Victor Davis Hanson picked up the theme of “oligarchy” in his comments on Biden’s farewell. As I was saying about lack of self-awareness…

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