If you think about it — and I had to think 3 or 4 times — "I’m gonna withstand not doing that" makes sense. He "was gonna get back to acronyms," but he couldn't think of the acronym or couldn't or wouldn't say it, so he was "not doing that" — not "get[ting] back to acronyms. You just have to figure out the function of "withstand." It makes sense — and I'm a believer in "charitable interpretation" — if you see "withstand" as a determination to stand against — to successfully resist — getting back to acronyms... but, no... he said he was going to resist NOT getting back to acronyms. Well, I think you get it. He meant he's going to survive not getting back to acronyms. Because of course he will. He survives everything. He seems feeble and befuddled, but he goes on and on.
September 26, 2023
"I was gonna get back to acronyms and I’m gonna withstand not doing that."
Said President Biden, quoted in "Biden fumbles acronym during Pacific Islands forum speech: 'Doesn’t matter what we call it'" (NY Post).
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I don’t approve of what you’re doing here, Althouse. You are asking us to empathize with Joe Biden’s weakness, and to keep us on a path of weakness as a Nation.
OMG, if you want a good laugh I beg you to watch the video at the link. Keep a close eye on the sign language interpreter. I think we all know exactly how she felt!
The charity of your interpretation is duly noted. The rest of us are struggling.
Althouse is working very hard for Slow Joe. Commendable.
I hadn’t been a Quaker very long before hearing the phrase “plain speech.” Confused about its meaning, I asked a more seasoned Friend what it meant.
She said, “It means saying what you mean, and meaning what you say,”
That seemed consistent with the little I knew about Quakers, that they valued integrity, and spoke simply and directly. But later I would learn that plain speech meant more than integrity and brevity, it also meant avoiding language that elevated some and brought down others.
Welcome to PlainSpeech
That's pretty "charitable" of you...
You know those ads that encourage you to recognize signs of dementia in elderly loved ones? Joe Biden is who they are speaking of in those ads. The media can all try their best to cover up for both Biden's corruption and the loss of his mental abilities. But, the people can clearly see what is before them and understand that the media is lying.
It would be good if we had a constitutional amendment that would remove from office a mentally incapacitated president.
Why no talk by the Fake News about the 25th Amendment?
Fun fact. The draftsman was Lee Rankin from Nebraska! But he wasn’t a Creighton grad.
Lincoln called Polk a bewildered, confounded, miserably perplexed man.
The president of the United States is a charity case.
it's Always humorous watching Professor Althouse bend herself in knots to support Biden
I'm impressed that he can say the word "acronyms."
"Because of course he will. He survives everything. He seems feeble and befuddled, but he goes on and on."
Because of his apologists and enablers. Because of you.
We shouldn't be spending 40 million dollars on a climate crisis in the Pacific Islands, which is all a front for sea access in order to intimidate China.
But let's all talk about whether the man who used to have a stammer as a child can remember a stupid acronym.
nd I'm a believer in "charitable interpretation"
Interesting to note that the "principle of charity" tag was never applied to a post involving something that Trump said that was potentially misinterpreted.
The POTUS can't even read prepared text off a cue card successfully.
All righty then.
"the man who used to have a stammer as a child"
There are hundreds of hours of video of Biden speechifying from 1973-2017. It's easy to find on YouTube.
Please show me the evidence of his "stammer".
I parse the sentence differently, no charitable interpretation needed: “I was gonna get back to acronyms and I’m gonna withstand - not doing that.” The transitive verb “withstand” lacks an object. But this sentence is an interjection and Joe switched from filling in the object to recasting as “not doing that.” It’s an interjection inside an interjection.
PIII is hard to read off the page. Are those upper case Is as in India, or lower case ls as in Lima?
Biden is getting back to "Focusing on focusing."
Ann Althouse said…
I’m a believer in charitable interpretation
No you’re not. Stop thinking you’re that person. You aren’t…
What sympathy do we have for a lying crook - who is showing his age?
NONE.
"Because of course he will. He survives everything. He seems feeble and befuddled, but he goes on and on."
The message I receive from this; from biden's supporters is simple: Screw you and Fuck The Republic.
"it's Always humorous watching Professor Althouse bend herself in knots to support Biden" Agreed, but it is also so very sad.
We're still saying his childhood stutter was to blame?
Like we don't have 50 years evidence of him NOT "stuttering"?
Good grief.
Please show me the evidence of his "stammer". -- @Charlie
Heck if I know. It's the excuse given in the linked article.
Sorry, I can't go along with your lawyerly parsing as a charitable interpretation. I could if Joe was some schlub grandpa at a family Thanksgiving dinner, but he's not. He's the person that 330,000,000 people's lives depend on to make the instantaneous decision when he's awakened at 3:00am with news of an incoming missile threat.
That's not being cruelly neutral. It's insufficient awareness of the potential gravity of the situation.
On "charitable interpretation," you link to my old post defending Steven Pinker against people who were accusing him of bias when he was really making reasoned arguments based on facts.
Charitable interpretation usually makes sense, but it depends on the context.
If it helps people hold back from trying to cancel someone like Pinker, that's good.
But it doesn't apply in the same way to the president, whose job is to speak clearly to the whole country/world. The president should be outstandingly good at that — not just competent, but better than the average person would be.
If we find ourselves too often needing to strain to justify what the president (or a presidential candidate) said, that's a problem. If it gets to be too much of a problem, we should fire the president (or not hire the candidate).
He's Mr. Magoo - only he can see well. He just cant hear, talk, or walk.
"He's Mr. Magoo - only he can see well. He just cant hear, talk, or walk."
Ha ha. I thought of Mr. Magoo as I was writing this post.
"I'm a believer in "charitable interpretation""
To put it charitably, that's funny.
Blind pig. Acorn.
He survives everything.
Everyone survives everything, right up until they don't.
If his filthy, stinking mouth was open, the criminal traitor was lying. I guess if he has lost the ability to lie in a comprehensible fashion, that's progress of a sort.
Biden is just demented and can't form a coherent thought and express it any longer. To be charitable to this guy is just stupid at this point in time.
"I'm gonna withstand not doing that."
Think Cicero would've said: litotes.
It's a great comfort, knowing that our ship of state is being so skillfully piloted, with such able and commanding leadership. Isn't it funny how other countries get the unvarnished version of Crazy Uncle Joe while we in the US, where 81 million solid citizens filed their vallos, and all they get is the edited version?
Since we're fussy about words here, isn't "PIII" an abbreviation for Pacific Islands Infrastructure Initiative, not an acronym.
But then, maybe they do pronounce it as "pie" since everybody involved wants a piece.
“Since we're fussy about words here, isn't "PIII" an abbreviation for Pacific Islands Infrastructure Initiative, not an acronym.”
The linkable Merriam-Webster covers this question. In short, both NATO and FBI are acronyms.
Biden also said that he and Cook Islands PM Mark Brown were both born in Baltimore. That's not true for either. Brown was born and raised in New Zealand. How did "Baltimore" come into his head?
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