Wrote Tom Shales in a July 3, 1987 Washington Post piece called "The Diverting Democrats."
I'm reading that today because I was rereading parts of Richard Ben Cramer's book, "What It Takes" (commission earned). We were talking about plagiarism and trying to remember the details of Biden's problem internalizing the rhetoric of Neil Kinnock, and I knew the answer was in that book.
From the book, right before the quotation of Shales: "Biden seemed barely there. He never made a dent, couldn’t seem to connect.... [He] looked like he’d dropped in from outer space.... On stage, his answers wandered, they went nowhere. His smile would jump up in the middle of a sentence, as if he’d thought of something funny but didn’t mean to share it."
I should note that Tom Shales died recently: "Tom Shales, Pulitzer-winning TV critic of fine-tuned wit, dies at 79/He spent nearly 40 years writing for The Washington Post and was known for his incisive and barbed commentary" (WaPo).
"Consultitis" is a pretty good coinage. It's like tonsillitis. But I don't think it caught on. Maybe the consultants insured that it didn't. Who wants to be regarded as a disease?
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""Consultitis" is a pretty good coinage. It's like tonsillitis. But I don't think it caught on. Maybe the consultants insured that it didn't. Who wants to be regarded as a disease?"
I think you've mis-used 'want' instead of 'deserve'.
It raises an interesting question, though. What is Joe Biden's Presidential biography going to look like, and who is going to be selected for the punishment of writing it?
"Also very, very scary"
#PuddingCupHitler is extremely scary. He has F-16s. Did you know that you have to have F-16s or your legitimate gripe with the Feds isn't valid?
Good thing I know some people who used to fly F-16s. If I can find an F-16 I have some friends who can fly it and then maybe we can ask Pedo Pete - The Commander in Creep whether or not he wants to threaten the American people with the Nuclear Triad next. You know....cause he's 'very scary'.
"His smile would jump up in the middle of a sentence, as if he’d thought of something funny but didn’t mean to share it."
I was always surprised this wasn't highlighted in impressions of him as VP. (As president, he doesn't seem to do it, or smile much at all.)
The smile was disconnected from anything coming out of his mouth, or anything happening anywhere.
Subsequent events have proven, I think, that what was attributed to TV was just Biden being Biden.
Push-up contests
Dog face pony insults
Comparison of intellect and education
and Yet.. Over 81 MILLION votes were counted for Biden in 2020!
Some people will Believe ANYTHING!
example: UN says that Hamas says that 25,000 people have died!
some people here, will say that You HAVE TO believe it! Because They WANT you to!!
WHY would the UN lie? They aren't Jews! WHY would Hamas lie? They aren't Jews Either! Only Jews Lie!
"...Biden's problem internalizing the rhetoric of Neil Kinnock..."
There's a name I have not heard in a long time (assuming it's the British Labour Party leader in the 80's). But of course, you can't mention Kinnock, without talking about Margaret Thatcher.
I think DeSantis and Haley have severe cases of Consultitis with only the former now seeking treatment.
Worse, he comes across on TV as someone whose fuse is always lit.
Something the media now claims of Trump, yet should we forget Biden's recent speeches in front of Independence Hall and most recently at Valley Forge? And considering how much blow was on Hunter's holster, do we have to guess what has lit Biden's fuse?
Unless we ditch television for the remainder of the campaign, Biden will never be president.
The 2020 Covid lockdowns and Floyd Riots made this prophecy come real. What will they try this year to cause us to ditch television?
Joe was never all that and a bag of chips--even 37 years ago. That's almost half his lifetime. He's just not that bright--and he certainly doesn't have the personal force these days to resist being the face of Obama's third term.
He sold his soul to China and Ukraine for tens of millions.
He sold his soul to China and Ukraine for tens of millions.
"Biden seems bright, tough and bold."
Or he was just doing coke; it was the 80s, after all. If true, that would explain a lot: the addiction apple doesn't fall far from the tree.
Joe is about as “tough, bright and bold” as your everyday demented geezer who spends his days scaring all the old ladies at the local nursing home.
Seventeen times Biden lied, plagiarized, and exaggerated
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/seventeen-times-biden-lied-plagiarized-and-exaggerated/ar-AA1lpd4C
Good thing I know some people who used to fly F-16s.
I also know some people who flew Phantoms and would volunteer.
What does Hillary, a noted surrogate to Biden's re-election campaign, get out of the deal?
Nowadays he's addled and halting and has trouble making it through a sentence, but there was a time when he could memorize and plagiarize whole paragraphs of stolen speeches. I don't know whether it's heartening or the exact reverse to observe that when Biden was at the height of his powers, he was overwhelmingly and quickly rejected by the American public.... Trump's seen better days too. He's too old to be President, but he's not far, far too old to be President like Biden.....That line about Biden's smiles coming out of nowhere is right on. It's vaguely creepy like the way he emphasizes certain words by speaking them in a whisper.
Wow - 1987 - could have been written more recently.
Biden’s quick smile seems to be part of his every-guy Joe image, kind of like a neighbor’s smile. Pols always need to smile, but his is crooked, and appears to be hiding a secret or joke, as Shales relates, or trying to be charming in as sincere a pose as he can muster. Now its probably a nervous tic, developed after years and decades of performing it. Of course now it often comes with some yelling and/or lying, which can kind of dampen the mood a bit.
Well he's "bright, tough and bold" enough to have told the mayors' conference that he "taught constitutional law at the Univ. of Pennsylvania."
The truth is that he was paid $900k by the university and never taught a class.
I used to see Senator Biden on TV and wonder, what's with this jackass? (I thought he was a prefect representative for Delaware--a small, corrupt man for a small, corrupt state.)
Whatever it was, it has gotten worse with age.
“…bright, tough and bold…”
More like dull, arrogant and greedy.
"I also know some people who flew Phantoms and would volunteer."
I smell the beginnings of an Air Force! We could probably crowdfund it. All we need is a Curtis LeMay. I wonder if #PoopedMyPantsHitler would be interested in negotiations then? What with our Air Force filled with F-16s and all...
A lot can happen in a year. At the moment I don't give a crap.
The hair plugs in 1987 didn't help either. His hair made him look like the abused doll of an insane child for a while.
Has any Senator ever been more often incorrect on matters of foreign policy than Joe Biden, even before his dementia started? To ask the question is to realize even if there was somebody worse, so what?
The Obama/Biden/Clinton legacy.
"he comes across on TV as someone whose fuse is always lit."
Remember the VP debate with Paul Ryan?
I'm going to go with "cranky, dumb and shameless" but there are an infinite number of characterizations of Biden that are closer to the mark than "bright, tough and bold."
Biden seems bright, tough and bold
Like a dick and balls spray painted on a cop car.
I think Biden's cabinet just pretty much do what they want because there's no one person in charge. Mayorkas has been doing what he wants. Austin does what he wants. Garland, same thing. Blinken. All of them. If there's any central figure they all are guided by it's probably Obama.
Biden is just a shadow of his former show pony self.
RideSpaceMountain said...
It would be an illegal order to use the United States military against United States civilians. Even in a condition of open revolt against the state.
Out of 102 counties sheriffs of 100 counties aren't going to go after gun owners who don't obey Illinois new draconian gun law.
How dim do you need to be to have thought Joe Biden ever seemed bright?
The Big Lie is that Joe Biden is a decent human.
Biden has always been as dumb as a pile of dog shit. The only change since 1987 is that he is demented, too.
Skeptical Voter said...
Joe was never all that and a bag of chips--even 37 years ago.
or.. EVER
Joe Biden was held back in the 3rd grade
Biden’s own academic career was unimpressive—he repeated the third grade, earned all Cs and Ds in his first three semesters at the University of Delaware except for As in P.E., a B in “Great English Writers” and an F in ROTC, and graduated 76th in his Syracuse Law School class of 85 students.
Biden is LITERALLY, the stupidest dumbfuck to Ever be selected resident of the United States
Seventeen times Biden lied, plagiarized, and exaggerated
At least he didn't misattribute a quote to Winston Churchill!!!!
I suppose Biden could pass for "bright" from a very superficial observation. Biden thinks he's smart. He tries to present as being smart. He's not smart in any way that is useful. He's smart enough to get himself elected, but given how incredibly stupid some of members of Congress are that does not mean anything. I suppose taking bribes is a skill.
Of course, now his brain is a potato. You would have to be exceptionally stupid to think Biden is bright now.
@Rusty
They don't care what's legal or illegal anymore.
"His smile would jump up in the middle of a sentence, as if he’d thought of something funny but didn’t mean to share it."
Carter had weird sudden smiles, too. They must have had the same consultant(s). Then there's Hillary's eye-bulging.
What I remember of the full Biden were his 5 minute questions of committee witnesses. "Blowhard" is so apt.
"He's smart enough to get himself elected..."
You might consider the possibility that others got him elected in order to use him for their purposes.
"At least he didn't misattribute a quote to Winston Churchill."
Give it time.
As I have noted before, the running joke on the Senate Committees on which he sat was that the average IQ of the room would jump 30 points the minute that he left. This guy has never been smart (even by the low standards applied to our political class) and has always been a bully.
And he keeps whipping the Republican Congress to get his agenda passed. How can Biden and the dims be completely incompetent bozos yet at the same time get everything they want done?
One item in Biden's favor is that the previous Presidents, Bush and Obama, listened to the generals and kept the US in a fruitless war in Afghanistan. Biden had enough horse sense to know in his gut that the generals were clueless and that 20 years was about 19 years too many, and pulled the plug. It was not pretty, but at least as we get ready for Super Bowl, we will not be treated with pictures of hapless US soldiers watching the game in some godforsaken Afghan valley.
Matthew Continetti wrote of a 1986 interview of Biden by Brit Hume. The original is not available online. But I loved this enough to save Continetti's article:
"But the best part is Hume’s description of his interview with Biden:
"‘I just want to find out why you don’t like me,’ he said at the beginning of that chat in the Senate dining room. It was an awkward and extraordinary conversation, in which Biden finally asked if the reporter [Hume] harbored any ‘deep personal antipathy.’ He was assured that there was none. ‘Then what is it you don’t like?’ he asked. ‘Senator,’ came the reluctant reply, ‘I think you’re a windbag.’ Biden seemed greatly relieved, laughed, and said he thought there was truth to that."
I have the same reaction to seeing Biden as Chuck has to seeing Trump.
Howard said...
And he keeps whipping the Republican Congress to get his agenda passed. How can Biden and the dims be completely incompetent bozos yet at the same time get everything they want done?
1/22/24, 7:47 PM
Because we have a congress full of George Bush Republicans who cave and let the Democrats have whatever they want because of their fear of Trump proving we don't need any of them to get anything done. He got stuff done, that all of them had been promising for years.
FKB got us out of Afghanistan, but we've still got thousands of troops in penny packets all over Islamia. Being attacked every day . . .
Why?
FJB, not FKB.
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