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Everyone was waiting to see if the leader of the most powerful nation in the world could answer a few questions without a script.
That fact alone tells us that Joe Biden shouldn’t be running for another term.
But if we grade his performance on the biggest curve in presidential history, then Biden probably did enough to stay in the race.
Which is terrible news for Democrats.
Sure, the president’s “big boy” press conference — which is how John Kirby and Karine Jean-Pierre ridiculously referred to it — started late. Biden was wrapping up the NATO summit, where he had just introduced Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky as “President Putin.”
So, an inauspicious start.
Biden began his first press conference in eight months by slurring his way through a campaign speech he read off a teleprompter in front of the international press.
When Biden finally got around to answering his first question, he promised he “wouldn’t have picked Vice President Trump to be vice president” if “she was not qualified to be president.”
Later, the president noted that he followed the advice “of the commander in chief.”
Bad news, because everything the commander in chief said about foreign policy was complete gibberish.
Biden assured us that he’s “pro-union, and not labor” When speaking about his love for staff, Biden noted he was “catching hell” from Dr. First Lady Jill Biden.
Still, the presser had all hallmarks of a latter-day Biden event: non-sequiturs, mumbling, creepy whispering, inexplicable yelling, and rambling rhetorical journeys into verbal cul-de-sacs.
“Anyway . . .” is how Biden ended his answers dozens of times.
In the moments the president was coherent, he was lying.
Biden’s absurd self-aggrandizing was bolstered by a slew of fictitious accomplishments.
When an Agence France-Presse asked if he was hurting America’s standing in the world, Biden claimed no president in history had ever been more respected.
When a CBS reporter asked him about his legacy, Biden maintained no other president in history had passed as much important legislation.
The president bragged about bringing down inflation and making the world a more peaceful place.
It’s possible Biden isn’t suffering from dementia but delusional disorder.
It was another bad day for the press, which largely asked irrelevant questions or ones so broad that Biden could lean back on talking points.
As always, Biden called on a preselected list of reporters.
Because the debate had set expectations so mind-bogglingly low, it might obscure the fact that none of this is normal.
Again, the president refused to share the results of alleged cognitive tests with the public.
Again, he refused to admit that age was a factor.
The only thing age does is “create wisdom,” he said.
Boy, do I wish that was true.
Let’s be honest, one press conference shouldn’t allay the apprehensions of the elite Democrats who turned on Biden once his mental decline was exposed.
They had been covering it up for years.
Now they want to move on.
And just because Biden can barely pull it together to prepare for a single presser, doesn’t mean he’s OK.
As anyone who has dealt with elderly knows, there are good days and bad ones.
It has been quite clear for a long time that the president is no longer able to do his job effectively.
If the debate was at the bottom, this was barely above it.
And yet it might have saved his candidacy.