First off, let me state that I — like many here — have been livid over the media narrative of Biden’s imminent “decline” which has been a horrible and despicable sandbag job.
Mark Sumner is exactly correct that Biden has been a gaffe machine for decades. This isn’t new. It’s not a sign of aging. It’s not an indication that he’s crumbling before our eyes. If that were the case, the crumbling started in 1976.
Even more despicable are the amateur arm-chair diagnosis I’ve seen repeatedly preferred when the President’s own physician’s reports says he has “no neurological problems.” [And no, I’m not entertaining the idea that he still “might” have Dementia because they didn’t specifically rule it out. If so, that’s malpractice and incompetence. They also didn’t rule out that he has a brain-eating parasite in his skull — are we supposed to assume that’s a possibility too because they didn’t mention it?]
More importantly, medical professionals have already weighed in on this — and the person they say has Dementia, is Trump.
Dr. Harry Segal and Dr. John Gartner, both longtime psychology experts, came to the conclusion Friday on their podcast "Shrinking Trump.”
Contrary to what MAGA world would have many believe following Biden's disastrous debate performance in Atlanta, Segal started the show off by throwing a curveball: It's Trump who has shown early signs of dementia, Segal said, citing Trump's language, tangential thinking, and physical gait.
Furthermore — and perhaps even more alarmingly — "Trump suffers from what we can observe as a severe personality disorder often called malignant narcissism," Segal said.
It's this disorder that leads to Trump's "chronic pathological lying," "immoral behavior," and criminal misconduct. Trump was indicted on election-related charges in several states and convicted in New York earlier this year for falsifying business records in a hush-money scheme.
Gartner has argued that Biden had a normally-aging brain, while Trump had a "dementing brain." That came into question, however, following Biden's debate struggles in which he appeared to freeze, fumble, and otherwise fail to make his points.
"It left me wondering and others, 'How is Biden really doing?'" asked Segal.
Initially following the debate, he thought it could be linked to "trauma."
"But when we looked carefully at that debate, Biden's responses were better than they sounded when you read them — and Trump's responses were much worse than they sounded when you read them."
The next issue is that Biden has stated that he will get out of the race when polls say he can’t win.
Honestly, that’s the correct standard. If there was a poll that shows he can not win — he should get out. But that poll doesn’t exist. And there is no poll that shows that Harris, Newsom or Whitmer will defeat Trump more easily than Biden.
People like Tim Ryan have argued that Biden only as 34% approval — well sure ok, but Kamala has only has 29% approval, how’s that an improvement?
So this has all made me mad. I’ve been seething. Screaming at the TV angry.
But last night I changed my opinion. I had looked at all of this as a terrible betrayal, now I think it might be exactly what Joe Biden needed.
He needed this kick in the ass. He needed to be pushed into a corner. He needed to be forced to come out swinging — because when he did — he came out like this:
Biden is now taking his primary vulnerability — his age — and turning it into a strength. He’s making a joke out of it, because it is a joke. He’s fit and he’s healthy. He has some arthritis in his legs, but that’s not a disqualifying issue.
People have questioned whether Biden can go after Trump with hammer and tongs.
Yes, he can.
He went after Project2025.
He pointed out — correctly — that Trump has far more verbals gaffes than he does.
And he laid out the agenda for his next 100 days.
Meanwhile, the media continues to nitpick over irrelevancies.
[Edit: Welker now says she experienced some “instant karma” after this.]
This is what the media does — they try to emphasize the horserace. They nitpick over bullshit. They don’t talk policy, they don’t talk issues. They only have 10 mins in their C Block and they need to keep as many eyeballs watching as possible. Substance is secondary.
So I’m not mad at them anymore for being what they are. Bottom feeders.
I thought that the endless media scrutiny on every word out of Biden’s mouth was damaging him. It was slowly destroying him.
Recent polls show that isn’t the case.
What it’s done is activate him. He’s got the crowd behind him. They were chanting “Don’t You Quit!” He was able to use the media criticism against him as a rallying cry in his favor.
That’s what we need. We need to turn his base against the media to blunt their effect and impact. Trump has done this since Day one. He’s called them “Fake News” he constantly claims that everything they say is a lie.
Well, sometimes it is. In this case, is it a lie.
We don’t have to worry about the media trashing him — we need to sit back and watch his smash them in the jaw.
And lo, it was glorious.
[Waves to all those at Netroots. Stay positive, we are on the side of the Justice and Right.]
Some sample Trump gaffes that the media could go crazy over for the next few months — but won’t.
Shots fired at Trump’s rally.
He looks like he was hit in the ear and was bleeding as he was taken off stage. He was taken out standing and on his own feet.
