If speaking perfectly was the bar, this would have ended a long time ago. Joe Biden would never have become a senator, much less vice president and president. But Biden’s bloopers have always been part of the package. When Barack Obama was president, the then-vice president blundered so regularly that ABC News had a regular feature called, “Oh, That Joe!” to track some of his funnier missteps.
Now that he’s running for re-election, Biden’s lack of verbal dexterity has become something of a liability, as critics seek to turn each blip into evidence that he’s not up for the job. That happened last week, after special counsel Robert Hur said Biden might portray himself as an “elderly man with a poor memory” over his handling of classified documents. Biden called a press conference to push back, but — oh, that Joe — ended up referring to the president of Egypt as the president of Mexico toward the end.
It was not good timing for another gaffe, but I think the White House was right to schedule the press conference.
It was not good timing for another gaffe, but I think the White House was right to schedule the press conference. If anything, they should do more. Anyone watching the entire event saw Biden engaged in effective, substantive hand-to-hand verbal combat with the media. Some might not have liked his feistiness, but he was undeniably in command of the facts, arguably more so than some of the journalists posing questions.
We hear all the time that Biden is great in meetings, but the public doesn’t get to see him in action. Pressers are one of the few chances the public gets to see Biden in real time responding to things, and it helps dispel the doubts when he’s knowledgeable and quick-witted — especially in contrast to the substantive errors that Donald Trump makes on a regular basis. No doubt, there will also be some flubs in these interactions. But the more Americans see him talking, the less impact those individual goofs will have. Biden doesn’t need to be perfect; he just needs to let us see more of the good job that he is doing.
