I don't know how much longer they can keep putting Joe Biden out there to face the cameras in the wake of this mess in Afghanistan. Today, hours after the suicide bombing that has left at least 13 Americans dead, as well as some 60 Afghan civilians, including children, Biden finally came out to speak. He looked old, tired, befuddled, and defeated. It was a pitiful performance. Even when he promised to track down the people responsible (ISIS), he spoke without energy.
Then, toward the end, he inappropriately lightened up for some inexplicable reason. When he called on Peter Doocey of Fox, knowing he was going to finally get a hardball, he referred to him as "the most interesting guy I know in the press" (probably forgetting his name). Then, when Doocey threw out the hardball question about how much responsibility he bore, the President turned defensive, lowering his head and at one point resting it on his hands with his elbows on the podium The image has gone out worldwide and will be the final, lasting image of Joe Biden. Long after this catastrophic presidency has ended, this will be Biden's legacy.
I have predicted from the start that, given Biden's cognitive decline, he will not be able to finish his presidency. At this point, I wonder if he will be able to last through the end of 2021. The problem is that we have Kamala Harris waiting in the wings, a woman who has as much business being president as Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. God help us.
God help the world.
13 comments:
"Biden: Old, Tired, Befuddled and Defeated"
But still managed to DEFEAT donald trump with HUGE Margins both in the Electoral College and Popular Vote :)
Anonymous,
I take it Biden is still a champ for you.
Doocey with the hardball?
Give me a break. His question was in bad faith.
While I don't blame Trump for the mess that is Afghanistan, it is a fact that he wanted us to leave even earlier. The plan to leave was set up under him. He did make a deal with the Taliban. Do you think that under Mr. "I don't take responsibility" things would be better? Of course not.
I don't always like Biden. He's a career politician and part of a much bigger problem that plagues this nation. But I felt for him in that moment dealing with that goofball Doocey, who repeatedly embarrasses himself at every press conference.
The fact that you don't address exactly what Doocey asked, exactly what Biden's response was, and the actual facts of the matter, says volumes. Doocey could have belched and farted with Biden responding by rolling his eyes, and you would have criticized Biden.
There's hardly ever been a clearer example of starting with a conclusion and then constructing an argument to support it. I bet that if I scoured other right-wing blogs, I'd basically find the same post with little variation.
Oh, and the other anonymous is right. Biden beat Trump by a lot, and Trump and his cult still refuse to admit it.
Anonymous,
Please explain how a critically-phrased question is in "bad faith"? What is your definition of bad faith?
As I have previously written, I don't condemn Biden for removing our troops. Personally, I would like to forget Afghanistan exists. I also acknowledge that Trump had the same goal. Did he (Trump) handle it correctly? History will judge.
What I criticize Biden for is the manner the withdrawal was conducted. Our allies are scrambling to get their people out.
Military evacuation 101: Before you remove the troops, you evacuate your embassy, civilian personnel, American citizens, Afghan allies, co-workers, and your military equipment. Biden and his top brass did it ass-backward. Plus, we removed our air support, which was crucial to the Afghan army. So we had this chaos and the loss of 13 American lives plus almost two hundred Afghan lives.
I also am critical of Biden's public appearances on this mess. Granted, he is cognitively impaired and not equipped to handle a critical back and forth. Yesterday he brushed off a reporter trying to ask about Afghanistan (A FIMA appearance on Hurricane Ida)Even at Dover, he is caught looking at his watch.
One final point. I acknowledge our moral duty to evacuate Afghans who helped us and Afghans with US passports, of course. But I pray they are fully vetting these people. Europe is already dealing with tens of thousands of young, unaccompanied Afghan men who are wreaking havoc in places like Austria, Germany, and the Netherlands. I'm talking murder and gang rape. We have already found people on terror watch lists who are already on the planes. GReat!
At any rate, if you want to defend Biden, please go ahead. I will get out of your way.
"The fact that you don't address exactly what Doocey asked, exactly what Biden's response was, and the actual facts of the matter, says volumes"
Go back and read the post, Anonymous. I enclosed a link to an article that covered that.
The whole way Doocey sets up the question is loaded. But Biden still answered it.
Address what Biden said though. Was Trump's deal with the Taliban part of why this is a mess or not?
Seems to me that one can disagree with Biden's point, but you don't even address it.
And stop with the "cognitively impaired". You're repeating right wing talking points. If Biden is cognitively impaired, then Trump (who looked directly at the sun, slurred his words, and rambled from point to point) is a literal cucumber.
When we say cognitively impaired, we are being diplomatic. We could use other, less polite terms to describe it.
Biden made the standard statement that as president, he bore all the responsibility, blah blah blah, but....Here's the deal. He then went on to talk about TRump's deal with the Taliban. I don't know if that was a good deal or not, and I am not part of some Trump cult. Not only Trump, but any responsible president with good people around him would have not done this withdrawal in this manner, with thousands of desperate people at the airport gates, and ISIS sending suicide bombers to kill almost two hundred people. This goat rodeo of a withdrawal led to that attack and those deaths.
I have not commented one way or the other about Trump in Afghanistan. Nor do I criticize Biden for deciding to end our presence there. It's the manner in which this was done. There is no defending this.
Do you really think that Trump's arrangement with the Taliban, including releasing many of them, is irrelevant to the current situation? It's not like Biden was given a blank slate. (Just as Trump wasn't either.)
Anonymous,
The central question is not whether we should have left Afghanistan, but how we left. Biden conducted the withdrawal. It was a fiasco. The important thing is that the withdrawal was not accomplished in an orderly manner without casualties. It was a mess. That is on Biden, Austin and Milley.
And just curious - but do you not think that it's at least a bit impressive that over 100,000 people have been evacuated since the end of July?
This doesn't mean that every decision was a good one, but it does strike me as meaning that there has been some good/impressive stuff being done as well.
But I'm not talking about whether we should be there or not either. What I am saying is we can't act like Biden was given a blank slate to handle this situation. Trump made a deal with the Taliban with the understanding that we'd withdraw, and he released many of them.
Look, if Trump was doing the withdrawal, we'd have to factor in the situation that Obama left him.
And if Obama did the withdrawal, we'd have to factor in the situation that Bush left him.
Do you at least accept the simple concept that what came before is a factor in the current results?
We have 4 presidents involved in Afghanistan. Prior history is always a factor. Biden has contradicted himself. He has said that when Trump left office, the Taliban was at its strongest. In July he insisted that the Taliban could not overthrow the govt and the Afghan army.
The point is not whether we made deals with the Taliban to leave Afghanistan. The point is that this evacuation was not planned properly. Today, Biden loudly blamed the prior administration and called the evacuation a success. That depends on your definition of success. Dunkirk was a success, but it was no victory. As for the troops and the State Dept. people on the ground, all praise is due to them. They got over 100,000 people out. Of course, my question is how many were people that rightfully should have been flown out, but that is a different topic.
Whatever Biden inherited from Trump-he has been president since January, and the evacuation was done horribly by our leaders in Washington-not the troops on the ground. They did great work, but 13 were killed along with almost 200 Afghans. They were handed an impossible task and they did the best they could. But that is not a success. Proper planning would have ele9imated the mobs at the airport, the suicide bombing deaths, the equipment left behind as well as those Afghans who hold American passports or those who worked for us.
You are simply spouting Biden talking points. He is a disgrace. I have never felt so strongly against a president in my lifetime. And his performance today was disgraceful.
I agree that Dunkirk is a good analogy.
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