The president is accused of having serious memory issues, is it Joever for Biden?
The big news last week was the release of the special counsel Robert Hur’s report on president Biden’s classified documents scandal. The report itself was by all accounts exactly what was expected, Biden is not to be criminally charged, and Trump’s keeping of classified documents was worse. What made the news was rather the special counsel’s allegations that Biden has quite severe lapses in his memory, or as the report puts it he is “a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.” This raises serious questions regarding whether or not Biden is fit for office on his current mandate, and much more serious questions about his ability to complete the second term he is campaigning for. Biden’s response to these allegations was to go on the offensive saying ““I’m well-meaning and I’m an elderly man and I know what the hell I’m doing. I’ve been president and I put this country back on its feet. I don’t need his recommendation.” His insistence that he is fit for office might be reassuring to his allies and supporters, but to me it raises questions about his skill as a politician.
Joe Biden is an old man, and as time only flows in one direction he cannot change that. But he has also been prone to embarrassing shows of how his age limits him during his term. Sure, anyone can slip on stairs and fall off their bike, but it becomes confirmation of his age when Biden does it in a way it just wouldn’t have if say Obama or Bush junior had done the same thing. Some Democrats decry the Hur report as a partisan hit job according to The Guardian but it is surely relevant to the question of whether or not Biden should be charged with the crime of wilfully and illegally retaining classified documents after his time in office ended. The defence of saying that he forgot in a potential trial would be a convincing one, and in my view likely to lead to a not guilty verdict. The fact that Joe Biden is an old man won’t change and it is relevant both to the narrow question the Hur report was answering and the broader question of Biden’s suitability for office.
Going on the offensive and being upset about the way Hur described Biden was a bad move. The Streisand effect is sure to bring more attention to the report than it would otherwise get, and the narrative one can craft by combining the way Hur describes Biden with some of his more awkward public appearances, and him falling off his bike becomes a compelling one. Biden’s age has a noticeable effect on him both physically and mentally, as it does on everyone who is lucky enough to be that old. Fighting against that narrative is fruitless given just how many confirmations Biden has supplied.
Hur alleges that Biden struggled to remember which years he was vice president and when his son died:
“In his interview with our office, Mr. Biden's memory was worse. He did not remember when he was vice president, forgetting on the first day of the interview when his term ended ("if it was 2013 - when did I stop being Vice President?"), and forgetting on the second day of the interview when his term began ("in 2009, am I still Vice President?"). He did not remember, even within several years, when his son Beau died.”
Nothing Biden says will change the perception of him. I don’t mean to imply that there is a set point at which one is too old for public life and should be required to play boule instead, but the idea of Biden as a forgetful old man is so deeply entrenched that he will never get rid of it. Three quarters of Americans thought he was too old to be President in polling five months before the Hur report, and the most common words to describe him were “old” and “confused”. There is no recovering from this, and a skilled politician, and true democrat, would realise that what the electorate thinks of him is more important than what he thinks of himself.
I’ve yet to see someone be surprised by the Hur allegations. That to me is a clear sign that Biden is losing, or has already lost his mandate to govern by the American people. I often say that perceptions of fairness are as important as actual fairness, and the same is true in this case. The widespread perception that Biden is too old is more important than the reality. The American people’s perception appears to be that Joe Biden is too old, and as such he should probably step down in favour of his vice president. Even if he runs a marathon and remembers 250 digits of Pi Biden’s reputation is that of an old and confused man. There is no recovering from that, so Biden should stop fighting it and terminate his reelection campaign.
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I've always been interested in politics, economics, and the interplay between. The blog is a place for me to explore different ideas and concepts relating to economics or politics, be that national or international. The goal for the blog is to make you think; to provide new perspectives.
Written by Karl Johansson
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Cover photo by Quintin Gellar from Pexels, edited by Karl Johansson
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