Nothing's Changing

I didn't get a chance to watch Biden's speech yesterday; I was expecting to, but it was delayed, and I had another commitment. I looked at the post-event accounts and got things like this:

As I said, his eyes were bloodshot and glazed over. It was difficult to even see the whites of his eyes at times. His presentation was cold, with no empathy to be found. Upon finishing his teleprompter reading, he simply stumbled out, taking no questions, clearly unable to physically and mentally do so. It was obvious why he was five hours late for this presser. Something is bad wrong with the president, and there’s no way it can be ignored anymore.

What strikes me about the photo above, including the difficulty in seeing the whites of his eyes, is that although this is a different suit, it fits no better than the one I noted on Sunday. The collar still stands away from his neck. But also, compare Biden's sleeves above to Bill Clinton's in a similar pose at right. Biden's suit rumples up and pulls away, while Clinton's is smooth even when he lifts his arms.

Biden has been losing weight, and he probably needs a whole new wardrobe, but nobody seems to notice. Again, US presidents can afford whatever wardrobe they need. His handlers are incompetent. Do they themselves expect him not to last very long? This may be another ramification of the Götterdämmerung strategy: things will turn to poop, but Biden won't be around to account for it.

The substance of Biden's speech was also bizarre. Accounts generally noted that he conducted a long tour d'horizon of the Götterdämmerung agenda, showing great deference to Speaker Pelosi, before eventually getting to the August 31 deadline. This, it's noted, has been his strategy in all his recent addresses, treat Afgthanistan as just a single blip in the wide range of his accomplishments.

An intriguing data item from yesterday is a couple of House back benchers, Rep Seth Moulton (D-MA) znd Peter Meijer (R-MI), flew to Kabul to "conduct oversight on the mission to evacuate Americans and our allies". Moulton appears to be a maverick Democrat who in the past opposed Pelosi's candidacy for the speakership. He appears to be ambitious and wants to raise his profile. Meijer, a first-termer who was among the Republican House members who voted to impeach Trump, is a jerk; this is a vanity project, probably for both.

Acco,rding to the link,

According to John Hudson of The Washington Post, Pentagon officials are reportedly furious with Moulton and Meijer for making the surprise trip to Afghanistan, denouncing it as performative at best and reckless at worst.

“It CANNOT be overstated how angry Pentagon & State Dept officials are at Rep. Moulton & Rep. Peter Meijer for flying to Afghanistan in the middle of an evacuation,” announced Hudson on Twitter. “‘It’s as moronic as it is selfish. They’re taking seats away from Americans,’ official says.”

That may well be, but this is the environment Biden is creating for opportunists.

Ia Biden ill? That may be, but I would guess stress accounts for the bloodshot eyes, the weight loss, and the lack of energy and engagement. Is he senile? Again, no. Even if his policy choices are disastrous, he's completely aware of outcomes; he's fully aware of how much he's alienated NATO, for instance, and this is shown by how clearly he lies about it. His responses differ little from Bill Clinton's in the Lewinsky scandal.

The difference is that Clinton got himself into a personal mess of little overall consequence. Biden has got the US into a national humiliation and policy dilemma of enormous consequence that will continue to play out in very bad news over coming weeks.

Clinton was Br'er Rabbit. Biden is more like Captain Queeg frozen at the controls.