He Won't Make It To November

There were several articles last week that noted the White House has changed tactics for Joe's 2024 campaign appearances, minimizing situations where he appears on stage to avoid scenes where he wanders around looking for the exit and switching to the low stairs for Air Force One to reduce the potential for stumbles and falls. The formal on-stage events are to be replaced by smaller gatherings in places like retail stores that give the impression of spontaneity, but of course, any such venues must be thoroughly vetted and precisely scheduled both by Joe's handlers and the Secret Service.

As of this past weekend, the shift doesn't seem to have worked out as hoped. In Emmaus, PA on Friday and in Philadelphia yesterday, we saw a new aspect to Joe's appearances: the aimless departures trying to find the exit offstage have been replaced by a vacant expression that suggests he may not be fully aware of his surroundings, or he may be heavily medicated. At about 2:20 in the video below, Megyn Kelly notes a vignette of Joe's confusion in Emmaus, while the photo at the top of this post is from a Martin Luther King Day event at a Philadelphia food bank.

One question I have is that in both Emmaus and Philadelpia, Joe was nevertheless able to evade his handlers and try to chat up underage girls.

Look how far this girl moves away from Biden...☠️ pic.twitter.com/cUK0gxwLkH

— Woke Societies (@wokesocieties) January 12, 2024

There was a similar episode in Philadelphia yesterday:

What's disturbing is that he seems generally checked out, but he seems to have retained one dominant compulsion, to impose himself on preteen girls. His expressions are vacant and affectless until he spots one, at which point he suddenly becomes animated and aware of his surroundings.

The continuing leaks and direct statements from Democrats expressing discomfort with Joe's campaign have an oddly disconnected tone. For instance,

"Obama has raised questions about the structure of President Biden’s re-election campaign, discussing the matter directly with Biden and telling the president’s aides and allies the campaign needs to be empowered to make decisions without clearing them with the White House," the Washington Post reported.

How will empowering lower-level campaign staff fix Joe himself, when Joe seems to be the real problem? The same applies to remarks Sunday from Sen Sanders:

“So I think people will end up rallying around Biden. But there is no question, it is very hard for young people, I think for most Americans, to be excited about what is going on right now. [The] president has got to change course,” he said.

Change course? Precisely how? If anything, Joe doesn't seem to have any particular course, and as I noted last week, the episode of Secretary Austin being in intensive care and nobody in the White House knowing about it suggests Joe is checked out, and nobody is interested in doing much beyond keeping that bit of news covered up. But even the expressions of discomfort from prominent Democrats look like they're in a kind of code -- Joe needs to empower his staff, he needs to change course.

The problem is simply Joe himself, but so far, there's no Plan B.