Biden Still Hasn’t Figured Out How to Read the Room

If he had, he’d know this is no time to pass trillions in new spending.

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If you’ve spent any time in Washington, you’ve heard stories about Joe Biden’s loquaciousness. Asked to give brief remarks, he’d famously meander for 30, 40, or more minutes about whatever came into his mind.

But his verbosity is a symptom of his larger problem: a lack of situational awareness. After all, this is the guy who once asked a man in a wheelchair to stand up and take a bow.

My favorite example came just after the 9/11 attacks, when Biden met with his Senate committee staffers and went into a “stream-of-consciousness monologue” about how to respond. “I’m groping here,” he confessed after a while, and then had a eureka moment. To assure the Arab world the U.S. “wasn’t bent on its destruction,” Michael Crowley reported in the New Republic, Biden declared: “Seems to me this would be a good time to send, no strings attached, a check for $200 million to Iran.”

According to Crowley, Biden “surveys the table with raised eyebrows, a How do ya like that? look on his face.” Staffers eventually broke the perplexed silence, offering a number of objections. It didn’t matter: “Joe Biden is barely listening anymore. He’s already moved on to something else.”

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  1. Avatar photo
    Ben Connelly

    I expected foot in mouth gaffes but I’ve been pretty surprised at how incompetent Biden has been as president.

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    Saied

    We must have committed grave sins and offended the gods greatly to be made to suffer with our choice of presidents.

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  3. David A L

    No matter how bad Biden is on some things he's still the anti-Trump, and if nothing else that gains him some mercy support.

    He's had a few bad weeks (Afghanistan, the spending bills, etc.), but by this time next year, or maybe even next month, few people will remember the details and the Trumpers will be outraged about something else and the Dems will be in his corner again.

    There wont be a shutdown - no Congressman is that suicidal, and whether it's $3.5T, $1.5T or 50 cents, the GOP will hate it, the Dems will call it a win, and we'll move on - his 15 minutes of infamy will be over.

    Of course the details matter, but much of what comes out of DC is all fury and noise.

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    Ed P

    I mean, Jonah, if you’re measuring Biden’s success with how many Republican Senators cooperate, you should know thats a very loaded game.

    And I’m sure “reading the room” with this crowd here at The Dispatch, there is never a good time for passing trillions in spending. However, recent public polling indicates a substantial majority, 60%, favors the $3.5trillion spending proposal.

    https://news.yahoo.com/three-five-back-biden-infrastructure-151700903.html

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    Bill Nelson

    My first thought went to that Progressive Insurance add:
    Flo: Not now 3/5ths in *NSYNC.
    NYSNC: You have us booked all day.
    Other Progressive guy: Read the room guys.

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    Justin Stapley

    There's no denying that the Trump administration was bad, really bad. But hopefully, the fact that the administration of Joe Biden (the only Democrat who ran in the "moderate" lane) is proving only to be less worse will wake people up to the realization that Donald Trump was always only a symptom and further catalyst of a far deeper socio-political crisis in America that's shot through the entire political spectrum, Left, Right, and Center. There's a popular narrative out there that everything bad in America revolves around Trump and Trumpism and that setting aside every other consideration to defeat this threat would lead to the dawning of a new day. That narrative has proven to be what it always was, a pipe dream fueled by Left-wing partisans who used the eccentricities of the Trump era as a wedge issue to get votes for an agenda from people who wouldn't otherwise support. it. The dysfunction is everywhere and we need to start addressing the dysfunction wherever it is, as opposed to knotting ourselves into philosophical knots justifying support for lesser evils.

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    Frank Lee

    Tax and spend leftists are stuck on a new meme that spending per GDP means nothing. This is what leftists do when the facts are inconvenient to their getting their socialism cake.

    So ignoring that and looking at the facts from the Federal government's own historical data: https://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/historical-tables/

    Go to Table 8.4 - OUTLAYS BY BUDGET ENFORCEMENT ACT CATEGORY AS PERCENTAGES OF GDP: 1962 - 2026

    Check Total Outlays per GDP and National Defense Outlays per GDP.

    Average defense spending per GDP for this time period is 4.8%. In 2020 it was 3.4%. It is projected to keep declining.

    Contrast that to non-defense spending. In 2020 it 31.2%. It is projected in 2022 to be back to non pandemic stability of 25.6% and then decline a bit. So 25% of our national productive output is being spent by the federal government (folks... this does NOT include state and local government taxing and spending).

    Hearing leftists cry about defense spending... just start playing the world's tiniest violin and tell them they know not what they cry about.

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    rlritt

    I don't remember anyone ever saying that public speaking was one of Biden's strengths. I personally voted for Biden because he was boring and he wasn't likely to say anything substantial. My thoughts are as President he has to speak to the majority of the Americans who aren't deluded Trump supporters. So some days he'll give a nod to the left. Then he'll back it up and sound moderate. I'm really hoping the the left wing of the Democratic party won't act like spoiled brats and torpedo the economy just because they can. I don't care what Biden has to say about it.

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  9. Token Liberal

    I'm not sure Jonah is reading the room. The Dems plans poll well overall, and very well with Democrats. Politically, the Dems are in more trouble if they don't pass this stuff than if they do. They are likely going to lose the House either way. They got elected to do this stuff, and they may actually pull it off.

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      rlritt

      No they can't shut down the government. They have to get this right. Of course the bill is popular because it gives a lot of stuff away. The Bipartisan bill will also give us a lot of stuff and it will make the Democrats look like competent administrator's.

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      Probably Wrong

      “Other people will pay for something that may benefit you” usually polls well, but I’m not sure Biden had a mandate to pass a bill most widely known not for its content but rather for its price tag.

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        rlritt

        I agree.

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      2. Token Liberal

        As an aside, when is the last time a president didn't think they had a mandate?

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          Probably Wrong

          Entirely too long ago. But circumspection and humility don’t get you a job as a top advisor in DC.

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  10. Avatar photo
    DougAz

    Well youngsters. Welcome to how we felt about that bumbling and off the written script aged Ronald Reagan. Take away Reagan's actor's scripts...you are much closer to Joe Biden.

    The problem is in part yes, Democrats have a broad range of American Policies that help create opportunities, improve personal security as in food, make America stronger...ie Infrastructure.

    Republicans are still mired in Goldwater's "extremism is fine in the defense of our waynog life" he said more or less. And Ronald Reagan's "government is the Problem"

    Well Republicans following Reagan run up Trillions and are complete deadbeats when it comes to paying. Which is a strategy for decades.

    Oh.. there are a few entities that also agree with Goldwater on extremism and Reagan's negative view of government. The Taliban.

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      George.Skinner

      The full quote from Reagan is "In our present crisis, government is not the solution. Government is the problem." Judging from the long-term benefits to the US economy that ultimately fueled the Clinton boom, Reagan was right. Too bad Democrats still choke on acknowledging the reality of how government, regulation, and taxation had led to the economic problems of the '70s that culminated in the recession of the early '80s. Too bad Republicans lack the intellectual heft to understand the nuance in Reagan's policies. And I'd challenge you to find any president who hasn't ended up sounding a little goofy off their prepared remarks.

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