Patterico's Pontifications

8/15/2019

Biden’s Allies Concerned About His Verbal Gaffes, Say He Needs To Pace Himself

Filed under: General — Dana @ 2:52 pm



[guest post by Dana]

Because Joe Biden’s age (77) is already seen as a liability, especially when coupled with his regularly-occurring gaffes, there are now discussions taking place with his allies and donors about possibly scaling back the candidate’s schedule to help him avoid the “late afternoon” gaffes. However, Biden’s campaign staffers are not in agreement:

The allies, growing increasingly nervous about Biden’s verbal flubs, have said it’s an approach that’s been suggested to campaign officials on the heels of the former vice president’s stumbles.

Biden has a tendency to make the blunders late in the day, his allies say, particularly after a long swing on the road, like he had last week in Iowa. They say something needs to be done to give the candidate more down time as the campaign intensifies in the fall.

“He needs to be a strong force on the campaign trail, but he also has to pace himself,” said one ally who has talked to members of the campaign team and others in the broader Biden World about how to move forward.

The ally said it was unclear whether the campaign would make any changes to Biden’s schedule, particularly because Biden was criticized recently for not doing as many events as his Democratic rivals.

“I think you’ll see the same schedule and maybe even more Joe Biden,” one ally said. “Everyone wants to see Joe Biden be Joe Biden. If he’s held back in any way, that’s almost the antithesis of who he is.”

“I think it’s the wrong approach,” the ally added.

According to Biden aides, the former vice-president made it clear there won’t be any changes to his approach, in spite of the voiced concerns:

“Joe Biden has spoken his mind his entire life, which voters know and love about him,” said Kate Bedingfield, Biden’s deputy campaign manager. “He’s a real person, he’s authentic, and that will never change. He’s going to keep taking on Trump and making the case to voters about the stakes we face in this election, regardless of how the press chooses to cover him.”

His latest gaffes include saying that “poor kids are just as bright and just as talented as white kids,” and this week at the Iowa State Fair, he said “We choose science over fiction. We choose truth over facts.”

Candidate Bernie Sanders is the same age as Biden, and so far, has been fairly gaffe-free.

Trump (age 73) hasn’t missed the opportunity to pounce on Biden:

He accused Biden of not playing with a “full deck” and later took it a step further.

“Does anybody really believe he is mentally fit to be president?” Trump tweeted. “We are ‘playing’ in a very big and complicated world. Joe doesn’t have a clue.”

While Biden still holds a lead over the pack, he leads Elizabeth Warren (age 70) by just one point.

It doesn’t seem wise of Biden’s allies and donors to make their concerns about Biden’s verbal flub-ups public. If anything, they’ve drawn attention to it, and now the next time he misspeaks (which he will), it will be paid attention to that much more closely. It also might cause supporters, who have brushed off his verbal flub-ups, to pay attention to them more closely, and question if his age is part of the problem. Possibly, it might even sway them to look at someone less prone to making these verbal mistakes, and perhaps someone younger than Biden (which aside from Sanders, would be any of the other candidates).

While it’s expected that all of the candidates will misspeak on the campaign trail at some point in time, Biden certainly has done so more often and with more regularity than any of the other candidates.

Anyway, it’s funny to me that it is his verbal flub-ups, and not his inappropriate handsiness with females that is causing such concern.

(Cross-posted at The Jury Talks Back.)

–Dana

UPDATE BY PATTERICO: The American people will not tolerate a president who constantly makes gaffes.

20 Responses to “Biden’s Allies Concerned About His Verbal Gaffes, Say He Needs To Pace Himself”

  1. Making a verbal gaffe is not the same as telling a bald-face lie, which most, if not all of the candidates have done. So what’s worse: chronic verbal flub-ups or telling lies? (Clearly, Democrats don’t seem to mind the latter. We’ll see about the former.)

    Dana (fdf131)

  2. They just wanna keep his tongue in chains…

    Colonel Haiku (29e459)

  3. Groper joe has only one virtue electability lose that and he has squat. The left doesn’t want him but are split between warren and sanders.

    lany (c41802)

  4. Just a Joey-Bee reminder; When Biden won his U.S. Senate seat in November, 1972, nearly 47 years ago, Apollo 17, the last American moon landing mission, was still a month in the future. Today, two of the three crew members, Gene Cernan, then only 38, and Ron Evans, then just 39 are both dead.

    The gaffe would be first, to nominate and second, to elect this fossil, who is getting older every day. He should have made a run against Hillary. His time has passed.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  5. Joe Biden has zero idea what average people go through. He went from law school to City Council at 27 to US Senator at age 30. He spent 2 – I repeat 2 – years as a lawyer. Then 40 something years in the Senate and 8 years as VP. Now, he’s 76. And a multi-millionaire. Of course. He’s ALWAYS been a gaffe machine. But it didn’t matter because Delaware is one of the those states that just re-elect you forever, so you can bring home the bacon.

    rcocean (1a839e)

  6. He called Anita Hill and Clarence thomas, “Surprisingly Clean and Articulate”.

    rcocean (1a839e)

  7. Biden has run for the presidency, or rather the Democratic nomination twice before. He has never won a single primary. We’ll see what happens this time around. I suspect more of the same.

    Gawain's Ghost (b25cd1)

  8. @5. celebritynetworth.com has him at only $900,000.

    But next time you mail out a credit card bill and wonder why it goes to a box number in Delaware, thank friend-of-the-big-banks-JoeyBee.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  9. 6 – “He called Anita Hill and Clarence thomas, “Surprisingly Clean and Articulate”

    Biden said it but he was talking about Obama:

    “I mean, you got the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy,” Biden said. “I mean, that’s a storybook, man.”

    https://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/01/31/biden.obama/
    __ _

    harkin (58d012)

  10. whembly (4605df) — 8/15/2019 @ 5:13 pm

    Greenland was in the High Middle Ages a sustaining agrucultural community, part of the Scandinavian culture, because the climate was warmer then*. When the Little Ice Age hit c 1400-1600 agriculture became impossible, sea trsvel uncertain, and the Inuit stronger and bolder, so the settlement died out.
    But if climate warms up again, Greenland will return to at least a minimal ability to support agriculture and other enterprises. But that sounds a bit too long term when compared to Trump’s habits.

    *and the polar bears and ice caps seemed to deal with it well.

    Kishnevi (165c19)

  11. UPDATE BY PATTERICO: The American people will not tolerate a president who constantly makes gaffes.

    Patterico (115b1f)

  12. @11 whembly (4605df) — 8/15/2019 @ 5:13 pm

    Greenland was in the High Middle Ages a sustaining agrucultural community, part of the Scandinavian culture, because the climate was warmer then*. When the Little Ice Age hit c 1400-1600 agriculture became impossible, sea trsvel uncertain, and the Inuit stronger and bolder, so the settlement died out.
    But if climate warms up again, Greenland will return to at least a minimal ability to support agriculture and other enterprises. But that sounds a bit too long term when compared to Trump’s habits.

    *and the polar bears and ice caps seemed to deal with it well.

    Kishnevi (165c19) — 8/15/2019 @ 5:28 pm

    Huh… learned something new today.

    How does one buy a territory like that?

    Back up a Brink Truck to the Danes and give them an offer they can’t refuse?

    whembly (4605df)

  13. whembly and kishnevi, here.

    Dana (fdf131)

  14. #12 UPDATE BY PATTERICO: The American people will not tolerate a president who constantly makes gaffes.

    Patterico (115b1f) — 8/15/2019 @ 5:35 pm

    President Covfefe would like a word…

    whembly (4605df)

  15. UPDATE BY PATTERICO: The American people will not tolerate a president who constantly makes gaffes.

    Clearly you don’t know the American people, Mister!

    Dana (fdf131)

  16. This may be part of a push to replace Biden with Warren.

    Trump better be careful what he wishes for, just like the Dems in 2016.

    harkin (58d012)

  17. And by replace I mean as the prospective nominee.

    harkin (58d012)

  18. If only we’d elected Hilary. Unlike Trump she never misspoke.

    rcocean (1a839e)

  19. I know the host is tongue in cheek there, but it does show how Biden’s people are misreading the current state of Presidential politics.

    I laughed for 15 minutes after reading that a former Presidential Director of Communications called his old boss “the fattest President since William Howard Taft”. Can anyone out there imagine a scenario where a former Clinton or Obama aide said something like this?
    Obama’s people were willing to insist his jump shot was NBA level when he shot the ball like the “least talented African American to ever pick up a basketball”

    I think Biden should take a cue from Trump and do something along the lines of holding rallies and declare himself to be the best black candidate in the contest, the most transgender candidate, a fantastic Hispanic etc.

    steveg (354706)


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