Posted on 07/02/2024 11:55:28 AM PDT by Red Badger
If you had to boil down the essence of growing old into a few easily identified characteristics, one thing you might point to is how the elderly become less physically strong and agile. Their senses are usually less acute. They might struggle to read a menu or a sign. Their hearing isn't so good. There are similar behavioral characteristics we all recognize as coming with age. You could sum up the stereotypical cranky old man with the phrase 'you kids get off my lawn!' It's the idea that older people, men especially, can be short-tempered. They don't have a lot of tolerance for things that bother them. They lash out with relatively little provocation.
With that in mind, consider this story published today by Politico about Joe Biden behind the scenes.
During meetings with aides who are putting together formal briefings they’ll deliver to Biden, some senior officials have at times gone to great lengths to curate the information being presented in an effort to avoid provoking a negative reaction.
“It’s like, ‘You can’t include that, that will set him off,’ or ‘Put that in, he likes that,’” said one senior administration official. “It’s a Rorschach test, not a briefing. Because he is not a pleasant person to be around when he’s being briefed. It’s very difficult, and people are scared shitless of him.”
This is not the first time we've seen this reported. A full year ago, Axios published a very similar story under the headline "Old Yeller: Biden's Private Fury."
Behind closed doors, Biden has such a quick-trigger temper that some aides try to avoid meeting alone with him. Some take a colleague, almost as a shield against a solo blast.
The president's admonitions include: "God dammit, how the f**k don't you know this?!," "Don't f**king bullsh*t me!" and "Get the f**k out of here!" — according to current and former Biden aides who have witnessed and been on the receiving end of such outbursts...
He'll grill aides on topics until it's clear they don’t know the answer to a question — a routine that some see as meticulous and others call "stump the chump" or "stump the dummy."
So all those reports about Biden being "sharp as a tack" may stem from this sort of behind the scenes berating and belittling the staff. He's a real jerk to his own people who can't talk back because he's the president and that's taken as proof that he's still sharp. But it's really just proof that he's a stereotypical cranky old man. The White House completely denies it but there word isn't worth much at this point.
The story moves on to complaints from unnamed Democrats who say the inner circle around Biden made sure that there was never any real discussion about whether or not he would run again. The people who knew the risk were also the people whose careers depended on him running.
“The fact is, there wasn’t an open dialogue about whether he should run except for the people who would benefit from him running,” said a Democratic operative close to the campaign. They described the inner circle, Donilon especially, as convinced “that this was going to be about Trump, not about Biden, and at the end of the day, people just wouldn’t vote for Trump. But here we are, we’re sitting in July, and the race is about Biden, and it’s about a trait you can’t fix.”
Finally, there's a thread that runs through this story about Jill Biden as the ultimate insider, someone doing her best to keep old man Biden from being clearly seen by the public. For instance, during his first press conference after taking office in 2021, Jill decided it was allowed to run a little too long.
When Biden’s first news conference as president was held in March 2021, it ended up running more than an hour, which was longer than aides had planned, and Biden’s performance faded somewhat near the end. After it was over, Jill Biden vociferously complained to aides, including Klain, that it was allowed to run so long, according to two of the people familiar.
Biden hasn’t done another press conference like that and has subjected himself to fewer sit-down interviews than any of his recent predecessors.
Biden has avoided interviews and press conferences and I had assumed this was coming from Anita Dunn, his top communications aide. But after reading this story I wonder if maybe Dunn is just doing what Jill Biden tells her to do.
Overall, it's not a very reassuring piece if you're a Democrat looking for evidence that the debate was just one bad night. It makes a pretty strong case that Biden's stamina under questioning is something aides have been carefully managing since he was elected nearly four years ago. His wife and close advisers have long worried how he would come across if access to him wasn't controlled just so. During Thursday night's debate we all got a good look at what they've been trying to hide.
Pedo Joe never was a man. He never had a chance to be one, since he never tried. Eff him and the sewer he oozed out of.
Welcome to 2020
Biden has avoided interviews and press conferences and I had assumed this was coming from Anita Dunn, his top communications aide. But after reading this story I wonder if maybe Dunn is just doing what Jill Biden tells her to do.
~~~
Welcome to the party pal (politico)!
2019 called. They want their old news back!
Where have you been all these years?
Amazing. Two weeks ago, the media chorus was that videos depicting a cognitively challenged Joe Biden were all “cheap fakes”. Now, even Politico is calling him a “cranky old man.”
“Pedo Joe never was a man. He never had a chance to be one, since he never tried. Eff him and the sewer he oozed out of.”
I share your hatred of Biden. Biden is the worst of what makes the political class. Given the chance, Biden is/was capable of real horrors.
Biden has been an A@@hole his entire life. The only difference now is that he is an OLD A@@HOLE!!!!!
The more I learn about Biden, the more I can believe that his first wife’s death was not an accident. He is a very nasty piece of work.
The upshot of 6/28 is Biden’s affect was terrible. A veteran debater had an off day. But all the policy reasons voters had for voting one way or the other remain. Is Trump less detestable for those who hate his guts? Is Biden less likeable to his fans? If anything, Biden gets the sympathy vote. For his fans, a lion in winter, but nonetheless a lion. If post debate polls are any indicator, the effect on Biden’s numbers were minimal, with a downtick of a point or two.
https://www.realclearpolling.com/polls/president/general/2024/trump-vs-biden
Real life is not a civics textbook. In politics, challengers turf their leaders not because they have to, but because they can. A CFO will connive with the board of directors to replace the CEO because it’s good to be CEO, and there’s no inherent right for anyone to be CEO, so why not the CFO?
Democrat contenders and consultants not in Biden’s inner circle aren’t worried about the Democrat party’s future. They saw a chink in his armor and were hoping to drive a truck thru it for personal gain. Openings for presidential nominations, and fresh slots in their entourages, don’t grow on trees.
But so far, nothing has changed. Away from CNN, every one of them polls worse than Biden. He’s a conniving bastard, but generally regarded as a nice guy.
Re debates, the thrill is gone. It’s now Dancing with the Stars, except boring, and with a less photogenic cast. So why do people agree to them? Both contenders are within low single digits. It’s like that old marketing dilemma - “Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don’t know which half.” When the numbers are this close and the debate stakes aren’t make or break, it’s an incremental bet.
Besides, when was the last time anyone stopped rooting for the home team because it lost big? Fact is - in elections -most people already have home teams.
Note also that the media generally thinks Biden is too moderate. Now that they have an opening to whale on Biden the Moderate(tm), they’re throwing everything but the kitchen sink at him.
Politico and CNN Jake Crapper seem to have gone far off the reservation.
What’s wrong with being cranky?
He was already having an affair with Jill, their babysitter, before she died. I wouldn’t put it past them to have arranged the “accident”.
Yup—anyone who believes the major media must be suffering a bad case of whiplash.
Not only that but the legacy media is not the least bit embarrassed or remorseful of the incredible disservice they did to We the People.
Fact is most of them are despicable human beings.
Senility takes a person’s worst traits and makes them a lot worse.
My mother was always a bit mean and nasty but when she was younger she had it somewhat under control.
One senility hit she viciously insulted anyone who was within earshot.
Nothing, if you’re a baby with a dirty diaper.................
TRAITOR Joe Biden is in solitary confinement of his own mind for the rest of his life. FJB
Oh. I see.
Guess I’ll have another pudding cup and be quiet.
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