Joe Biden is acting like he is 49, not 79.
Here is his speech to the Democratic National Convention on September 8, 2022....
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/watch-live-president-biden-deliver-remarks-at-democratic-national-committee-reception
Biden did not miss a single step while delivering this speech over about 25 minutes. He delivered the speech without notes or a teleprompter.
This contrasts markedly with his many missteps, hesitations and inexplicable confusions displayed in speech after speech and interview after interview over the last few years; confusions and missteps so serious as to put his competency as president and future as a presidential candidate in 2024 into very serious question. With this latest speech, it is clear that something has changed. Has Biden started taking uppers? Is he napping a few times a day, and before he addresses the Nation? He certainly appears to have gone all out to prepare for this speech, and it worked.
Biden has also changed his tactics. Previously, he had been trying to unify legislators, driving both Democrats and Republicans to support bi-partisan legislation. While he has previously been attacking Trump and what he calls "MAGA Republicans" for years, he ramped things up very significantly with a rather ill-advised speech in Pennsylvania last week. He took a less aggressive approach in the speech noted above yesterday, where he again strove to exploit a wedge between the politics of normal Democrats, Independents and Republicans, and the MAGA Republicans.
Biden now clearly sees an opportunity for his party to actually win the mid-term elections in November, which would be unprecedented for a president in his first term when the legislature usually flips away from the party of the president to the one in opposition. He is trying to take advantage of the efforts of people like Liz Chaney who has declared war on the Trump wing of the Republican Party, and to seek to mobilize female voters who are upset with the overturning of Roe v Wade. If he can mobilize Democrats, Independents and normal Republicans against MAGA Republicans, the Democrats have a very good chance of holding onto the House of Representatives and Senate in November.
And looking forward to November, the Republicans now have a very significant tactical problem. Usually the party in opposition runs against what the party in office has done while in office, and succeeds as it is easier to run against something than it is to run for something. In succeeding in reversing Roe v Wade, and with some Republicans proclaiming that they will also go after same sex marriage and even Social Security, the Republicans have handed the Democrats something to run against, in spite of the fact that they actually control Congress and the Presidency.
The days when Republicans could raise bogeymen such as trans-friendly toilets and other socially-liberal issues in attacking Democrats may be over now, largely because of what the Republicans themselves have said and done. Add in the existential issue related to democracy itself, and what Biden calls normal politics versus what the MAGA Republicans stand for, and there is a very good chance that the Republicans may not succeed in taking the House of Representatives and the Senate in November.
These are not normal times. Biden senses this, and has moved aggressively to take advantage of what may be an historic opportunity to avoid a flipped legislature in November. He may even be taking naps before he makes his speeches, which could be bad news for people like Donald Trump.
P.S. The week that Biden made his ill-advised speech, Trump aggressively demanded that he immediately be returned to office as President of the United States. This demand seemed to have come out of nowhere. As noted here before, Trump wants to be president again to avoid criminal prosecution, as a siting president cannot be charged with a crime while he is in office. These two events happening in the same week got me thinking...have both men been advised that charges are pending against Trump with the Department of Justice advising Biden, and Trump's lawyers advising him, causing both men to seek to move the bar forward as a result?
We shall see...
