A beleaguered President Biden did his best to stanch the bleeding on Thursday, conducting that all-too-rare White House event: a full-fledged press conference.
That press conference came shortly after Biden introduced President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine as “President Putin” before catching himself and correcting the error. As to his actual press conference, it was mixed. Despite a reference to “Vice President Trump” when he meant “Vice President Harris,” this Biden wasn’t the befuddled figure from the debate. He was in command of foreign policy details and complexities and explained them well, without the help of teleprompters.
On the other hand, his voice was raspy and soft-spoken, he moved stiffly, and he seemed ancient and lacking in energy. In that regard, it’s hard to think this press conference will convince people he has the vigor to wage the kind of aggressive campaign it will take to win. Or that he hasn’t lost several steps — and won’t lose several more in the next few years.
The problem for Biden here is twofold. He wants to frame his dismal debate performance as a onetime political setback that can be sealed in the past by better public presentations going forward. But for anyone who has watched an elderly family member fade, it is very difficult to see that night as divorced from the intellectual and physical erosion of aging.
Biden’s second big problem is that his campaign had hoped to make this election about Donald Trump and the threat to democracy his return to the White House would present. That’s no longer possible. The question of the president’s gerontological fitness will now occupy at least as much attention as the matter of Trump’s characterological unfitness.
That’s why, two weeks after that debate, Democrats remain in a state of polite political panic.
Biden supporters cite his outsized list of accomplishments and, following the dictates of normal electoral logic, insist that one good term deserves another. Biden doubters have two basic rejoinders. Campaigns are about the future, and the confused, fumbling, word-searching Biden we saw in the debate did not look like a man who could competently lead the nation well into his mid-80s.
Further, Biden’s dispiriting debate performance has triggered a poll-reinforced sense that his path to victory is now sharply uphill. Even before the verbal joust with Trump, Biden faced a tricky Electoral College map. A path to 270 was certainly possible, but he needed a tailwind to get there. A sharp, energetic, on-stage performance might have provided that. Instead, the faltering presentation we saw has added to the headwind he faces.
As they prepare to nominate a deeply flawed felon that no rational, non-cultist party would want as its standard-bearer, Republicans are understandably delighted to see the focus shift from Trump’s troubles to Biden’s struggles.
The current hope among the most influential elected Democrats is clearly that Biden will see the November writing on the wall and decide to go gracefully. If not, he runs the very real risk of seeing his legacy transformed from hero to goat, of being remembered not as the indispensable septuagenarian who ousted Trump from the White House in 2020 but as the stubborn octogenarian who lacked the wisdom to realize that his political viability had gone code blue, and thus enabled his archfoe’s return to power in 2024.
Today, let me ask you readers for your thoughts. For starters, if you yourself could speak a few short sentences to the president, what would your message be?
For obvious reasons, I’m mostly seeking the views of Democrats and independents and Trump-spurning Republicans, people who before the debate were either likely to vote for Biden or were at least open to that possibility.
Here are the other questions I have:
Did you see the debate and if so, did it change your views about Biden? Has anything that’s happened since reassured you, including his Thursday press conference?
Do you think he should step aside or continue with his candidacy?
Do you think he still has a reasonable chance at reelection?
If he were reelected, do you believe he would be able to function competently in one of the world’s most difficult jobs for the next four years?
Even if you don’t think so, would you vote for him anyway over Trump? Or would you choose Trump, cast your ballot for Robert F. Kennedy Jr. or one of the other minor candidates, or not vote at all in the presidential election?
I’ll publish a sampling of the replies next week. (I’d like to have the full name, approximate age, area of residence, current or former occupation, and political affiliation of respondents, though last names are not absolutely necessary.)
You’ve heard from the commentariat. I hope you will now weigh in.
Scot Lehigh is a Globe columnist. He can be reached at scot.lehigh@globe.com. Follow him @GlobeScotLehigh.