Tonight at 6:30 (it originally was scheduled for 5:30 but then moved back an hour, so I suppose it might move again), Joe Biden will conduct a press conference.
It is his first in 8 months (that is not a typo).
Will Biden’s performance tonight make a difference in how people view his presidency? His state of cognition? His ability to continue as President for an additional four years? His ability to continue for the rest of his current term?
Yes it will.
If Biden can present himself capably – i.e. understand the questions and answer them directly without veering off into garbled word salads or reciting obviously pre-scripted political tag-lines – this might well keep him in the race.
Anything less – i.e. stumbling over words, losing track of what he is saying mid-answer, tossing out non-sequiturs, etc. – will, in my opinion, result in an uprising within the party far beyond what we are already seeing, and make continuing his re-election campaign an impossibility.
Look, no one can tell the future, so we, of course, do not know for sure what will happen.
But my best guess? It is that this press conference – assuming it really is an unscripted, unrehearsed affair – will effectively end Joe Biden’s presidential run.
That is because he will have to present himself in a way that reassures his party a) he is fully competent per se, and b) he is their best shot at winning in November. I don’t see how Joe Biden, in his current debilitated condition, can do so.
One way or the other, we’ll have our answer tonight. So let’s talk afterwards.
