Commentary

On 17 occasions during President Biden’s press conference remarks Wednesday, he sought our attention, saying “look,” as if what followed would be something of note. It usually wasn’t.

Among them were, “look, we’re not there yet … look, I’m a capitalist … look, I didn’t overpromise … well look, as you know … look, I’ve laid out … look, I still contend … look, think of what we did … look, what I said …” and “look, I made it clear …” but perhaps “look, maybe I’m kidding myself …” was the most telling.

I’ll limit my comments to just a few points. You’ve no doubt already heard that he has had to walk back statements on Ukraine, Covid, and legitimizing votes

In his response to the first question asked by Mary Bruce of ABC, in which she asked, “Do you need to be more realistic and scale down these priorities in order to get something passed?”  It was something talked about with the failure of passing the massive bill.

“No, I don’t think so,” he said. “Look, we knew all along that a lot of this was going to be an uphill fight.  We’re going to have to just make the case.”

Not satisfied, Bruce said, “You say, though, that you’re not going to scale down any of those priorities, but so far that strategy isn’t working. You haven’t been able to get some of these big legislative ticket items done.  So, is there anything that you are confident you can get signed into law before the midterm elections?”

Then, in a complete reversal, not noted by any member of the media, Biden answered, “Yes, I’m confident we can get pieces – big chunks of the Build Back Better law signed into law.”

When asked to comment on the “deep questions Americans have about the competence of government” citing the Afghanistan withdrawal, Biden’s ire rose slightly, defending his decision, still refusing to accept the fact that he botched it by not following the Trump plan and not listening to his generals.

Clearly, those 13 lives at the Kabul airport would not have been lost if he had not given up the fortified Bagram Air Base and used it to get civilians and our equipment out prior to withdrawing our remaining forces.

Later, when asked by James Rosen of Newsmax to comment on a poll that day by Politico/Morning Consult that found 49 percent of registered voters disagreeing with the statement, “Joe Biden is mentally fit,” Biden laughed, saying, “I’ll let you all make the judgement whether they’re correct.”

Finally, while talking about political coverage seen by Americans, what they believe, he mentioned MSNBC and Fox, and added “the cables are heading south; they’re losing viewership.”  He then decided to take a shot at Fox.  “Fox is okay for a while, but it’s not gated,” adding that “a lot of the rest are predicted to be not very much in the mix in the next four to five years.  I don’t know whether that’s true or not.”

Look … Once he opened the floor for questions, he opened his notebook containing the names of media members to call on and, obviously, responses to specific questions.  Trump was always able to answer questions off the top of his head with no notes.

It was a long press conference, but there wasn’t a question about the thousands of illegals crossing our southern border, some with diseases, being dropped off in cities across the nation unannounced.

No mention of the crime in our streets, primarily in Democrat-controlled states and municipalities.

No mention of the loss of our energy independence and its effect on the people.

And no mention of those dire threats of systemic racism and climate change.

Finally, when he claimed that he didn’t over-promise during his inaugural, no one said, ‘What about your promise to unify the country?’

There was at least one laugh: It came when Biden asked “Can you think of any other president that has done as much in one year?  When he asked the media to “name one for me.”   Crickets.

Prior to the press conference … I came across a piece by Matt Taibbi from his TK News outlet that caught my eye – “Joe Biden’s Awesome First Year.” Of course, I just had to read it.

“To win an exhausted nation’s admiration, all Joe Biden had to do was nothing,” he began, “Instead, he’s burning future votes like kindling.

“How great was life for Joe Biden a year ago?  MSNBC’s John Heilemann compared him to Lincoln; PBS White House correspondent Yamiche Alcindor said the return of the Democrats “felt like we are being rescued from the craziness and now here are the superheroes to come and save us all;” Rachel Maddow went through “half a box of Kleenex” in joy; and even Chris Wallace on Fox said Biden’s half-coherent inauguration speech was “the best inaugural address I ever heard; JFK’s iconic ‘Ask Not’ included.”

“Biden looks bad.  During the campaign … you could make the argument he was merely in steep mental decline, which was okay.  Against Trump, the standard of ‘technically alive’ worked for a lot of voters.  Biden now looks like a man deep into the peeing-on-houseplants stage, and every appearance is an adventure.”

This may surprise you.  I used to watch the Don Imus Show a few years ago, when Fox was simulcasting his morning radio show from New York.  Imus made me laugh, and would often surprise me with his views on various issues.

I learned of the writer Matt Taibbi during an Imus interview.  Taibbi wrote for Rolling Stone, a publication not on my must-read list, but I learned that he, too, wasn’t always that liberal, although he was not a fan of Trump either.

No longer with Rolling Stone, I recently ran across a TK transcript of a discussion he had with Walter Kirn, an accomplished writer who occasionally appears on the Gutfeld Show. 

During a discussion of the downfall of journalism, looking back to the eighties and nineties, Taibbi remarked that journalists then were more concerned with getting things right, than whether they were sending the right message.

Agreeing, Kirn, too, saw a massive change in journalism.  “The process of journalism has now become the story, rather than the supposed outcome of journalism, which is going somewhere and getting the facts right.

Kirn noted how reporters thought they knew the heartbeat of grassroots America simply by visiting a local diner during a primary while covering a primary during the Iowa caucuses.

Well, just like Biden, I rambled from my commentary on Biden’s press conference, to Taibbi’s piece on Biden’s awesome first year, and finally to a Taibbi-Kirn review of journalism today.

Now, more than ever … may God continue to bless the United States of America.