It’s the one thing that any mentor will tell you never to say in a job interview when asked what your biggest flaw is:
“I’m just too much of a perfectionist.” Or: “I just work too hard.” Or: “I’m just too committed to getting the job done.”
Even if you’re the most competent candidate possible, this raises a huge red flag. In case you missed all of the political news cycle beginning Thursday night at around 9 p.m. ET, virtually nobody is willing to vouch for President Joe Biden being the best candidate for the job he has. Or even a candidate for passing a first-grade reading exam.
But don’t blame the president’s obvious senility, one anonymous staffer told Axios. He just worked too darn hard at preparing for the debate.
I don’t know if it’s accurate to properly sum up how disastrous Thursday night was for the Biden campaign, but let’s put it this way: Donald Trump’s campaign has already put out a 90-second ad that’s literally nothing but Biden talking during the debate. Nothing from his challenger, just the sitting president’s own words. Well, kinda words:
Trump just released a 95 second ad. And it’s brutal. He didn’t even need to say anything. All he did was let Biden talk.pic.twitter.com/KBKBK6UYQ7
— Alana Mastrangelo (@ARmastrangelo) June 28, 2024
Axios, like pretty much every mainstream media outlet, had an article with a flood of apoplectic and apocalyptic quotes from Democrat apparatchiks, both named and unnamed, who assumedly had to see this coming.
One former Biden administration official: “disaster.”
Did the debate kill Biden’s chances in the 2024 election?
A person described as “an influential Democratic campaign veteran” by Axios: “catastrophe.”
“DEFCON 1 moment,” said David Plouffe, former President Barack Obama’s campaign manager, during a segment on MSNBC. “The “concern level is quite high.”
Amid a sea of panic, though, Axios was able to find a “person in Biden’s orbit” who actually gave the answer about flaws that any job coach will tell you to never give.
“He was over-prepared and relying on minutiae when all that mattered was vigor and energy,” the unnamed individual said.
The source added: “They prepared him for the wrong debate. He was over-prepared when what he needed was rest. It’s confounding.”
Yes, the poor guy overworked himself with debate prep and no public appearances. He was just too prepped. That’s why he said “we finally beat Medicare.” That’s why he stared vacantly into the distance, mouth agape, like a man whose brain was playing “Yakety Sax” on repeat and could let no other thoughts get through. Too much prepping.
Biden, in case you forgot, spent literally all week preparing for the match-up at Camp David, forgoing all public appearances. I assume there was ample chance for rest, considering that I don’t think the guy was putting in 18-hour days. We are to believe that what we saw Thursday was the result of his debate prep team just wearing the poor guy out.
To be fair, whoever this idiot was is an outlier in terms of takes on the president’s performance, but it’s telling that the best excuse the Biden orbit can come up with is that, given nothing to do but prepare for a 99-minute debate in which he didn’t have to talk for any stretch longer than two minutes on any topic at a single time, he wore himself down.
It’s universally agreed that the job of the president of the United States of America is one of the most arduous and important positions one can hold upon this earth. From the Civil War to the Cuban Missile Crisis to 9/11, these are moments that require vigorous and decisive leadership.
The debate was conducted along the terms dictated by Joe Biden’s team, moreover. No studio audience, biased CNN moderators, early date: The terms were set by the people who sent the president out there on Thursday. Trump agreed. Many people thought he was a fool for doing so.
Now, Biden looks like a fool for even agreeing to a debate. And we’re to believe what he really needed was a nice, long rest.
That’s not what we elect a president for. That’s why we have these debates: As a test not just of policy and temperament, but of mental and physical readiness.
If the explanation for the “DEFCON 1 moment” was that prepping for the simple act of defending himself and his candidacy wore the guy out, guess what? He’s not the guy for the job. His biggest flaw wasn’t working too hard at prep. His biggest flaw is that he is aged, ragged, semi-coherent and only getting worse. No amount of explaining that away will work.
