Donald Trump is only 4 years younger than Joe Biden….
Biden makes mistakes, forgets stuff and has a stuutering problem….
Trump makes mistakes, lies, then lies again and has a problem with following the law…..
Yes?
We expect Joe Biden to be on the ball….
We KNOW Donald Trump (An ex-President) isn’t and he gets over on that….
….One would think that a former president — currently vying to be the next president — would at least try to be a little more articulate.
But this gets to one of the oddest things about this election cycle so far. There is no shortage of coverage of President Biden’s age, even if there’s no evidence that his age has been an obstacle to his ability to perform his duties. Indeed, it is plainly true that Biden has been an unusually successful president in areas, like legislative negotiations, that require skill and mental acuity.
Coverage of Biden’s age, in other words, has more to do with the vibes of an “elderly” president — he isn’t as outwardly vigorous and robust as we would like — than it does with any particular issue with his performance.
In contrast to the obsessive coverage of Biden’s age, there is comparatively little coverage of Trump’s obvious deficiencies in that department. If we are going to use public comments as the measure of mental fitness, then the former president is clearly at a disadvantage.
Unfortunately for Biden, Trump benefits from something akin to the soft bigotry of low expectations. Because no one expected Trump, in the 2016 election, to speak and behave like a normal candidate, he was held to a lower effective standard than his rivals in both parties. Because no one expected him, during his presidency, to be orderly and responsible, his endless scandals were framed as business as usual. And because no one now expects him to be a responsible political figure with a coherent vision for the country, it’s as if no one blinks an eye when he rants and raves on the campaign trail….
image…CNN
Trump has normalized lying, cheating and stealing.
His supporters don’t care.
Indeed they seem to actually like it.
‘Fucked Up’…Indeed…..
Republicans have flirted with Trump like candidates before.
Pat Buchanan, Akan Keyes, Newt Gingrich all come to mind.
But the id never prevailed and the craziness was reeled back in.
Those candidates all hit a wall at some point. They couldnt pass 30% or so and were vanquished by the mainstream conservatives like Dole, the Bushes,
McCain, Romney.
Now look who has a ceiling at 30%–Nikki Haley. The kind of conservative who would be the front runner pre Trump.
The Republican Party is slow to change. It was slow to evolve from flirting with the wacko asshole candidates to fully embracing them without shame.
I think it will likely be slow to change back.
Hoodlum 🇺🇸
@NotHoodlum
“So you don’t remember saying you have one of the best memories in the world?”
“I don’t remember that, no.”
The G.O.P. did turn back towards the Nixonian pseudo-Centre [all things to all men] after Goldwater in 1964. (And Goldwater himself told his disappointed supporters at the 1960 G.O.P Convention — which nominated Nixon instead — that “it’s time to grow up, conservatives.”)