Despite Spending 8 Years Working with Obama, Biden Can't Remember His Name
I’ve dinged Joe Biden a few times this presidential cycle for overusing the pandering phrase “… my friend Barack” as if it were punctuation. Yes, we know, you were the vice president under the last president, whom liberals love. You’re assumedly friends with him. Pandering to crowds by reminding them of this at every possible opportunity is a little transparent.
At least I have to give Biden credit for one thing, though: He remembered what the former president’s name was when he was doing that.
In the latest evidence that the 2020 campaign has put some miles on the 77-year-old Biden, another round of gaffe-tastic videos showing the Democratic presidential front-runner is making the rounds on social media, this time showing him forgetting Obama’s name or the fact he was the last president.
In one, Biden talks about how “there’s going to be a conversion on the road to Damascus.”
“Because now you say, ‘by the way, are you gonna stick with president on the following, President … the last guy, on this issue?”
The video was shared by Republican National Committee rapid response director Steve Guest on his Twitter account without mentioning when or where it was from:
Thread.
On multiple occasions, Joe Biden has forgot Barack Obama’s name.
“By the way, are you gonna stick with President on the following, President [awkward pause], the last guy, on this issue?”pic.twitter.com/SUUXnsJpwy
— Steve Guest (@SteveGuest) March 5, 2020
But wait, there’s more:
“Because they invaded another country and annexed a significant portion of it called Crimea. He’s saying that it was President [awkward long pause] my boss. It was his fault.” pic.twitter.com/x5M6TKH4F6
— Steve Guest (@SteveGuest) March 5, 2020
In this clip, which we join in medias res, Biden says “… because they invaded another country and annexed a significant portion of it called Crimea. He’s saying that it was President … my boss. It was his fault.”
Here’s the former vice president forgetting who the last president was:
Joe Biden forgets that Barack Obama, not George W. Bush, was “the last president.” pic.twitter.com/2eQhB6LoGG
— Steve Guest (@SteveGuest) March 5, 2020
“I’m the only guy that’s beaten the NRA and my state is a big gun-owning state because of hunting,” Biden said. “I’m the only guy that’s beaten them twice. I’ve got assault weapons banned for 10 years, and it hadn’t been reauthorized because of hanging chads in Florida, and the last president said, ‘No, I’m not going to reauthorize.'”
President George W. Bush was in office when the federal ban on so-called “assault weapons” expired in 2004, and it was a Republican Congress, not the president, that declined to renew it.
This, by the way, is a subsection of gaffes from the former vice president. You almost have to have a Dewey Decimal system for them. For instance, 800.1-899.99 would be for gaffes involving Barack Obama. Here’s his latest, from a Saturday stop in Missouri, according to RealClearPolitics, where he calls himself an “Obiden Bama” Democrat:
Biden doesn’t even know his own last name at this point.
“Obiden Bama” Democrat
— Benny (@bennyjohnson) March 8, 2020
Then you’d have 700.1-799.99 would be gaffes involving his family. We had one of those after Super Tuesday: a 712, which is a gaffe involving his wife, Jill Biden:
.@joebiden confuses wife and sister. pic.twitter.com/R2hDcFbX5a
— Matt Gaetz (@mattgaetz) March 4, 2020
Mistakes like these shouldn’t just worry Democrats. Every American should be worried that a man currently on track to win the presidential nomination of a major American political party seems to have problems stringing a coherent sentence together.
A lot of people come to conclusions regarding Joe Biden from these gaffes. It’s probably not worth going there. Here’s the only conclusion we can reliably come to: This campaign has clearly taken a toll on Biden to an extent it hasn’t on other septuagenarians in the field, including Trump.
Assume he gets the nomination. How is this going to be in the fall, on a debate stage with a president who, while he may occasionally be loose with his words, still seems intellectually limber? How is this going to be if Biden wins the election and gets into the White House, where he’ll be the most powerful man in the world in one of the world’s most taxing jobs?
And yes, Biden has always been gaffe-prone, but it used to be that his gaffes were out of an abundance of energy — ostensibly the same looseness of tongue that trips up Trump from time to time. This feels different. This feels like a man who so desperately wants to be out there that no one around him is willing to say that maybe he shouldn’t be out there. He’s one more quarterback hanging on past his time, his feet too slow and his passes too short, still convinced he can ride off into the sunset after a moment of glory.
I understand the “My Friend Barack” thing. Obiden Bama Democrats have a yearning for the days when President The Last Guy was in the White House. Every time the Oval Office switches parties, this happens. However, surely Biden realizes that even if he gets nominated, this is not the Barack they’re looking for. If he doesn’t, America will.
CORRECTION, March 9, 2020: This post has been modified to remove a quote and a deceptively edited video posted by the Trump War Room on Saturday of former Vice President Joe Biden that showed only part of what Biden said. We apologize to our readers for any confusion we may have caused.
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