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submitted 11 months ago by some_guy@lemmy.sdf.org to c/news@lemmy.world
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[-] dhork@lemmy.world 17 points 11 months ago

He was a favorite in the 1988 presidential primary because he was such a a great public speaker

Were you alive back then? As I remember it, he was a perennial also-ran because he couldn't help but stay stupid shit now and then. It's as if the word "Gaffe" in politics was invented to describe stupid things Joe Biden said. And saying stuff like that stopped campaigns cold back then. (remember when Howard Dean's campaign got killed over screaming the wrong way?)

But then Trump happened, and all of a sudden saying stupid shit all the time was no longer a liability.

[-] agent_flounder@lemmy.world 5 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

I was alive and eligible to vote in 88 but I was a dumb kid that voted but didn't pay attention to the primaries so I don't remember him at all.

And he wasn't a "great public speaker" in that he was known for saying dumb shit as you say. (If anything gaffe was a term that applied earlier to Dan Quayle, former VP).

I don't recall for sure if the stutter was present then or to what degree.

I also don't see a lot of evidence that he is mentally unfit (for his age) as far as I am aware.

[-] PopcornTin@lemmy.world 0 points 11 months ago

I also don't see a lot of evidence that he is mentally unfit (for his age) as far as I am aware.

Curious, have you even heard of his gaffes and other funny stuff (Corn Pop, pony soldier, trueananashabadapressure, falling, not knowing where to go after a speech)? There are so many funny moments from his speeches. People put together "best of" compilations on every video site. They don't get reported on CNN and stuff, you do have to look for them.

The mental fitness stuff is exaggerated for the most part, but he does lose track of his line of thinking when speaking off the cuff, without a teleprompter. He will start reciting a story he's told 1000x, then he just sighs and says, "anyways..."

I would say, as with Trump, to go to as original of a source as you can. Watch an hour long campaign really or whatever to hear the whole speech in context. Don't just read a headline or synopsis from the media.

[-] givesomefucks@lemmy.world 3 points 11 months ago

Were you alive back then? As I remember it, he was a perennial also-ran because he couldn’t help but stay stupid shit now and then

Actually, yeah.

But why does that matter? Sure, Biden is old, but his first presidential.primary isn't ancient history, we don't have to have actually seen it to know about it.

Biden was initially considered one of the potentially strongest candidates as campaigning began in 1987.[6] This was because of his image as a political moderate, his speaking ability on the stump (rated second only to that of Jesse Jackson), his appeal to Baby Boomers, his high-profile position as chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, looming for the Robert Bork confirmation hearings, and his fundraising appeal—his $1.7 million raised in the first quarter of 1987 was more than any other candidate.[7][8] By the end of April he had raised $2 million, using not just contributions from Delaware but also establishing a base of support among young professionals and Jewish voters in a number of urban- and suburban-oriented states.[9] He had no campaign debt, and Fortune magazine termed his "most impressive start" a "surprise".[9]

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Biden_1988_presidential_campaign

The only speaking difficulty Biden has had up till the last decade, has been when media press him on a challenge, he gets pissed and starts insulting them. The deathblow to the 88 campaign was when his speech plagiarism lead to reporters finding out he cheated in school and lied about being active in the civil rights movement.

He might have survived that, but he started insulting reporters when they asked. A pissed off presidential candidate yelling about how much better he is than the worker man sells a lot of newspapers and it's a vicious cycle that's hard to get out

He was still doing it last campaign, he'll do it next time.

[-] PopcornTin@lemmy.world 0 points 11 months ago

He was still doing it last campaign, he'll do it next time.

No, he won't do it this time because he isn't going to campaign with the public. The instances he got angry with the public were pretty early in the primaries mostly. They won't let that happen this time. It will be even smaller audiences than last run (heavily vetted people) or zoom speeches from the basement.

this post was submitted on 21 Jan 2024
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