Posted originally on the CTH on June 28, 2024 | Sundance

Sometimes, when you ask the right questions, you don’t ask why people in assisted living facilities suddenly realize Joe Biden is more than a few french fries short of a Happy Meal, and instead you ask why Politico proactively had a journalist embedded in an assisted living facility to get feedback on Joe Biden.

Seriously.  What did Politico know about the debate in advance, such that it was an assignment to have a top headline article prepped?  I think we all know the answer to that question.  Essentially, the entire professional political class in DC knows about an operation to replace Joe Biden.  If you understand that is the plan, you adjust your corporate assignments accordingly.  Politico did just that.

(Politico) – […] “How Biden’s devastating debate went over at an assisted living facility” –  For Biden, it was a disaster. His allies had seen the debate as his best chance yet to ease concerns about his age, a persistent liability for his campaign. And the perception of older voters — who turn up to vote at higher levels any other age group — is critical to the Democratic president. He lost voters 65 and older to Donald Trump by 5 percentage points in 2020, but is courting them aggressively in the run-up to November.

Nothing his contemporaries saw here Thursday helped his case. “I think that he is rushing it, and he’s not looking at the camera for the most part,” said Meg Maguire, 81, who was visiting the facility to watch the debate with her husband. She said, “In terms of just physical relationship to the camera, Trump is doing better.”

[…] And by the first commercial break on Thursday — when at least three residents here had nodded off — the damage to Biden had been done.

“Let’s face it, a debate is a performance,” said Claire Moses, 83. And she offered a blunt assessment of the one that Biden was turning in.

“Biden is not a good performer,” Moses said. “And I’m very sad tonight because I think that Biden is a great president, and he is a great president because of what he has done, what he has accomplished, not how he speaks.” (read more)