Choose Your Own President Biden Press Conference Adventure

If you gazed intently into the Rorschach test of President Biden’s press conference, you probably saw whatever you already thought going on.

Like minds think alike, so it was no surprise that multiple commentators seized on the same idea I had watching President Biden’s highly anticipated by some, dreaded by others press conference to round off the NATO 75th anniversary festivities: Rorschach test.

The news media coverage and social media discourse surrounding the re-election campaign of President Biden since the debate indulged in a mass psychometric examination of the President’s speech patterns, mental acuity, physical presence, and so on. A long list of things to be dissected, analyzed, opined upon, so on and so forth. A nearly hour-long inkblot to see what the assembled press could, maybe wanted to, see.

Anyway, as the President repeatedly redirected in answering, the full uncut presser for reference:

Folks who went into the press conference looking for an aged, stilted, struggling Joe Biden got plenty of that. Viewers looking for President Biden to go long on time and deep into minute details on certain answers got that. The press that wanted more than just a few questions asked got that, including – according to the President himself – a few bonus ones. The Team Trump folks who wanted some soundbites and viral moments for campaign ads, memes, and fundraisers got that. Biden 2024 staffers who needed some forceful audio and video of the President for their own campaign ads, memes, and fundraising got that.

The folks who want Biden to step aside from the race did not get what they want, or anything close to it. The folks who wanted ol’ Joe to completely fall apart on camera did not get what they wanted either. The Team Biden folks who wanted all the questions about the President’s fitness to go away did not get what they wanted.

If you gazed intently into the Rorschach test of President Biden’s press conference, you probably saw whatever you already thought was going on. Which means coming out of the press conference the status quo is probably going to maintain for a while longer.

The Biden folks have clearly been trying to “run out the clock” on the news media feeding frenzy that has enveloped the coverage of the President since the debate debacle. A news media that got caught and embarrassed by their coverage of the President trying to overcorrect by focusing on nothing but the President has to end at some point. Team Biden knows that with the Republican National Convention and the pending announcement of Trump’s running mate waiting in the wings, at some point Donald Trump will once again dominate the headlines.

Or so the conventional wisdom goes. For his part, Trump has been uncharacteristically disciplined – at least by his standards – in staying out of the way as Biden takes his lumps. The Showcase Showdown of nominating conventions and the new hotness of whoever is replacing Mike Pence on the Republican Ticket is bound to grab headlines and keep the talking heads busy. Trump managed to make the first debate all about Biden, and the GOP will try to do the same with the RNC, under the idea the best defense of all things Trumpian is a good offense against the incumbent president.

Which is a sound strategy. Normally. If Trump can stay on message. If the GOP can hold together on message. If the Republican Party doesn’t have too much stray voltage from its various and sundry controversial figures who might not understand giving Biden the spotlight they themselves constantly crave is good for the cause. If the economy doesn’t take a dramatic upswing. If some outside news event changes or overrides everything else.

That’s a lot of ifs. More than one “Ifs” means it isn’t a plan, it is a prayer, Chief Connelly always told us.

Anyway…

This is where President Biden finds himself and his re-election effort, regardless of how those for and against him see the post-debate discussion on his fitness. Like a sports team needing another team to lose to get into the playoffs, his own fate is no longer solely in President Biden’s hands. He needs some help in the form of Trump doing self-destructive things to make what would be – as our friend Luis laid out – an historic electoral comeback win. The polls aren’t really moving enough to change the dynamic of the race, even as the race gets louder in the news media. Biden is lagging, Trump has his ceiling, and right now the former is behind the latter as it has been for months now. Status Quo, even after relentless news media coverage.

When the hyped up “big moment” like President Biden’s press conference ends in a choose your own adventure level of more of the same, it tells us all we need to know. Less of a “big moment” than a navigational buoy letting us know we are smack dab in the navigational channel this election has been sailing down all along.

But at least we will always have the generated memes.