Calvin Coolidge was probably the most reticent and reserved president in more than a century. When the former president died in 1933, author Dorothy Parker said, "How can they tell?"
Joe Biden thinks his garrulous folksiness can get him through just about anything. Jimmy Carter was an analytical nuclear engineer and introvert who had a similar inability to communicate on a human level. He was thumped in his 1980 reelection attempt by Ronald Reagan, probably the most personable and, therefore, best presidential communicator in decades.
To tell the truth, Joe Biden is likely the worst modern president at communicating with American voters. You'd think that talking coherently, if not cogently, could be a helpful skill in a presidential election year. But he's not got it.
Last year, without a word, Biden simply walked out on a Medal of Honor recipient and the White House audience before the ceremony was over. He's done the fewest interviews of any recent chief executive. He claims to be seeking reelection. But the candidate dodged a February Super Bowl interview with the largest television audience in history.
When Joe Biden is able to avoid brain freezes, he talks a lot, an awful lot.
Often, it does not make much sense. It's just words coming out of the mouth of an 81-year-old man who thought he had something to say, forgets what it was, fills the awkward void with jumbled words at hand while he tries to remember, then gives up and says, "Anyway."
Many of us have sadly witnessed this aberrant, incurable behavior in beloved relatives of an advanced age.
But Joe Biden is the commander in chief. He sets a new record for oldest president every day in office. And he claims to be seeking 1,440 more days there until he's 86.
Just seven months out from the 2024 voters' verdict, Biden now holds historically bad job approval ratings. And his vice presidential partner is worse.
The unidentified "they" that Biden claims tell him what to do are no doubt attempting anything they can to patch the obvious gaps. One tactic is releasing statements identified as the actual words of Joe Biden, anything to insert him into the information flow without risking new gaffes for sympathetic liberals to ignore.
But these statements are proving embarrassing, too. That's what this week's audio commentary discusses.
This past week, I wrote another in the ongoing series of personal Memory posts outside the paywall that got a large response. Here it is ICYMI: Things My Father Said: 'Here, It's Not Loaded'.
This week's Sunday column examines a little-discussed observation: how long it's been since Americans had a president they sincerely liked. And the unexpected reasons behind that.
Feel free to add your observations on those posts in the Comments below or on the individual posts themselves.
The most recent audio commentary took apart Joe Biden's phony campaign attempt to appear tough on China after three years of sucking up to Beijing's leader, Xi Jinping. And it detailed Suspicious Activity Reports by Biden's own Treasury Department about millions of dollars in foreign financial transfers from China into accounts of shell companies organized by the Biden family.
Nothing to see here, folks. Just move right along.