Gol-lee-Nell, if we didn't talk about this briefly just last night while waiting for POTATUS to make his grand entrance into the press conference.
David was wondering, if Biden managed to survive the event without a fatal faceplant, what would the press do? How could they possibly walk back all the "See? We TOLD YOU!" groundwork they've spent the weeks since the debate laying so carefully?
Stories like this:
Some of President Biden’s longtime aides and advisers are discussing how to persuade him to end his re-election bid, though it is not clear that the discussions have reached him. https://t.co/p6rEAu2v09 pic.twitter.com/LpIyHF2fCm
— The New York Times (@nytimes) July 11, 2024
Then the coup de grâce from the NYT editorial board themselves - ouch.
NYT Editorial Board says Biden is too old to be president, is "embarrassing himself," and needs to drop out pic.twitter.com/nOd4nawz6O
— Philip Letsou (@philipletsou) July 9, 2024
It was almost as if they were covering their own cheerleading asterisks for the inevitable embarrassment to come at the Big Boy press conference. A chicken-livered, pre-emptive, "Not our guy" strike.
Especially after all the carefully coordinated "cheap fake' umbrage directed at anyone who questioned the doddering old fart stomping around various stages and lawns during events and looking for the exit.
Misleading video clips of President Biden watching a skydiving demonstration at the G7 summit in Italy went viral last week, prompting the White House to say Biden is victim to a simpler version of "deepfakes." So, what are "cheap fakes"?
— CBS News (@CBSNews) June 19, 2024
CBS News Confirmed Executive Editor… pic.twitter.com/VgJwBEVc20
About 30 seconds into that debate, the media was already sharpening their knives and writing multiple POTATUS obits as if this had been all news to them, veritable thunderbolt revelations from the blue. They were also doing a pretty good acting job of portraying innocent, betrayed believers who now wanted to ferret out who'd lied to them about the president's condition this whole time.
As Ed said in his piece, suddenly, the entire media universe turned on a dime, sprouting into a unified, anti-Biden Greek chorus that had never been witness to any of the frailties appearing in the cadaver now swaying behind the debate podium.
The media and press duplicity in the Biden dementia cover-up were finally as brutally exposed as POTATUS for the frauds they are. But, since they still had reactive muscles functioning, they did what they do best: hypocritically pivot 180°, j'accuse selected targets for what they themselves are guilty of, and erase everything in the memory banks prior to that moment.
Gambling, you say? They are shocked.
16 HOURS AGOCounting on continuing collective amnesia. Like CNN's piece today I think both Ed and I hit it.
Capt Renault.
16 HOURS AGOThe media is still trying to figure out how to save their credibility. They won't be able to, but a bunch of them want to show their "independence" from Biden.
How do they walk back so much?
My dearest friend David likes to believe there is a spark of integrity somewhere in almost everyone or everything. I am delighted to find myself right again as far as the shamelessness of the press - notably the New York Times - goes.
They have none and can "walk back" anything because they'll simply ignore that they ever said what they said, even if it was only said, oh, like, yesterday.
Today's NYT is a case in point. An editorial trumpets that Biden needs to stay in the race and naysayers are mean.
YAY, GAMPIE
The Strongest Case for Biden Is His Resilience in the Face of the Onslaught
Joe Biden is still standing, refusing to bow out — he reiterated that once again in a lengthy and mostly successful news conference on Thursday night. Some may view it as selfish and irresponsible. Some may even see it as dangerous. But I see it as remarkable.
Despite sending a clear message — in his recent flurry of interviews and rallies, in his stalwart address this week to members of the NATO alliance and in his letter on Monday to congressional Democrats, in which he assured them that “I wouldn’t be running again if I did not absolutely believe I was the best person to beat Donald Trump in 2024” — there’s still a slow drumbeat from luminaries, donors and elected officials trying to write Biden’s political obituary.
"Elites" are forcing the old man (who might be "diminished," but hey! He's older than dirt) out of the race before he's ready.
...Furthermore, no one has really made the case that whatever decline Biden may be experiencing has significantly impacted his policy decision-making or eroded America’s standing in the world. The arguments center on the visual evidence of somewhat worrisome comportment but mostly speculation about cognition.
That is just not enough.
Quit guessing that he's braindead! We don't KNOW that for a fact.
What they do know is that the expected face-plant at the press conference never happened and while excruciating to behold, it was still vintage Biden.
Well...crap. What to do now?
There's another sign the NYT might be tiptoeing back its "Quit NOW, Joe" stance. Besides this op-ed piece, they're out with a curious story that Democrats working to replace Biden on the ticket is...holy smokes...a right-wing conspiracy theory.
I Schlitz you not.
The NYT *this morning* accused the right of pushing a “conspiracy theory” that Dems are secretly plotting to replace Biden at the top of the ticket…
— Joseph A. Wulfsohn (@JosephWulfsohn) July 12, 2024
Meanwhile, Axios is reporting *this morning* how Dems are secretly plotting to replace Biden at the top of the ticket.
Unreal. pic.twitter.com/MPhKFHtvtS
WOWSAHS
The fever dreams media will happily indulge in and the lengths they will go to as they work their way back in a full-circle jerk to "Biden's our guy!" are something to behold.
For years, far-right commentators have floated a conspiracy theory that Democratic Party elites were secretly plotting to replace President Biden on the ticket — a switcheroo that could give the party an advantage in November.
Suddenly, Mr. Biden being replaced by another Democrat as the party’s presidential nominee seems like a distinct possibility.
There is no evidence that the chaotic events following June’s debate were planned or that Mr. Biden’s halting performance was intentional. But the crisis over his candidacy has right-wing influencers heralding the moment as a conspiracy theory turned true.
“It was their final opportunity to toss the old man to one side, as I’ve been saying for the entire last year and a half,” said Vivek Ramaswamy, the former Republican presidential candidate, in a podcast interview after the debate.
The NYT is readying the collective amnesia pill after last night, as I figured they might. Their front page is devoid of "Joe Must go" stories, with the exception of one about donors freezing campaign cash. There's little about Biden, in fact, except a carefully worded piece by their TV critic...
President Biden “was not the uncomfortable, lost presence of the debate, but he didn’t erase the memory of that version of himself either,” our chief TV critic writes about Thursday’s news conference. https://t.co/LgqeIkGFfs
— The New York Times (@nytimes) July 12, 2024
...who concludes:
...But it is not the kind of TV you want to star in as a candidate. Mr. Biden’s debate performance created a context in which the theme of every unscripted appearance is now, “What could go wrong this time?” So far he has survived. But each time, he is like a game-show contestant going double-or-nothing on the brink of elimination.
He made it through another round. The show goes on. We still await the final answer.
Sounds like a sigh of resignation, which is halfway to collective amnesia.
If he survives another week, it'll be like anything they ever said about the debate never happened.
I'm sorry, David. Snek meets tail yet again.
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