First up, I need to stress how impressed Socotra Publishing was with Mr. Biden’s performance yesterday. That is sincere, and not some set-up to a bad joke. The Press Conference was a big deal, and it went well. There were those who were whispering that it would devolve into some sort of mass melt down that would end the regime. The slip on the stairs going up to Air Force One was one of the things that set the expectations for possible disaster.
The disloyal opposition maintained the leader of the Free World could not handle some tough questions about multiple policies that do not seem to make a great deal of sense. Accordingly, I was alert and my medication was precise enough to be alert to see it. So, as I said, it was well-done, and I was proud the people who set it up did it pretty well. The President seemed able to understand the thrust of the questions, and did not mix up his prepared answers.
It anyone wants to contrast that with a Winston Churchill moment, of course that will fall a bit short. But it worked. The Press Conference lasted a couple minutes over an hour, and while his answers did not make a great deal of sense, they were in order. When he was done, he abruptly announced, “Folks, I’m goin’ ” and departed.
I like these kind of events, and I further like to see how it was done. The buzz that followed was a mix of gas-lit praise and dark speculation. If you start with the idea that our President arose that morning, got a shower and shaved before a quick breakfast and on-the-fly updates as he donned a neat, well-tailored suit and thought through what might be happening in the afternoon, then you might be a bit disappointed.
If, on the contrary, you thought that he instead was carefully raised from somnolence, appropriately medicated and groomed for a set-piece presentation you might be closer. What happened after that was to make a carefully scripted event appear to be an actual event with random and possibly pointed questions about things that do not seem to make a great deal of sense. That his answers did not seem to make sense is irrelevant and was not the point.
The sense of time distortion was inevitable, since the script was set before other breaking events. One of those things was the latest muted story about his son, Hunter. There was something about lying on the Federal Background Check about purchasing a legal pistol. The pistol in question wound up in a trashcan. It seems to be part of the same pattern of things like missing laptops and lapses of judgement that have been known for a while, but thankfully, despite the current hysteria about toughening gun laws for law-abiding citizens while ignoring the antics of the Presidential family, the matter did not come up.
So, watching the event was useful. I don’t know how many people were assigned to make it all work and what they did. Only parts of it were disclosed, like the call-order and the questions. Setting was important. If you saw it, the usual place for the Chief Executive is behind a podium in front of the door to the right of the long room. Normally, it is packed with reporters. This one was staged differently. The President was behind a podium, but near the windows on the far end of the room with a small number of reporters separated by an extensive social spacing. That is explained, of course, by the plague emergency. The editorial staff was split on watching while masked, so we understand.
The President has been vaccinated, of course, and I have no doubt all the reporters present were as well. But “framing” is important, and the optics, while a little strange, were explained by the continuing emergency.
We could not see what the President had with him, but after-the-fact imagery showed what he had. It appeared to be a double-sheet filled with images of reporters faces, with circled numbers next to them. If this has been done before, it was more clandestine. But it suggests that there was a predetermined order of reporters to be called upon, and in another post-facto image, we could see the scripted answers on longer sheets that the President read in response to scripted questions.
I have no problems with that- lot of issues, lot of possibilities. But the idea that this was an actual question-and-answer session is clearly false. And the answers, when they came, lacked much in the way of specifics. That too is expected, like calling the United States “86th” in global infrastructure. I checked while watching, and he got around to the right answer about the same time I did. “13th” is a commonly cited number.
I don’t know what means was used to communicate to Mr. Biden outside of what was permitted to be shown. I assume it is some sort of ear-bud. At one question, the President paused, looking blankly forward for five or six seconds. It seemed to me that someone helped hi with what to do, and with a smile, he was able to continue with a jumble of happy images of courageous children trekking across vast deserts, and moral just people welcoming them in their quest for freedom.
So, I was not disappointed. I think we got a clue about how hard it is to get one of these demonstrations together. Word spread on Monday that a “lid” was placed on his schedule last Monday at one-fifteen, the same time the Press event was scheduled yesterday. There is no direct connection, except to marvel at the coincidence in timing, and assume it was part of the rigorous preparation. That obviously may include medication to help sharpen the President’s acumen at the crucial moment, and there are consequences to that sort of regimen. But it worked this time.
Screen Shot 2021-03-26 at 10.19.06 AM.png
When I saw the pictures this morning, I laughed. The little thumbnails next to the names and the circled numbers were of bare-faced journalists, and of course they were actually all masked. They kept them on while asking their questions, which muffled them from the microphones to the audio, and must have been confusing for the President. Thankfully, both questions and answers were written down for the man on camera, and it came off pretty well. Mr. Biden has a long history of drift in his responses, but things like where we are on infrastructure, when the current filibuster practice was adopted in the Senate and what month illegal border crossings surge go by the board.
So, my praise to Mr. Biden for getting through it, and a note of congratulation to those who spent the week attempting to get him ready for it. The other question is still hanging this morning. If it took this much effort to do a simple press event, what on earth does it take to make actual policy decisions? And who is making them?
Copyright 2021 Vic Socotra
www.vicsocotra.com