Publicity is the oxygen of politics.
If a politician does something good, but there's no publicity, so no one hears about it, did it really happen? And can they ever hope to get reelected?
Some elected officials go about their work and let the world take note of any accomplishments. Some tout their work when a job is done. Some horn in on good work done by others and try to suck off some of the credit. I ran into one of them during my years in politics. Shameless.
Others make a big deal out of what they want others to do. Or what they're really, positively going to do for sure down the road a bit. It sounds good, and they hope folks forget about it when they show up late and don't deliver. Or screw it up.
We are living through one of the latter right now. Government by photo op.
Someday, Joe Biden's picture will be in the dictionary next to the definition for Screw-up. Virtually everything the former county councilman does or tries to do or fails to do somehow gets, well, screwed up.
Five trillion in new spending to blindly satisfy his progressive posse launched the worst wave of inflation in the second half of Biden's 81-year life. Finally, U.S. troops were scheduled to leave Afghanistan. But Biden changed the date three times, ignored Pentagon advice, and turned it into a chaotic, lethal mess.
Biden also felt the need to cancel much of his predecessor's actions. So, he opened the Mexican border to illegal immigrants, now totaling nearly 10 million. Biden also ended the hard-won U.S. energy independence and has been selling off the nation's oil reserve but not refilling it, as he had promised.
You get the picture. They say if you can't do something, you teach it. Joe Biden hasn't done much creditworthy, so he talks about it. He's a big fan of the photo op. And the people who tell the president what to do also tell a band of White House minions to put out a steady stream of empty — and often silly — Joe Biden statements and proclamations.
That's the topic of this week's audio commentary. Prepare to chuckle.
Or shake your head.
Or both.
This week's Sunday column examined what Donald Trump and Biden need to do in this cycle's first nationally televised debate on Thursday.
I'm betting the current president, who turns 82 this fall, will be as thoroughly juiced as he clearly was for his State of the Union Address in March. He needs to counter the accurate image of his obvious physical and mental decay since he took office 41 long months ago.
Unfortunately, Trump has yielded to the temptation to portray many of Biden's worst mental moments instead of building up his opponent as an excellent, experienced debater to be respected. This has set the bar pretty low for Biden and his sycophantic media to try to defuse widespread concerns about his ability to be president until 2029.
That's a chilling thought. As is the potential replacement by his handpicked vice president, who was not selected for her intelligence, mental acuity, or speaking skills. I guess that also goes into the Screw-up file.
My RedState colleague Bob Hoge has an interesting take here on the New York Times' plan to fact-check the debate participants' claims on national TV. You might be able to guess which candidate, who is Republican, will get the most rigorous attention.
The most recent audio commentary looked at the little-noticed political turmoil within our important European allies as we remain focused on ourselves, as usual.
Don't forget to leave your own Commentaries below.
