Joe Biden's inability to effectively communicate is going to cost him the election.
The president can't explain his thinking to the public.
Axios is reporting this morning on a Harvard poll with (even more) bad news for President Joe Biden’s reelection campaign. Despite Donald Trump’s past support for right-wing Israeli priorities, including settlements, young people — who are overwhelmingly opposed to the Israeli government’s actions in Gaza — trust Trump (29%) more than Biden (25%) to manage the current Israel-Hamas war.
I suspect the polling — with 44% trusting neither individual — reflects anger with the incumbent about the distressing images emerging from Gaza, but perhaps also idealization of the relatively peaceful — yes, I know, I’m being generous — Trump term, at least in terms of foreign wars.
What could Biden do about it? Talking to the country would be a good place to start. He could stop hiding from journalists and, given the scale of the crisis in the Middle East, hold a lengthy East Room press conference. Like normal presidents do, Biden could walk down the corridor, enter the East Room, stand behind a podium, and try to offer some reassurance to the public — especially the young people abandoning him over the conflict — about humanitarian aid entering Gaza and actions he’s taking to promote peace in the region and restrain the right-wing Israeli prime minister. This is the bare minimum that citizens expect of their head of government during troubled times.
(Given widespread public anger over the economy and inflation, this would also be an opportunity for Biden to display empathy about the struggles working-class Americans are facing with rising prices and, perhaps, even (accurately) place some blame on Trump stimulus spending and policies for inflation.)
Why doesn’t he do this? Look at this video from 2016 of Biden meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Listen to him speaking. Can Biden speak with this kind of coherence and clarity today?
Compare Biden above to Biden a few weeks ago in San Francisco at the APEC summit.
It is remarkable to reflect on how much Biden has changed from 2016 to 2023. Despite being a little older than Biden, has Bernie Sanders’ ability to communicate deteriorated as much? I would say no.
As president, Biden is inevitably making hard, controversial, and complicated decisions — about war and peace, the economy, and all manner of things. It’s normal that some people — young and old, Black and white, Catholic or Muslim — are going to be mad about some of those decisions. What’s not normal is the inability — or unwillingness? — of the president to speak with journalists and voters to address concerns and defend his thinking, defend the choices of his administration.
Statistician Nate Silver recently wrote that if Biden can’t run a normal campaign, he should step aside. Given Biden is not running a normal White House right now, it’s brazenly obvious that he won’t be able to run a normal campaign next year. Biden’s inability to communicate with the public right now is already damaging his electoral prospects for next year, despite the fact general election campaigning hasn’t even commenced yet.
Revisit above how much Biden’s ability to communicate deteriorated from 2016 to 2023. In 2023, Biden’s diminished speaking ability is clearly a problem — he can’t or won’t speak to the public about his own decisions. How much more worse will things be next fall? For an 81-year-old man, a lot can change in a year.
The ability to communicate with clarity, coherence, and energy is a basic requirement of the presidency. Biden obviously lacks that ability and it’s already costing him dearly.