Biden barely making it through the threshold was the worst-case scenario for Democrats

The bar could not have been lower, nor the stakes higher, for President Joe Biden than during his prime-time news conference Thursday night.

And even though he barely cleared the bar and likely lived to fight another day, the stakes for him and the nation remain just as high.

Sure, there have been missteps and gaffes. Even before the press conference, he introduced Ukrainian President Vlodomyr Zelenskyy as “President Putin” at a NATO event, and later, at the press conference, he confused his own Vice President Kamala Harris with Donald Trump. But on the scale of Biden’s blunders, these are just bumps in the road.

BIDEN SAYS “EITHER WAY” AT LEAST 9 TIMES DURING PRESS CONFERENCE

What was more troubling was the soft, whispery voice, the distant gaze that occasionally returned, the difficulty in finishing sentences and an awkward reference to first lady Jill Biden’s anger at him. Yet for Biden, these were not mind-blowing moments, like we saw in Atlanta two weeks ago.

So did Biden do enough to save his candidacy, or even his presidency, by standing alone at the podium, answering question after question about his mental and physical abilities?

President Biden was the target of mockery after accidentally referring to Ukrainian President Zelensky as “President Putin.” (Photo by Contributor/Getty Images | Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images | Photo by Bonnie Cash/Getty Images)

Rep. Jim Himes, a senior Connecticut Democrat on the Intelligence Committee, disagreed, posting on X minutes after the press conference that Biden should quit. But the honest answer to the question of whether Biden has righted the ship of his campaign is a disappointing “maybe.”

We now know that at least one conversation about Biden’s future took place between Barack Obama and Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic Party’s top brass. How impressed were they with Biden’s performance? It’s hard to say.

BIDEN AIDES AND DEMOCRATIC OFFICIALS PRIVATELY ADMIT ‘IT’S GOING TO GET WORSE’

The underlying problem has not been resolved, because there is every reason to believe that in the four months before Election Day, we could see the Joe Biden of the debate again, even if not at Thursday's press conference.

The Biden team certainly wants to believe that this event was a test that Biden passed and that we should all move on from this scandal. Yet there is very little chance of that happening, largely because Biden himself and his mental state remain at the center of the story.

It is telling, in fact, how little news the first solo presidential press conference in months produced about anything. other that the President's fitness to perform his duties, or his lack of fitness.

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Under normal circumstances, we would once again be talking about Biden throwing Israel under the bus by responding to a question about what he could have done differently in response to the Gaza conflict by saying he wished the Israeli war cabinet had listened to him more often.

But this ridiculous answer, like all the others he gave, was completely irrelevant. No one paid attention to the content of the words, but only to the ability of the President of the United States to pronounce them correctly in order.

The nation's political attention cannot focus solely on whether its most powerful leader is having a good day or a bad day. Not for the next four months, and certainly not for the next five years.

This is simply not sustainable. The nation’s political attention cannot be focused solely on whether its most powerful leader is having a good day or a bad day. Not for the next four months, and certainly not for the next five years. And yet, that is what we still face.

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For Democrats, it was arguably the worst performance Biden could have had. It wasn’t bad enough to open the floodgates of calls for his resignation, but it wasn’t bad enough to stop Americans wondering and worrying about the president’s health, either.

And so we are where we were before Biden spoke. Even if he has stopped the immediate bleeding, and it is not even entirely clear that he has, he is still deeply, if not mortally wounded politically.

Joe Biden’s stubborn response to growing concerns about his age and fitness has always been, “Look at me.” Well, Mr. President, we do. In fact, that’s all we look at, that’s all we can see, and there’s good reason to believe that will never, ever change.

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