🗳️ Coherence in politicians is overrated

A presidential debate scarier than The Silence of the Lambs. [View this email in your browser]( [READER Logo]( Daily Reader | July 2, 2024 Happy to say that the horror of last Thursday’s presidential debate fades a little with each passing day. I can sorta laugh about it. The key word in that sentence is “sorta.” It wasn’t like that in real time. Oh, no. Ten or so minutes into the debate and I bolted. I haven’t run away from horror like that since I dashed out of a movie theater because I was too scared to watch another minute of The Silence of the Lambs. Years ago, as I raced out of that theater, my wife asked (while eating buttered popcorn), “What’s the matter? Where ya going?” Obviously, a movie about a cannibal can’t scare her. In the case of the debate, my panic came after President Biden stumbled his way through a softball question about abortion rights. He tarted talking about reproductive rights and somehow ended up talking immigration. Still not sure how he got there. With that I fled. It was too agonizing to watch. It wasn’t just his incoherence or his slow, painful shuffle. Or his whispery voice. Or his vacant stare, with eyes half shut. It was the realization that if he didn’t improve—and there were no signs he would—the fascist would win. “I’m outta here,” I told my wife. This time she wasn’t so brave, saying, “Wait for me!” We headed to a nearby Korean restaurant, which we chose because it has no TV. Not that I stopped following the debate. While we wolfed down chicken bibimbap, I furiously texted friends who were still watching. “How’s Biden doing?” I texted. The responses were hardly reassuring. “We’re fucked.” “Please tell me this is just a bad dream . . .” “I’d vote for a corpse over Trump, but don’t make me.” “We’re so fucked!” My wife followed a live stream on her phone. At one point she said, “I think he’s doing better. His eyes are open.” Man oh man, the bar is low. When I got home, I turned on MSNBC to watch the post-debate analysis. The shell-shocked panelists (Joy Reid, Rachel Maddow, Chris Hayes, etc.) looked like they could use a stiff drink or two. “Don’t worry,” I texted my friends. Party leaders will come to their senses and realize they have to convince Biden to drop out of the race. “You watch,” I continued. Presidents Clinton and Obama will join Jill Biden to stage an intervention and break it to Joe directly. Like Barry Goldwater and other Republicans did with Nixon in the Watergate days. While I was texting, MSNBC cut to a Waffle House somewhere in Atlanta where Jill Biden was dragging Joe to a meet and greet with the people. “Didn’t he do great?!” she exclaimed. Oh, brother, what a couple. He’s incoherent and she’s delusional. I knew then and there there’d be no Goldwater-like intervention. It was way scarier than any horror movie, even The Silence of the Lambs. Well, folks, I’ll try to end on a positive note. All is not lost. Coherence in politicians is overrated, as we learned when Chicagoans elected Daley year after year, even though most of us couldn’t figure out what in the world he was saying. Maybe this year’s presidential will be the same. If not? It’s scarier than any movie. [Logo with text: The Ben Joravsky Show. 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