Joe Biden called a “lid” today, the 9th time since the beginning of September.
For those who aren’t as immersed in politics as this editor, a “lid” is called when there isn’t going to be press availability or any events scheduled for the candidate from the time it’s called until the next day.
Today’s excuse is debate prep. But what’s the excuse for the last 8? Joe himself said he hadn’t done any debate prep before today.
Charles CW Cooke over at National Review has some thoughts:
Those with suspicious minds have started to wonder if there is something wrong with Biden. Perhaps he is unable to work every day? Perhaps his schedule needs to be set up in such a way as it can be amended without notice? There are, of course, other explanations for Biden’s absence. It may be that he is determined to avoid contracting coronavirus, or that he has noticed that he’s winning from his redoubt and so wishes to avoid rocking the boat. Irrespective, the dynamic surely has to be worrying some observers. The dirty little secret of 2016 was that Donald Trump outworked Hillary Clinton. Trump held more rallies, visited more states, and made himself more available to the press. This worked. It could plausibly work again.
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I’m a little harsher in my analysis. Joe’s handlers know his decline is real. All of the “interviews” he’s done are tightly managed. His rallies and appearances are such that if they had to be cancelled at the last moment, nobody would notice.
Everything they do is designed to keep him out of situations where he could go off script. He’s been busted using a Teleprompter during interviews. His off-the-cuff comments are generally a mish-mash of word salad that make no sense to anyone.