For speeches where he’s looking into the camera instead of out to an audience, they have a teleprompter that is indeed right in the camera lens.
Biden has always stumbled over words since the beginning of his senate career (he had an early problem with studdering, and as someone who occasionally stumbles over words or overspeaks because I can’t get words out as fast as thoughts, I sympathize with trying to read from a teleprompter), and he’s never been a particularly dramatic speaker even in his early days. Even at that, he can speak in complete sentences and express comprehensible thoughts which puts him far ahead of his predecessor, notwithstanding that he communicates through normal channels rather than Twitter and random phone calls to Fox & Friends.
These things:
They can sometimes be difficult to read from, and because the text has to be large it scrolls quickly, which if you aren’t used to reading from a teleprompter can sometimes be difficult to follow. This has nothing to do with cognitive abilities or supposed ‘decline’; it is just getting into a flow of speaking without second-guessing or interrupting yourself. There is actually an episode of VEEP where Selina Meyer keeps reading an old version of a speech that was uploaded to the teleprompter, knowing that it was wrong but unable to stop, which was drawn from the experience of multiple politicians and pretty much everyone who has ever used a teleprompter can sympathize with.
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Not that I disagree with you but people like to see their leaders as being statesman and figureheads who make you feel good. Truly leading the nation, not just managing the government. I look back at Obama starting a chorus of Amazing Grace at the memorial service following a Church shooting. That touched so many people because their president is comforting, commemorating, bringing people together at a time of tragedy.
Well, given that Trump failed al of your above criteria, I’ll take the guy who occasionally stumbles over a word but expresses compassion, empathy, concern, humility, respect for both those who work for him and those who disagree with him, and a willingness to learn and consider various points of view. He is probably not the best president we could possibly have (I would still have preferred Elizabeth Warren but it seems that she was everyone’s second or third choice), but he’s certainly the best option of those choices that we did actually have, and shows every indication of being a competent, decent, respectful person in a position in which historically very few holders of that office have been.
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It was my understanding that he still has a problem with stuttering, so he always takes care to prepare for every speech. I don’t think the problem has gone away, he has just become better at managing it and one of those ways is to rehearse what he is going to say so it does not come out as simply reading something for the first time. How the words sound in your head is different enough from how they sound out loud that if you have not rehearsed, it can cause you to stumble even if you have everything memorized.
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You and I are on the same page regarding Biden.
My post was just in response to the point of why it is made a big deal about personality/communication skills because it impacts how the public perceive a leader. Jimmy Carter was probably the most honest president in modern history to the point he gave an entire address from the Oval Office talking about how things weren’t going well in America and how it will take sacrifices and self-reflection to overcome. It was a sermon which in hindsight if you watch back it is a really prophetic speech that people ought to have heeded but at the time it didn’t help the image of him being not big enough for the office. Whereas Reagan came in and swaggered about the American Dream and ‘shining city on the hill’ kind of rhetoric which made him really popular at the time whereas now there is a serious revaluation of the Reagan years.
This. One of my best friends was down on Biden because he lacked “charisma.” REALLY pissed me off! His experience trumps (gag-- excuse the expression) everything. Besides, in my world, competence is one the the most attractive (even sexiest) qualities a person can possess.
Naturally I agree with you 100%. But I’m surprised we haven’t heard from the Pubs yet on this topic.
Dang. I want one of those in my Christmas stocking Hanukah box this year!
Well, Joe certainly mastered it. His eyes did not waver. I never watch speeches (and I’m proud to say I did not watch even one of trumpy’s. The last time I heard his voice for more than a few seconds–while I reached for the mute button-- was when he debated Hillary), but I loved Joe’s speech. His sincerity, his caring, his commitment.
The post-speech reader comments in WaPo and NYTimes are heartening and uplifting. Along the lines of “So good to have a President again,” “Listening to a normal person speak is inspiring,” “A President who cares about us…” Good stuff.
Yeah, he’s gonna get a hard time, from Republicans and from progressive Democrats who want everything done yesterday, but I’m enjoying the afterglow today. I feel more hope than I have since Nov 2016 and a lot more than last March at this time.
Dear God, what we as a society/community have been through! Yikes. The Dope has helped me cope. Oooo… a t-shirt slogan: “Cope with The Dope!”
It’s not just political speeches. It’s pretty much any time someone is monologuing. If you watch the news, they are reading from a prompter, if you watch Colbert, he is reading from a prompter.
I’m sure it takes some skill, but the words are large enough, and positioned so that you don’t actually have to move your eyes to see them.
I thought he did well, both in content and in delivery. I noticed several times he leaned forward and seemed to be actually leaning on the podium, projecting particular earnestness.
And although he was far, far, far more truthful than his predecessor, it would be better still if he could be 100% so: Fact-checking Biden's first national address | CNN Politics
Charisma’s also a funny thing.
I mean, reputedly Trump’s got it. What he’s got for me is something like reverse charisma: he makes me want to back carefully out of the room, while being ready to run or dodge if needed. I don’t think it’s just his policies, either; I think it’s his manner.
I had a similar reaction to Bush Jr’s voice.
Disagree with the bolded - I can think of at least five or six candidates who would have turned out to have been a more effective chief executive.
Came here to post the NYT story, which looks kinda similar to this CNN one, yet, I don’t see any attributions.
“I’ve committed adultery in my heart many times. This is something God recognizes I will do – and I have done it – and God forgives me for it.” 
Heh - did I see Joe’s left eye slightly wander?
Well, that’s a hypothetical, and we can only guess at “what might have been,” but thus far, Biden has been far more progressive in both his appointments and his agenda, and more importantly, his primary focus has been on addressing the pandemic crisis and attendant economic distress, which is as much as anyone could ask. You may have preferred “at least ifve or six candidates” but unless you have some specific criticism of what Biden has done versus what Hypothetical Brand S would have accomplished it is hard to argue that the alternatives would have been better, and regardless, he’s certainly infinitely better than his predecessor just in recognizing that there is a crisis and allowing adults to run things instead of promoting his favorite doctor/conspiranoist/pillow salesman of the week.
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If I wasn’t feeling so darned lazy, I’d start a separate thread on this, comparing platforms, etc., specifically with Yang, Warren, Booker, Harris, Buttigieg, and Sanders (the last I’m still vacillating on) in relation to speculating what Biden might accomplish. Probably best not derail any further on it, here, I spose.
I used to think that Biden had oodles more bipartisan clout than any of them, but after the current (“moderate” - Romney, Murkowski!) Republicans’ inability to engage with good faith with JB in his first meeting with senators last Feb.1, I’m convinced JB will not, at all, have that avenue for ‘reaching out’.
I’m not a fan of Biden esp. in comparison to the people you mentioned, but my worst fear that he would just continue the awful war on terror policies we’ve had for 20 years or that he would think it was too politically toxic to fix Trump’s cruel border policies seem to have not come to fruition thus far.
Also there’s no way to repeat the experiment, but it’s possible that Biden is a “Nixon going to China” figure with getting people like Manchin to back a big reconcilliation bill that has everything it has in it.
Nor would “Yang, Warren, Booker, Harris, Buttigieg, and Sanders.”
My bold.
“More effective”?? Not a chance. Not to mention, JB has been President for FIFTY DAYS.
But you’re right. This belongs in its own thread, not here.
Well, just on a different subtopic for a change, I just found out that Jennifer Granholm is Biden’s Secretary of Energy. I continue to be impressed by this administration. She was a highly regarded two-term governor of Michigan (Canadian-born, BTW) stepping down only due to Michigan’s term limits. One might recall that under the orange shit-gibbon, the Secretary of Energy was Rick Perry, who once claimed in a presidential debate that it was one of the useless departments he would shut down, only at the time he couldn’t remember its name. It wouldn’t surprise me if he couldn’t remember its name even after he was running it.
Another Texan to be proud of. 
The only time I got an idea of Jennifer Granholm was whenever she was on Maher, and, yes, impressed is about the only word I can come up with. Reassuring to see the likes of her and Janet Yellin back in the ring.
He does have good hair, though.
‘Platforms’ are all well and good on the campaign trail, but as they say, “This here’s the fleet.” I know a lot of Sanders supporters believe that if only he were not cheated out of nomination elected he would wave his magic wand and enact all of the ideas he pledged on the campaign trail, but that is about as likely as invisible pink elephants pooping out rainbow sherbet for everyone to eat. The reality of governance is that the president has a limited set of powers and has to negotiate with the legislature to enact any permanent changes or budget issues. Not one other person in that group you list, other than Warren, actually has experience in enacting large scale changes at the federal level, while Biden had a ringside seat in legislative action for over three and a half decades of his senate career and eight years on the executive side where, unlike many vice presidents, he was active in the policy role of the White House under Obama. If there is anyone who has the practical experience in the complexities of getting a presidential agenda implemented in an adversarial and obstructionist environment, it is Biden, and thus far he has accomplished more in a shorter period of time than I think anyone really expected. Keeping that momentum going may be a challenge once the specter of the pandemic fades out, but then he’s made a good stab of mixing progressives with pragmatists in his cabinet picks, so he is clearly open to suggestions and action across the political spectrum.
There is no longer such a thing as ‘bipartisanism’ in modern US politics. Romney, Murkowski, Collins, et cetera–all of the quote-moderate-unquote Republicans–are being systematically sidelined by the GOP, and it wouldn’t surprise me if the GOP actually pits candidates against them in their next primary in the name of ‘ideological purity’ (such as it is). Biden has made a show of reaching out, and the Republican party has made it clear that anyone who responds with even mild engagement will be vilified and shit-listed. Biden’s big challenge is courting ‘moderate’ Democrats who can use the razor-thin Senate majority to advance their own agendas, and even if he could somehow get rid of Manchin and Sinema, he’d be facing potential Republican replacements (and will likely be facing a Republican-dominated Senate after 2022), which is no doubt advising his path of pushing action now. But again, he can’t wave a magic wand of executive authority and just implement whatever he sees fit; he has to get the votes, and that is not an easy task in this political environment.
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