Ed Rendell, former Pennsylvania governor and DNC chairman, defended Joe Biden against the negative attention the 2020 Democratic front-runner has been getting for his many recent misstatements, and argued that the average American is unfazed by gaffes from politicians.
Conceding that he is a Biden supporter, Rendell wrote, “I believe that the former vice president is a decent, honorable man who possesses the right values for America and cares deeply about all people,” and would “restore rationality and decency to the American presidency.” He nevertheless maintained that candidate preference had nothing to do with his op-ed entitled “No one cares about Joe Biden’s gaffes except media and politicos,” which was published Monday with The Hill.
Rendell said that members of the media and political junkies keep close track of every misstep from presidential candidates; but the average voter, he went on, are not paying such close attention. “Average Americans don’t think that what we insiders consider a gaffe truly is a gaffe — or they really don’t care whether candidates are prone to gaffes,” he wrote. He gave the examples of former Presidents Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush, both of whom were prone to verbal blunders, but still remained relatively popular.
Rendell then said that the American people understand that gaffes are “baked in” with who Biden is, and that they “see it as a reflection of his passion, emotion and the fact that he doesn’t utilize prepared remarks when speaking publicly. It actually makes him appear genuine, authentic.” Additionally, Rendell qualified that Biden’s mistakes “are not outright lies; they’re likely the result of a faulty memory or some confusion about the facts.”
Rendell’s arguments echo those of the Biden campaign itself, which recently disseminated an email that claimed “South Carolina Democrats not bothered by Joe Biden’s gaffes.” One voter quoted in the article dismissed Biden’s propensity to errors as “real, not scripted.”
Rendell then pivoted to attack President Trump for his gaffes, which he implied are evidence that Trump is both a liar and stupid. “If Biden becomes the Democratic Party’s nominee, let’s remember he would be running against a ‘Liar-in-Chief’ who probably makes misstatements two or three times a week, at least.” He then contrasted Biden’s “poor kids” flub with Trump mentioning airports during his Fourth of July speech about the Revolutionary War. “Though he blamed a broken teleprompter, we asked, is he the stupidest man ever to become President of the United State?”
Because Trump’s approval rating did not budge after that, Rendell argued, “gaffes simply don’t matter to the average voter.”
Rendell then closed out his column by exhorting his readers to remember that “we are gaffe-prone, too.”
Biden has raised eyebrows over the past few months as he has made repeated blunders on the campaign trail. His most recent conflation of several wartime stories led the Washington Post to report last week that “in the space of three minutes, Biden got the time period, the location, the heroic act, the type of medal, the military branch and the rank of the recipient wrong, as well as his own role in the ceremony.”
