“We love you, Joe, but…”: Hollywood’s advice to President Biden

There is something to be said for ignoring actors. They literally take on roles, cloak themselves in scripts that create personalities, and behave accordingly. Since they are paid liars, their political promptings should be treated with caution. It is no accident that the same can be said about members of Congress.

With the US president no longer exercising his office in twilight but in rapidly approaching darkness, the recent intervention by Hollywood grandee and Democratic benefactor George Clooney has led to increasing sniggering about Joe Biden’s electoral prospects.

By choosing the New York Times To underscore his point, Clooney spoke of his love for Biden mixed with fear of political realities. “With this president, we will not win in November.” He wished Democrats would “stop telling us that 51 million people did not see what we just saw,” referring to Biden’s disastrous performance in the first debate against Donald Trump. “We are so terrified by the prospect of a second Trump term that we have chosen to ignore every warning sign.”

There were also many personal reflections on Biden’s recent behavior. At a Hollywood fundraiser co-hosted by both, held at the Peacock Theater over three weeks ago, Clooney found “not the Joe Biden of 2010. He wasn’t even the Joe Biden of 2020.”

There is also a lot of talk about the Democratic establishment. After talks with Democratic representatives – Clooney does not reveal how many there are – the broad consensus was clear: Biden’s candidacy is a liability in all political races. “We will not win the House of Representatives, and we will lose the Senate.”

The dire assessment is inevitable: “Most of our members of Congress prefer to wait and see if the dam breaks. But the dam has broken. We can bury our heads in the sand and pray for a miracle in November, or we can tell the truth.”

Others in the film industry are also making suggestions that sound like the motto “I love you, but go.” Director Robert Reiner made an unimpressive statement on social media: “We love and respect Joe Biden. We appreciate everything he has done for our country. But democracy is facing an existential threat. We need someone younger to fight back. Joe Biden must resign.”

As expected, there were also suggestions from the acting community on how Biden could do better from a purely superficial point of view to satisfy the viewers and spectators who are fascinated by the bloody sport of a US presidential election campaign. Michael Douglas, for example, had his own bite of The view about how the debate with Trump should have gone. “First of all, they should have just told the president to stand up, put on some makeup for the debate and then where to look.” Biden should – and here the jaw drops – not have own Facts – “Just deal with (Trump’s) lies.” That’s acting.

After all that was settled, Douglas still had to admit he was “deeply concerned” as he looked at the “large bench” of “heavyweights and talent” on the Democratic side. (Please name names.) Clooney had made “a valid point” in his argument for a replacement.

Not that we should assume all of these figures feel the same way. Eternally committed activist Jane Fonda, in a comment last month, opined that age might actually work in Biden’s favor. In a remark to Wolf Blitzer on CNN, Fonda noted that she is “older than him. And I’m all for age. I can tell you that you get wise and you learn things that you learn from your mistakes. And I’ve known him up close and personal and he’s OK.” The incumbent is accordingly “perfectly suited to be President of the United States, I don’t know if he is, or despite his age he’s just OK.”

Given this extremely distorted analysis, we know that anyone can be president, regardless of their mental deficiencies. Fittingly, Whoopi Goldberg openly declared that she would vote for the president even if “he shit his pants. I don’t care if he can’t put a sentence together. Show me he can’t do the job, and I’ll say, OK, maybe it’s time to go.” The bar for presidential politics is really low.

Clooney’s scrawl exposed the tricky situation the Democrats have created for themselves. The issue of Biden’s condition was already covered at length last year, but the men and women of the party would have no qualms about considering his replacement. So late in the day, these slightly condescending comments from Clooney (of the “love you, Joe” variety) showed that the Democrats have abused their elderly relative by initially supporting him, only to publicly withdraw their blessing when the show started to get boring. They were good for the laughs; time to go home.

As a result, Biden has become a victim of widespread elder abuse, whether in the form of prolonging his suffering as a candidate – dishonest or not – or calls for his immediate resignation. Whether he shits his pants or not, he is proving on the international stage that his brain functions are irreparably damaged.

His most recent slip-up and mental weakness: At the NATO summit in Washington, he confused Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky with Russian President Vladimir Putin. In another slip-up, he referred to Vice President Kamala Harris as “Vice President Trump.”

Those who live in the dream factory that is Hollywood can at least take some comfort in these performances. A CNN report, citing an anonymous White House source, makes the delicious observation that the president’s “entire performance is a kind of act.” Unfortunately, even for those in the land of actors, it’s not even good.