Watching Joe Biden muff his lines, say the wrong thing and meander off point over the past few months has reminded me of Chauncey Gardiner in Being There. Like the brilliant Peter Sellers character, the Democratic Party nominee is vague and prone to banality yet his supporters and the media often see great wisdom in his words and respond with rapture.
Last week, when Biden gave his acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention, it was more like Weekend at Bernies than The Candidate. The former vice-president, who has been leaving home only for rare and tightly controlled events, turned up in an empty auditorium in his home state, read a script from a teleprompter, then waved to TV and online audiences before donning a mask and walking outside to watch some fireworks.
Contrived and controlled, the convention was largely “virtual” this year to avoid crowds gathering during the pandemic and protect the 77-year-old candidate from any risk of infection. Thanks to COVID-19, this convention was turned into a surreal piece of political theatre.
When Clint Eastwood used an empty chair as a prop during the 2012 Republican Convention, his many powerful political points were lost in an understandable howl of media derision. Yet last week, journalists praised politicians while they waved at non-existent audiences and pretended to recognise people on computer screens.
Much of it was cringeworthy. Hillary Clinton’s recorded message began with a howler. “After the last election, I said ‘We owe Donald Trump an open mind and the chance to lead.’ I really meant it,” she said, thereby pretending away the greatest political dummy spit in the history of the US.
Former first lady Michelle Obama sent a video message too. Imagine if she were on the Democratic ticket now. This election would be as good as over.
You cannot help thinking she is positioning herself for a tilt in the future. Still, after two terms in The White House, penning a best-selling memoir and launching a podcast, she was beamed to a prime spot during this political convention to endorse Biden and Kamala Harris and say “I hate politics”. Yep, politics has been cruel to her.
The point about this bizarre pantomime — this new genre of a computer-generated, unreality television — was that it received mostly gushing praise from an adoring media. In the US, and in most of the coverage back here, there was an absence of the world-weary scepticism and mocking tone that usually permeates political reporting and commentary.
Rather than pick apart this highly orchestrated event, expose the hypocrisy or highlight the paradoxes, the media coverage was just part of the show. For instance, when Michelle Obama said the problem with Trump is “he cannot be who we need him to be for us”, Frank Bruni observed in The New York Times that he wanted to “savour every word” from Obama because it “beautifully distilled what’s wrong with Trump”.
Four years ago, the former first lady famously said: “When they go low, we go high.” But this time her speech focused almost entirely on denigrating the incumbent. Still, CNN contributor Kate Andersen Brower typified the media adulation: “No other one, including Hillary Clinton, has spoken so passionately about unseating an incumbent. What Obama delivered was not just a speech, it was a desperate plea.”
As for Biden, if you were watching at home you might have rolled your eyes when the candidate either misread his lines or slurred his words so that at one crucial point we heard: “There has never been anything we’ve been able to accomplish when we’ve done it together.” Whoops.
Yet media assessments were almost universally exalting. CNN Host Wolf Blitzer said: “It may have been the best speech that Joe Biden ever delivered.” The station’s chief political analyst, Gloria Borger, said the same.
Political commentator Jennifer Granholm said she “could jump out of her chair” because this was “the best night for Joe Biden ever”. CNN anchors Don Lemon and Chris Cuomo, who, in a crowded field are leading Democrat cheerleaders and Trump antagonists, agreed with each other that Biden “came ready”. There was much talk of Biden “meeting” the moment.
The over-hyped reaction betrays the fear insiders must have harboured — that their candidate might be unable to walk onto a stage and read a teleprompter without a major gaffe. That journalists and commentators should accept such a low bar for a presidential candidate who has spent 50 years in politics is a worry.
That the bias and barracking should be so blatant is disturbing. Unusually, Biden and Harris have sat down for one set-piece interview since then on the American ABC network.
The extent to which Biden can expose himself to scrutiny and perform without major mistakes in interviews and presidential debates will define this campaign. If he can do that successfully, Trump might not be able to catch him. If he stumbles, his campaign could be derailed very quickly.
As frontrunner, Biden will look to minimise engagement, while Trump seeks to provoke and challenge as much as possible. The role of the media will be crucial. Will they push and prod, or simply attack Trump and laud Biden? I think we know the answer.
We will see this week in the media’s coverage of the Republican National Convention. These events are always ripe for ridicule, and my bold prediction is that while the media generally seemed to lose its cynicism and forget how to taunt politicians last week, they will rediscover their mocking mojo this week.
More Coverage
Aunty in race row with unionised staff
Hundreds of unionised ABC staff passed a resolution on Thursday demanding the national broadcaster acknowledge that Lebanese, Arab and Middle Eastern people can be subject to racial discrimination.
ABC, The Monthly scrub Pell story
News stories on the late Cardinal George Pell have been removed from the websites of the ABC and The Monthly amid concerns they could compromise an upcoming court hearing.