Could ‘Sleepy Joe’ be lulling Americans into voting for boredom instead of volatility?

Is Joe Biden up to it? Conrad Black, American Greatness, Monday:

The final stage of the election campaign and its result will depend on management of the balance between demand for police reform and concern for the maintenance of public order … the swiftness of the economic recovery; and the resolution of questions about Joe Biden’s capacity. 

Boring and sleepy an asset? Keith Naughton, The Hill, Wednesday:

As juvenile as they may be, taunts and epithets can be effective in political campaigns … For Donald Trump, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. So, he is at it again smearing Biden with the moniker “Sleepy Joe”. The problem for Trump is that “Sleepy Joe” is not an insult — it’s a compliment. For Biden and the Democrats, boring and sleepy is an asset.

All his own work? Lili Loofbourow, Slate, Wednesday:

There was one other unexpected casualty of that 1987 presidential campaign dominated by the politics of character: Joe Biden. He was forced to end his first presidential campaign after he was found to have copied parts of a speech by British politician Neil Kinnock, even appearing to claim details from Kinnock’s life story as his own. He was also found to have borrowed bits of speeches from Robert Kennedy and Hubert Humphrey, and to have improperly footnoted an assignment in law school.

Daily Mail, Thursday:

Trump claimed Joe Biden was staying in his basement — only to tweet footage showing the Democratic presidential candidate out on the campaign trail in Pennsylvania a few minutes later.

Superficial? Nik DeCosta-Klipa, Boston.com, Wednesday:

Harvard professor Laurence Tribe apologised for his “choice of words”, suggesting that Joe Biden picking a black running mate over Elizabeth Warren would amount to a superficial choice. Tribe was one of more than 100 supporters of Warren who signed a letter to Biden last week, urging him to chose the populist Massachusetts senator to be his potential vice-president.

Lesser of two evils. Nolan Finley, The Detroit News, Wednesday:

We can agree that Trump falls well short of being a great leader. But Trump’s bad doesn’t make Biden good. If the best you can say about the former vice-president is that he’s better than Trump, it’s not a soaring case for his election. Many of us will find ourselves in the same place we were in 2016, forced to hold our noses and pick the lesser of two evils.

Biden’s gut punch. Miranda Devine New York Post, May 24:

Joe Biden’s disastrous interview with black radio host Charlamagne Tha God encapsulates everything that is wrong with the Democratic Party and its presidential hopeful. “If you have a problem figuring out whether you’re for me or Trump, you ain’t black,” Biden blurted out at the end of the interview. It was a statement so staggeringly, primitively racist that it landed like a gut punch to many black Americans, of all political persuasions.

Brainfarts? Seth McLaughlin, The Washington Times, June 14:

Trump is convinced that Joe Biden has an achilles heel and it’s none other than Biden himself. Trump believes sunlight is the best disinfectant when it comes to denting Biden’s image … The more attention Biden gets from the media, the better the chances he will shoot himself in the foot with goofs, gaffes and brainfarts that could give voters pause.