There are unscripted (or fairly unscripted) political moments that come up during campaigns that are especially revealing. Most of the time, these moments reveal the dark side of the candidate.
But, there are other instances when the candidate’s true decency and character come through.
This occurred when President Biden visited Milwaukee last week and spoke with a boy, Harry, about his stutter.
In the video, the President encouraged the boy, saying “Don’t let anybody tell you that you can’t do anything. You can do whatever you want to do…You’re smart. You’re handsome. You know what you’re doing. Don’t let anybody tell you you’re not. You can do anything.”
The President also recalled to Harry and his mother how he met an older boy, 13-year-old Brayden Harrington, with a stuttering condition on the 2020 campaign trail. He gave that child similar words of encouragement and invited the other boy to watch Mr. Biden write a speech.
Pulling out the speech he delivered in Milwaukee that day, he showed Harry how he writes marks in his speeches to pause so he could control his own stutter.
The end of the video shows Harry thanking the President.
Now, while this video was certainly well organized, there is no denying that the President’s genuine decency, encouragement, competence, and good character came through in this largely unscripted encounter.
For people who are still unsure about Joe Biden, watch this and ask yourself who you want in the White House for the next four years.
Do you think the other guy, the one who thinks Hitler did some good things, would take the time to comfort and encourage a child with a stutter?
Come on.
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I truly hate to say this, but any halfwit in marketing can make a heart rending ad.
It’s not is Joe a good guy, can he win, or can he do the job, it’s what happens if something happens to him.
We seem to have learned NOTHING from RBG.
Thanks to RBG, a timid and incompetent DNC, the greedy MSM, and HRC, we lost Roe, and now we have a SCOTUS that doesn’t seem real keen on protecting democracy because of it.
Getting strong 2016 “we won’t lose to this guy” vibes.
The Koch’s started their grift in 1980 and it’s paid over year after year since. Fox News has been slamming Kamala Harris since day one.
They plan ahead, they have no morals, and they don’t care what they need to do to gain power.
I hope the DNC is thinking.
That’s the whole sentence, to be clear.
POTUS is about more than just one dude and the next election.
Maybe they can start planning ahead for 2028 and giving us someone to vote for, instead of relying on the other guy being a con man.
If it must be Joe, at least be ready, just in case.
Please.
“I truly hate to say this, but any halfwit in marketing can make a heart rending ad.”
Yeah, just a matter of time before we’re watching Joe being surrounded by Goldendoodles visiting sick children at St. Jude’s.
I wonder how effective this is, the heart rending ads.
We’re being asked to compartmentalize our feelings. Here’s this good, decent, kind man being empathetic with a child who stutters. The same man who enabled the slaughter of 30K+ Palestinians. I’m supposed to forget that when I look at this ad?
No, I remembered another kid. Just a couple of days into the Israel/Gaza conflict I read about a 12 yr old Palestinian boy who was killed. What stood out was that this kid was known to be very bright, loved YouTube, had his own channel. He thought he had a future. Never expected that his short life would end as collateral damage.
So, I can’t be reached because I can’t compartmentalize. Electing a president really should be about more than weighing the bad against the good and trying to guess which way the scale tips.
Biden did not cause or enable the death of 30,000 Palestinians. Hamas did with their terrorist attack on 10/7 and their refusal to surrender and save their people when the Israelis offensive began. Of course, Hamas has a history of hiding behind the innocent populace of Gaza, using them as shields and pawns so historical and political illiterates in this country and around the world will give them, the terrorists, a PR victory when they are the ones that brought on this carnage. I am also thinking of children Liza. The Palestinian ones should not needlessly suffer. But also the Israelis ones that were massacred and are still being held hostage by Hamas and their confederates for almost six months. Did you compartmentalize that? Why aren’t you calling for Hama’s surrender Liza. Why aren’t you calling for them to do the right thing by their people. From day one, Biden and his team warned Israel to take a different approach in their self defense. Never did they say or approve of 30,000 casualties. Do you have a source from reality that says Biden willingly enabled this. You know who does approve of the 30,000 casualties? Hamas and the right wing lunatics in the Israelis Government that this Administration and allies like Chuck Schumer wish would leave.You really need to get better informed, Liza. Believing what you do is dangerous and only helps the elements wanting to make this nation an authoritarian state like MAGA-Trumpists.
FFS, we can be against what Israel is doing and Hamas at the same time.
Israel funds Hamas. I dunno’, maybe they should stop? Maybe decades ago?
Knowing history doesn’t help, because both sides have been murdering each over whose imaginary sky daddy is bigger since forever.
Wasn’t Israel created by terrorists bombing stuff?
Bibi has even stated publicly that not even the Hague will stop them, so oh well, I guess war crimes are cool now.
The human shield stories are mostly BS, used to cover up slaughtering children. There’s very little evidence. You hear about it all the time but seldom see evidence.
It’s wartime PR.
To counter Liza a little bit, Biden is sending in food and medical supplies by airdrop, Berlin style. That should tell you a lot about Biden, and about what Israel is doing.
They’re starving out an entire population. What a horrible way to die. JFC.
There are no good guys on either side, only assholes and innocent children, and for every single person BiBi blows up, he creates a dozen new terrorists.
So hundreds of thousands by now.
Stupid plan if you planning on peace someday. Which he’s stated he’s not.
Some of us just don’t want to be part of the things turning those innocent children into bloody piles of meat. Israel is a very wealthy country, they don’t need our money (actually bombs and missiles making defense contractors richer and not cash) to defend themselves.
Maybe if we stop funding them we’d care less. I mean it’s not like there aren’t a hundred other wars going on at the same time.
Oh, never mind, lots of those are in Africa, so you know…do they have any oil?
As far as helping MAGAts, I’d say Bibi is very Trump-like. He’s corrupt and a liar, and I know you don’t support him, but saying being against this war is akin to helping MAGAts is a long, long stretch.
Should the people in Gaza have kicked out Hamas? Are they to blame, too? If so, then so are the people who voted in Netenyahu.
I hope when this is all over, in say, a few thousand years, we’ll all still be friends.
I believe Biden is doing the best he can in a nearly impossible situation. At least he’s doing something (food airdrops & ultimately enabling more humanitarian support with building that pier on the sea side of Gaza) to support Palestinians. At this point he should also cut off all arms shipments & tell Netanyahu he’s on his own. (Yeah AIPAC & Putin Repugs will scream & rend their garments but you know what? F**k them!)
I think we can all agree that Hamas, Netanyahu & Likud all need to be shown the door to the dustbin where they all belong.
I can go with that.
Let me guess, David. You weren’t selected for the high school Debate Team.
Ad hominem attacks and proclaiming to have intellectual and moral superiority is not supportive of a good argument.
Okay Liza but why do you not answer the questions I put forth?
David, just looking back on the post WWII 20th century, I don’t think there is an instance where terrorists have achieved their long term goals. Yet terrorism continues to get worse. Remember Ramzi Yousef the original World Trade Center bomber who inspired Osama Bin Laden to go for high body counts? And OBL declaring citizens to be legitimate targets?
It will take many years before unbiased historians write the story of Hamas and why they believed a brutal attack on Israel with a high body count would further their long term goals. To my way of thinking, provoking the inevitable and disproportionate response was
a very, very bad idea.
Touching doesn’t come close to the message in that video. A large part of the problem in the US is testosterone driven. Showing kindness, compassion, empathy and, even, warmth is considered weak.
I thought Biden might show a bounce in the polls after his SOTU speech, but it seems that isn’t happening.
Trump vs. Biden Polls: No State of the Union Bounce for Joe
By Ed Kilgore
“But while the State of the Union did wonders for Democratic optimism, there’s simply not much evidence that it changed many minds about Joe Biden’s job performance or flipped many votes from Republican to Democrat.
The president’s job-approval ratings remain subpar. In the RealClearPolitics polling averages, Biden had a 39.2 percent approval rating on March 7 and a 39.8 percent rating eight days later. In the FiveThirtyEight polling averages, Biden’s approval actually dropped slightly from 38.1 percent on March 7 to 38.4 now.”
https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/trump-vs-biden-polls-state-of-the-union.html
Actually going from 38.1 to 38.4 is a slight increase.
In the 538 model Biden’s approval/disapproval has been moving back and forth within a couple of percentage points for a long time. His 38.1 up to 38.4 is not exactly a bounce.
What is actually more worrisome on 538 are the recent state polls. Trump is leading slightly in AZ, GA, MI, and even PA.
Maybe it’s time to make sacrifices to the mountain spirits and pray to Pachamama and the Virgin Mary or whatever Deity one prefers. This cannot be our fate.
My one and only suggestion is that AZ Democrats get behind Gallego’s Senate race in a big way, generate some excitement and turn out young voters more likely to vote for Biden.
https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/polls/president-general/2024/pennsylvania/