Pro tip for Barack Obama: I know it’s been a while since you’ve hit the campaign trail in earnest, but it helps if you don’t contradict yourself in pitching for your preferred candidate.
I know, this sounds like rookie advice. However, Obama isn’t used to a media landscape where people bother to, you know, check him on his facts. Back when he was running for president or running the country, maybe that seems sane. In an election cycle where his initial preferred candidate — at least, so he said — for president was forced to step aside after a June debate proved beyond all reasonable doubt that he was mentally infirm, not so much.
Now, Obama is touring the country with a new message: OK, so now that we’ve switched candidates, the other guy is mentally infirm.
It’s unclear who is going to be swayed by this. In front of a simpatico crowd in Madison, Wisconsin — where he and vice presidential candidate Tim Walz encouraged people to vote — Obama got plenty of laughs speculating on the mental well-being of former President Donald Trump.
“There are questions about his competence,” Obama told the crowd.
“He’s out there giving two-hour speeches, it’s like Fidel Castro, he just keeps on talking. It’s just word salads.”
He went on to pick on — again — an Obama town hall meeting earlier this month in which, after a series of medical emergencies delayed the proceedings, Trump danced to music until it came to a close.
“I’ve done my share of town hall meetings,” Obama said. “My experience is, the goal of the town hall meeting is you meet with your constituents, with citizens, with voters.”
“He decided, no, I’m not going to answer questions anymore, let’s just play music for a half an hour,” he went on to claim. “So he’s standing there, swaying to ‘Ave Maria,’ ‘YMCA,’ and the governor of South Dakota [Kristi Noem], she’s standing their with this weird look on her face, like she doesn’t really know what’s going on.”
Should Obama stay out of politics?
“She’s like — it’s like a hostage video,” he continued. “Can you imagine if Tim did that or Kamala did that or I did that? Now, our playlist would be better, but you would say to yourself, ‘This is odd behavior.’”
Kind of odd dissing “Ave Maria” after Kamala Harris skipped the Alfred E. Smith Memorial Dinner roast in New York City, a major Catholic event that usually draws both candidates in an election year, but I digress.
“My point is, you’d be worried if grandpa was acting like this, right?” Obama continued. “You’d call up your brother, you’d call up your cousins, you would say, have you noticed?”
“But this is coming from somebody who wants unchecked power,” he continued.
“So Wisconsin, we do not need to see what an older, loonier Donald Trump looks like with no guardrails. America is ready to turn the page.”
Barack Obama, who repeatedly told Americans Biden was fit to be President, goes after Trump’s age: “You’d be worried if Grandpa was acting like this.” pic.twitter.com/hj2o25EAmP
â Breaking911 (@Breaking911) October 22, 2024
The problem with this one? Well, this was the guy who was cosigning Joe Biden’s re-election campaign up until and after the June 27 presidential debate which put into motion the series of events that led to Vice President Kamala Harris being elevated to the Democratic nominee.
Making fun of old people is a bad look for the Democrats
â Paul A. Szypula ðºð¸ (@Bubblebathgirl) October 22, 2024
Oh, really, Obama? You mean like how Bidenâs totally sharp and spry, right? Because watching him stumble through speeches and forget where he is clearly shows weâre in great hands. And as for âunchecked power,â maybe you should look at your own administrationâs weaponization ofâ¦
â MAGð«1775ðºð¸ (@Mar50cC5O) October 22, 2024
Yet he said nothing when Joe was wandering off in foreign countries.
â Mad Bull America (@america_mad) October 22, 2024
And let’s just make it clear: In the immediate aftermath of the ultimate “Grandpa, are you OK?” moment of 2024, he tried to run damage control for Biden, waving off any concept of his obvious mental diminution.
“Bad debate nights happen. Trust me, I know. But this election is still a choice between someone who has fought for ordinary folks his entire life and someone who only cares about himself. Between someone who tells the truth; who knows right from wrong and will give it to the American people straight â and someone who lies through his teeth for his own benefit,” he wrote immediately after the debate.
“Last night didnât change that, and itâs why so much is at stake in November.”
Bad debate nights happen. Trust me, I know. But this election is still a choice between someone who has fought for ordinary folks his entire life and someone who only cares about himself. Between someone who tells the truth; who knows right from wrong and will give it to theâ¦
â Barack Obama (@BarackObama) June 28, 2024
Now, it’s perfectly reasonable to expect that he’s going to be for whatever Democrat is running and against whatever Republican is running, but you can’t just claim that what everyone saw on TV was just a “bad debate night” like the one off night he had in 2012 against Mitt Romney, which he was (one assumes) referring to here — a debate during which Obama looked like a combination of Cincinnatus and Cicero compared to Biden’s doddering, frightful performance in June — and then say that Donald Trump is mentally infirm.
If former President Obama really did have concerns about a doddering “grandpa,” he should have spoken up long before the Democrats began their nominating process. He didn’t speak then; he should forever hold his peace, lest we remember who he previously endorsed and the shape that individual was in when he endorsed him.
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