EDITORIAL: Biden's awkward delivery gets in way of message

Aug. 15—Anyone who supports President Joe Biden has to admit that his delivery of off-the-cuff remarks can be cringe-worthy at times. He tries to be an "aw-shucks" kind of politician who understands "real people," but he comes off as disingenuous and it's often hard to take him seriously. That's why he is regularly vilified and accused of being incompetent or senile by some politicians and media figures.

As the bad news about the economy continued to dominate headlines over the past couple of months, Biden's approval rating — even among Democrats — has been extremely low. But even with a series of political wins and economic numbers improving, his approval rating remains low. At least part of that has to do with how Biden talks about these issues. He sometimes can't articulate complex issues in a way that resonates with viewers or readers.

Frequently, members of his economic team will take to the stage, doing TV interviews and trying to explain that in fact, things are getting better. Those interviews, depending on who's speaking, can be quite effective. But it's always better to hear from the president himself.

It is well known that Biden, as a child, had a stutter. This could explain why he often speaks slowly and deliberately. But many view it as a weakness, particularly when compared to the bombastic former President Donald Trump or the smooth-talking former President Barack Obama.

Others equate Biden's problem with his age. At 79, he is already the oldest person ever to hold the office of president. In a second term, he'd be even older. Let's face it, our society is fixated on looking good, and being young, fit and cool. While Biden, in his aviators, tries to exude coolness, he more often than not sounds a little slow, a little lost and maybe a little out of touch with the world around him.

Yet, behind the scenes, and because he commands the respect of many world and national leaders, he has been quite effective at forwarding his agenda. Unfortunately, the news media is fixated on Trump's transgressions — whether it's the Jan. 6 committee hearings or the recent FBI raid on his Florida estate, Mar-a-Lago. Those issues get hours and hours of coverage and hundreds of inches of news stories, while many of Biden's political victories fade into the background.

Last week was a perfect example of this phenomenon. On Tuesday, Biden held a ceremony on the South Lawn of the White House to sign a bill that invests $53 billion into the semiconductor industry in a bid to compete with China and other Asian nations in manufacturing memory chips. The investment is expected to result in the creation of tens of thousands of jobs, while also making the United States less reliant on foreign countries for the valuable technology.

According to an account in the Los Angeles Times, "when the signing ceremony got underway, none of the major cable news networks carried it live, sticking with panel discussions about the Trump raid instead. But CNN and MSNBC cut live to the White House once Biden stepped to the lectern."

That, in a nutshell, is what's happening to Biden's message: It's getting overtaken by the news about the former president. And it's a shame. Voters, who will decide whether Congress is taken over by Republicans in November, aren't getting a full picture of what's going on. They are missing out on many of Biden's wins, like passage of a climate and health care bill, support for Ukraine's fight against Russia, lower gas prices, skyrocketing stock market numbers, record-high employment numbers, resilient consumer spending and the recent assassination of al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahiri.

If the Republicans win in November and Trump goes on to get re-elected in 2024, it would say a lot about this country and how people seem more interested in flashy "breaking news" coverage about the hijinks of the former president rather than finding out what the current president — as plodding and awkward as he is — is actually accomplishing.