Your Weekend Message From The Master (And Thee Master)

(Editor’s note: Charles Pierce writes daily at The Esquire Politics Blog at Esquire.com. He is an award-winning writer and author, most recently Idiot America. Every weekend, he sends out a weekly newsletter to subscribers, of which, I am one. From now through the election, I will post his weekend musings on here)

July 13, 2024

It has been an altogether dazzling month for public political cannibalism. Two weeks ago, the president of the United States gave a historically godawful performance in a debate against the former president*, who showed up wearing the impenetrable armor of complete mendacity. Not even Richard Nixon at his most lycanthropic lied the way the former president* lied in that debate. The former president* was the surviving embodiment of Mary McCarthy’s jab at Lillian Hellman — everything he said was a lie, including “and” and “the.” Yet, for two solid weeks — and for the foreseeable future, near as I can tell — the discussion of the campaign has centered on the current president*’s performance.

And that is the key word in this whole mess — “performance.” Biden’s first term was one of the most energetic and accomplished since Lyndon Johnson took over, and perhaps since Franklin Roosevelt was first elected. Most of the doubt expressed over the past two weeks concerned how the president performed on stage. I recognize the importance that has come to mean in our politics. I have no illusions that performance skills can swing the balance of an election…