Biden's bad week

President for just over seven months, I would say Joe Biden has had his worst week and one that will live long in everyone's memories. He has made a couple of speeches to the nation, the second one two days ago and on paper it wasn't bad. I read the full transcript of the speech courtesy of the US embassy in London which he made on August 31, the last day of America's war in Afghanistan. There were some nice phrases and it was a decent argument about why he felt so strongly that he had made the right decision to withdraw all troops. But Biden's delivery was not good. He sounded tired and unconvincing. None of your Trumpian waving of arms. Just a solitary figure at the microphone doing what he had to do but without much enthusiasm. Not impressive. By contrast there was an amazingly good documentary on TV about 9/11 and the recollections of all the key players, most notably George W Bush himself about what they all did on that day. The documentary included that memorable scene several days later when Biden went to Ground Zero in New York and addressed the firemen and other emergency workers. He started off by saying what a great and courageous job they were doing but then suddenly he must have realised that this was a unique moment for him when platitudes were not what was required. So he raised his arms and vowed that those who were responsible for killing nearly 3,000 people would be found and dealt with. It hit the right note because immediately the firemen and ambulancemen and police started shouting "USA USA USA!" Bush spoke with vigour and his audience believed him. I don't think Biden has it in him to rouse anyone to shout USA USA USA. He also of course vowed revenge on Isis for killing 13 American service personel at Kabul airport and duly authorised a drone strike the following day. But, again, he delivered his revenge pledge with a voice that lacked oomph. It was not the voice of a commander-in-chief. All is not lost for the Biden administration but somehow the president has to up his game.