Encouraging Joe Biden—DC's biggest gasbag—to "storytell" during his State of the Union speech?
Worst. Advice. Ever!
Remember this incident, as described by HuffPost?
"Back when Joe Biden and Barack Obama were both senators, Obama attended a Senate Foreign Relations Committee, which happened to be a confirmation hearing for Condoleezza Rice.
About midway through the meeting, Joe Biden is "going on and on" and Obama scribbles a note and passes it back to his aide.
The note said simply: "SHOOT. ME. NOW."
Biden's bloviating at that hearing wasn't a one-off: it's his long-established style. Check this Dallas Morning News article from 2008, after Obama named Biden as his running mate:
"Across the spectrum, the earliest thumbnail sketches of the new No. 2 on the Democratic ticket note that he's a bit of a windbag."
And even NPR is quoted in article as saying:
"The senator is also known to get carried away with the sound of his own voice, digressing into irrelevant personal anecdotes."
So, what would be the worst possible thing that Biden could do in his State of the Union speech tonight? Pump up his gasbag balloon and float away with some of his countless "scintillating" stories. "Not joking. It really happened. My word as a Biden. And that reminds me of the time that I . . . "
And yet, previewing the speech on today's Morning Joe, Jen Psaki, the former Biden spox who is now an MSNBC commentator, actually offered this advice:
"Joe Biden is an amazing storyteller. I mean, you sit in that Oval Office, Karine can tell you, and he can storytell for six hours. He needs to do that in the speech tonight. . . He needs to tell the story."
What was Psaki thinking? Is she secretly trying to undermine Biden and set the stage for President Kamala?
As Biden launches into his second hour of SOTU "storytelling," look for "Dr. Jill" to mount the podium and gently lead Joe off the stage.
Next day's headline: "Sales of Sleep Aids Plummet As Biden Causes Millions to Doze Off."
Note: current Biden spox Karine Jean-Pierre wasn't about to disagree with her former boss, predictably agreeing with Psaki's disastrous advice: "That sounds exactly right."
On Morning Joe, former Biden spox Jen Psaki advising notorious gasbag Joe Biden to "storytell" in his State of the Union speech was sponsored in part by Sleep Number and Liberty Mutual.
Here's the transcript.
MSNBC
Morning Joe
2/7/23
7:15 am ETWILLIE GEIST: What should be the president's objective tonight.
JEN PSAKI: Two things. One, giving a speech that, even if it's 40-million people watch it, which is less than the Super Bowl, but still, that's a huge number of people, that's is a big opportunity for any president. It's the biggest speech of the year any president gives.
But what he needs to do is tell a story. Joe Biden is an amazing storyteller. I mean, you sit in that Oval Office, Karine can tell you, and he can storytell for six hours. He needs to do that in the speech tonight.
People aren't sitting at home and, just like, writing down data points, right? They, they, they vote and they move, they, they support people that they feel something from. So he needs to tell a story.
I've talked to some of Karine's current colleagues and some of my own about this. My former ones, her current ones. I'm sorry, that was confusing. And what they have said is that he's going to speak to the people who feel invisible, the people who don't feel heard. That's so important.
The other piece that's super-important for him to do tonight is to draw a contrast. It's not a political speech, but he needs to draw a contrast, and I expect he will, between his agenda. Give him more time. I'm still working at it, guys. And the chaos people see on the other side. So those are the two things tonight: storytelling and a little bit of contrast.
GEIST: Karine, that sound right to you?
KARINE JEAN-PIERRE: That sounds exactly right.
