Alanis Morissette gets all the blame, but truth be told, people had confused “irony” with “coincidence” long before the Canadian crooner claimed that “ten thousand spoons when all you need is a knife” was somehow ironic. Part of the confusion is that irony is a specific kind of coincidence, but not all coincidences are ironic. For something to be ironic, the coincidence must lead to an outcome that’s the exact opposite of what you expected.
Our old pal George Carlin can explain the subtle difference:
If a diabetic, on his way to buy insulin, is killed by a runaway truck, he is the victim of an accident. If the truck was delivering sugar, he is the victim of an oddly poetic coincidence. But if the truck was delivering insulin, ah! Then he is the victim of an irony.
—George Carlin, “Brain Droppings”
In Biden World, they knew this explosive, tell-all book about the ex-president’s cognitive collapse — “Original Sin: President Biden’s Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again,” by Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson — would be released this month. Publishing a book isn’t like dropping a surprise podcast, where you can catch people off-guard: From the printing, marketing, and distribution, so much coordination is required that book releases are planned and scheduled far in advance.
Especially a book like this one, which almost certainly required rigorous legal vetting. I’d be very surprised if the legal experts in Biden’s inner sanctum were actually blindsided. (Politico reports that “the former president and his team have not reviewed the book.” Take that as you will.)
At a minimum, there were likely back channels for communication. Publishers don’t like to be sued.
So, knowing when this book was gonna be released and how damaging it would be, Team Biden launched a PR blitz of their own, deciding now was the perfect time for Ol’ Joe to give his first media interview with the BBC. Hoping to strike while the metal was hot, he even did a daytime appearance on “The View.”
What better way to prove that the book was full of “malarkey” (those authors were probably “dog-faced pony soldiers,” too!) than for Biden to go on national TV and charm America with his wit and brains?
All he had to do was sound lucid for an hour!
But he just couldn’t do it, which led to a moment of great irony: In an attempt to discredit the book by showcasing his acuity, he instead highlighted his senility, thus underscoring the book’s legitimacy.
Biden’s media blitz was the best promotion Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson could’ve asked for!
Ah, irony. Here’s another Carlinesque example:
If a Kurd, after surviving bloody battle with Saddam Hussein’s army and a long, difficult escape through the mountains, is crushed and killed by a parachute drop of humanitarian aid, that, my friend, is irony writ large.
—George Carlin, “Brain Droppings”
As distressing as this all is for the Biden family, the biggest beneficiary is Kamala Harris. It’s given her backers someone to blame for her defeat.
Indeed, her supporters have seized the lifeline.
Politico: ‘It’s all Biden’: Top Harris adviser blames former president for 2024 loss
A top campaign aide to former Vice President Kamala Harris blames former President Joe Biden for Harris’ loss, saying “it’s all Biden” in a new book about the former commander in chief’s apparent deterioration during the 2024 race.
The perspective shared by David Plouffe, who worked on Harris’ 2024 presidential campaign, underscores a frustration held by some Democrats: that Biden’s reluctance to remove himself earlier from the White House race sealed the fate of Harris’ election bid.
It’s a very smart play for Harris: She stays above the fray and avoids personally bashing her boss. Meanwhile, her supporters whack him around like a freaking piñata.
Discussing the impact Biden’s withdrawal in July of last year had on Harris’ chances, Plouffe described the then-vice president’s less than three-month bid for the White House as a “f***ing nightmare.”
“And it’s all Biden…He totally f***ed us,” Plouffe, who was also manager of former President Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign and a senior adviser in his White House, told the authors of the report.
In truth, Harris has never demonstrated an ability to be a winning candidate outside of far-left California. But she’s not a total lost cause (yet): Her personal bio is compelling, and she’s above-average at the teleprompter game. That’s… something. And she’s still the first-ever female vice president in American history, and her party still places an outsized importance on those sorts of gender-defying “accomplishments.”
Other than the Obamas, Bidens, and Clintons, she probably has the most national name ID.
That’s certainly an asset.
But it doesn’t change the fact that Kamala Harris was also her own worst enemy. She did more to damage her campaign than anything Biden did when she told “The View” that she couldn’t think of any differences between her and her boss: “There is not a thing that comes to mind.”
In 2024, the American people were crying for change: According to exit polling, 70% of voters believed the country was on the wrong track.
Clinging to the status quo — even at the behest of an insecure old man — was a gargantuan mistake. She never recovered from it.
At least, not until now.
Joe Biden won’t be able to rebound from this book. In all probability, his future media appearances will be even worse because cognitive decline isn’t the kind of thing that improves over time. Politics is a brutal, unforgiving bloodsport; if Biden can’t defend himself, he’ll continue to be attacked.
This book will trigger a feeding frenzy.
And the more Biden is attacked, the better Harris will look. The more he’s blamed, the more her ‘24 loss is excused.
She still needs to come up with a cogent explanation for Biden’s decline, because there’s an inherent “either-or” conflict: If Biden’s brains had turned to oatmeal and he screwed everything up, then Harris is absolved of blame. But if Biden’s brains were oatmeal and Harris didn’t even realize it… what the heck does that say about her powers of perception?
I wouldn’t be surprised if her team is (discreetly) polling different answers with different test groups as we speak. It’s a slam-dunk guarantee that she’ll be releasing a book of her own pretty soon, and she needs to have her answer prepared by then.
(And then her peeps need to put that answer on a teleprompter, because NOBODY on her side wants her to do any more improv!)
As Biden falls, Harris rises. They’re now on a political seesaw.
Darryl Stingley, the pro football player, was paralyzed after a brutal hit by Jack Tatum. Now Darryl Stingley’s son plays football, and if the son should become paralyzed while playing, it will not be ironic. It will be coincidental. If Darryl Stingley’s son paralyzes someone else, that will be closer to ironic. If he paralyzes Jack Tatum’s son that will be precisely ironic.
—George Carlin, “Brain Droppings”
With Biden’s career in permanent paralysis, the miraculous rebirth of Kamala Harris is now underway.
Ironic or not, it’s happening.
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