So, which of Joe Biden’s gaffes yesterday was the more hair-raising? Confusing Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky with Russia’s Vladimir Putin? At least there he corrected himself swiftly, though it was still bad enough to cause the Ukrainian president to cancel his press conference. Or was it confusing vice-president Kamala Harris with Donald Trump? That was an error which neither of them can have been gratified by. Ronald Reagan may have suffered age-related memory lapses too but he had compensating strengths which Biden lacks.
From quite early on in his career, Biden was known as the “gaffe-machine from Delaware” or, as the New York Post put it, “the Lamborghini of gaffes”. But at a time when the Nato alliance gathered in Washington was seeking proof that the leader of the free world is up to the challenges ahead, from the conflict in Gaza to war in Ukraine, this was not a wholly convincing performance, notwithstanding his hour-long speech.
