Biden's press conference seems to have left things about where they were.

And that's bad news for the Democrats

Joe Biden had two goals at his press conference. First, defeat (or at least undercut) the negative case against him by showing he can avoid resembling an old uncle who rambles, confuses names, fails to complete thoughts, and talks about the old days. Second, make the affirmative case for continuing his run by demonstrating substantive expertise, especially on foreign policy.

There was a tension between these objectives. The more Biden talked about issues in an attempt to show expertise, the more prone he would be to rambling, making mistakes, failing to complete thoughts, etc.

In my view, the first objective should have been paramount: Speak as crisply as possible and avoid mistakes. After all, it was Biden’s failure to do so during the debate — not a lack of demonstrated substantive expertise — that landed him in the current mess.

Biden, however, opted to elevate the second objective. He talked on-and-on about foreign policy. He did this knowledgeably enough, but was like the boy who knew how to spell “tomato” but didn’t know when to stop.

The result was a lack of crispness, some confusion, lots of rambling, and a fair amount of talk about the old days.

Biden moved from one part of his various monologues to another, sometimes without finishing his thought, by saying “by the way.” He ended many of them by saying “anyway” and then trailing off.

The former meant he didn’t know when to stop. The latter meant he finally realized he needed to.

To be fair, Biden managed to ramble without too many gaffes and failures to finish a thought. But the event would have been so much more successful had he been more concise and focused. Even in his prime, though, Biden was rarely concise or focused.

Perhaps Biden was filibustering in order to limit the number of questions he would have to answer. But his Democratic critics and the skeptical public weren’t looking for a filibuster, they were looking sharpness. Biden rarely displayed it.

Where does this leave things? About where they were before the press conference, I think. Those hoping for a clearer picture one way or the other— i.e., nearly all Democrats — must be disappointed.

Biden didn’t sink, but didn’t do much swimming, either. However, he may have bought himself more time.

The publicly-voiced consensus among congressional Dems seems to be that Biden’s performance was okay, but he needs to keep doing okay or better to show that his dreadful debate performance was a one-off. The privately-held consensus is probably more harsh.

The consensus among the Bidens is, I assume, that he did well and is on the comeback trail. It may well be the Biden consensus that matters most.