President Biden lost his train of thought a couple of times, but didn’t melt down in any significant way in his first presidential press conference. He called on only 10 reporters in roughly an hour and 15 minutes. All of the reporters called upon were friendlies, some of whom, especially NPR’s Yamiche Alcindor, seemed to be helping him present his narrative.

The contrast to the contentious tone of President Trump’s press conferences was stark.

I watched the whole thing and it was boring. You can watch it here, if you wish.

What was most noteworthy, aside from some moments in the first part of the session when his eyes appeared too large, almost startled…

YouTube screengrab

… was that he stuck closely to a list of reporters on whom he would call, at times making verbal excuses for taking time to get the right name. Then when he answered, he read the answers from notes in front of him. Not just facts and figures, but prepared answers.

Richard Baehr pointed out that he didn’t seem to shuffle through his notes at all. It is almost as if he had a list of questioners and a list of answers, and knew which answer would be next.