On Wednesday evening, Joe Biden once again demonstrated the folly of his professional handlers, speechwriters, and P.R. flacks.  

Based on what we're seeing of Biden's public performance, we have to conclude that these people are either totally inexperienced — which seems unlikely — or so deeply "true believers" that they'll do anything to advance their cause, including sacrificing their own president on the altar of mega-woke-ism.

Here's the speech:

This started out as an assessment of the many bad but easily fixed P.R. decisions Biden's handlers have made for him, to be wrapped up with a quick review of what they should be doing to avoid making a public fool of their president. 

However, after watching Wednesday evening's speech at Union Station in Washington, I realized that this event is a microcosm of their disaster, featuring every kind of mistake Biden's made in his public performances.

That disastrous trend began with his speech in Philadelphia two months ago, a speech that did nothing to move the needle for Biden.

Why?  Instead of offering plausible solutions to real American problems, Biden stood up in front of a Satanic-looking blood-red background, at the birthplace of American liberty, and then blamed President Trump and his "Mega-MAGA" followers for the incident on January 6.  He vilified the Jan. 6, 2021 "insurrectionists," who were, as he said, worse than the terrorists of 9/11. 

Apparently, his handlers hoped the menacing blood-red Satanic background would wash off on his party's Republican opponents.  Since then, polls — even from the New York Times — showed that Americans replied by focusing even more closely on electing Republicans.  Republicans had been watching their margins slip right up until Biden's "Satanic Verses" talk.  That quickly turned around — their margin has grown steadily since then.

Remarkably, after that disaster, Wednesday night's talk offered nothing new, except for the backdrop.  Instead of blood red, Biden was flanked by a clutter of artlessly arranged American flags.  Not offensive, but hardly impressive.  Rather than presenting new policy prescriptions, or even a valiant spin trying to make his first two years seem effective, the president presented the same old focus: Jan. 6, 2021, a non-issue that had worn out its welcome with the American voters long before his speech. 

Their next gaffe was largely ignored by the mainstream media: there is a huge homeless camp in and around Union Station.  This was removed to "improve the optics" of the event, without doing anything to help deal with homelessness in the District of Columbia, or anywhere in America.

Less than a week before the election, the president could have made his final case for the Democrat party, for their two-year track record in control of government, and their plans for the next two years if America will only give them another chance.  But, bizarrely, Biden squandered his last chance before the American voters to sell America on the Democrats' relative virtues.

It's a losing issue because, even after two years of beating the drum in presidential speeches and nearly endless congressional hearings, the Daily Wire reported that a recent New York Times poll shows that by a statistically significant margin, 33 percent of Americans think Democrats are more likely to undermine America.  Republicans are viewed as a major threat by only 29 percent.  Nationally, 39 percent believe that Republicans are no threat at all, while only 30 percent say Democrats are no threat.  That's a significant margin.  After all the Democrats' beating the drums on this issue, it's clearly a lame, losing tactic. 

The Big Issue on Biden's Wednesday night focused on the January 6 "insurrection."  Biden harangued Americans with yet another distorted version of his election in 2020, tying that to the Democrat-hallowed, but otherwise widely ignored, January 6 non-issue.

The truth is somewhat different.  On that day, a group of totally unarmed individuals dared to illegally enter the Capitol Building without an invitation.  Clearly, a group of boisterous — but unarmed — voters represent no real threat to the nation. 

The only person killed in this raucous "insurrection" was a 36-year-old military veteran, shot to death by a Capitol Police officer, without explanation.  Widely reported — inaccurately — a Capitol Police officer also died.  However, he died not from a blow to the head by a fire extinguisher, as the mainstream press initially and inaccurately reported, but from a stroke the officer experienced some time after the event had been quelled.  The Washington, D.C. coroner ruled out the media-reported blunt force trauma as the cause of his death, saying nothing to suggest that crowd control at the non-insurrection was a cause, direct or indirect, for the stroke.

Wednesday night, Biden also talked about preserving democracy, even as word has trickled out about how his Department of Homeland Security has been working hand-in-glove with Meta/Facebook, Twitter, and other social media purveyors to de-platform Biden's opposition.  In effect, they imposed government-led censorship of free speech.  How this preserves democracy has not been revealed.  He also wailed about voter intimidation, without acknowledging his own government's censorship of millions of right-of-center citizens.

Focusing on "voter suppression," Biden again lambasted "Mega-MAGA" Republicans for imaginary excesses, saying that "intimidation" — such as requiring voters to present the same IDs now required just to take a plane flight or drive a car — when applied to voting, is somehow undemocratic.  Even racist.  No surprise there.  When in doubt, play the race card.

However, my "favorite" disaster line of Biden's was "we should leave no one behind."  This from the man who left hundreds of Americans — and thousands of allied Afghans who risked all to support our now lost war against the Taliban — behind in his chaotic evacuation.

In the face of this disastrous talk, what could Biden's key staff have done differently? 

First, don't pick a Satanic background for a major political speech.  Obviously, based on the Philadelphia speech, they were using that blood red to heighten the public's fear of the dread "Mega-MAGA forces out to destroy our nation." 

Instead, that background transmuted that fear toward Biden, not away from him.

Second, don't exaggerate.  Biden's team continues acting as though January 6 really was an insurrection — calling it worse than the terror attack of 9/11/01 that killed nearly 3,000 Americans.  Really?  Worse — for them — they keep hammering it long after America has moved on.  Polls show that Americans know that this wasn't what Biden claims it to be — a violent threat to our very democracy. 

Wednesday night, Biden centered his talk — his last-ditch effort to change voters' minds and turn the impending midterm disaster around.   Instead, he rehashed the same issues that haven't worked, leaving Republicans gloating and Democrats wondering what went wrong.

Ned Barnett, an experienced political campaigner as well as the author of forty published books, currently serves as a ghostwriter and writing coach, as well as marketer for authors and their books.  Back in the day, he headed up P.R. media and strategy at the state level for three presidential campaigns, starting with President Ford in South Carolina in '76.  There, he proudly worked hand-in-glove with the late, great Lee Atwater, who — at 23 — was the youngest state party leader in either party.  He also worked as a speechwriter for two South Carolina governors.  Barnett, now based in Nevada, can be reached at nedbarnett51@gmail.com or at 702-561-1167.

Image: Screen shot from NBC News video via YouTube.