Body language expert says Biden’s failures due to more than age
AUSTRALIAN FINANCIAL REVIEW
The presidential debate was a stunning failure for Joe Biden and the worst performance by a candidate in the history of televised debates. It sent news and social media into a frenzy, with talking heads across the US demanding he stand down ahead of the Democratic convention.
To allay these fears, Biden stepped into a nationally televised prime time interview with ABC TV to show that the debate was nothing more than a “bad night” caused by illness, and that he was both capable and ready to continue to lead the nation. Sadly for Biden, he failed miserably in this effort.
Joe Biden had a performance anxiety snap during the debate. The repercussions are a frozen body, stilted gestures, set eyes and an immobile tongue. AP
Speaking at times in circles, his interview lacked substance and he seemed to fatigue as the interview went on. While not as catastrophic as his debate performance, it was by any measure an average performance.
As a specialist in body language and communication, I have assessed dozens of campaigns by world leaders, and I can say that I have never seen anything like what we are witnessing in the United States.
In these assessments I often turn to the ancient wisdom of Roman rhetorical scholar Quintilian, who in his 12-volume Institutio Oratoria made it clear that the skills of oration must only be utilised by a “good” man, given the danger that a skilled rhetorician could pose to society.
On the issue of “good”, few could argue against the intention of Biden to lead for the betterment of the American people, while for Trump questions are regularly raised on how his personal ambition and morals place him in the danger zone.
I cannot think of a time in the modern history of the US republic that we have had such regular discussion around a potential presidential candidate being a “dictator on day one”, or talk of how a candidate may never leave office if elected.
This is a common topic of debate about Donald Trump, which is why the question of “good” should consume us. Yet the debate around Biden’s age and frailty has left the public asking a vastly different question on suitability for office.
Trump and his team must be delighted with the focus on Biden’s age and mental faculties, rather than which candidate holds the moral standing for office.
It leaves us with one (yes, flawed) but essentially “good” man standing for office and one man of increasingly questionable “moral standing” – yet we don’t even go there with our thinking when all we can see is an aged man struggling with exhaustion and the seeming inability to think clearly.
For me, what I have seen from Biden is related to age, but not in the way people think. To me, Biden suffered an attack of “performance anxiety” during the debate and at times in the ABC interview – something he could not control due to his age.
Many people activate their anxiety by the very thought of public speaking. Biden, however, has learnt to manage it in most situations, with his stuttering a sign of it lurking in the background. That was until he reached his ceiling at this debate, with no audience to bounce off, no possibility to move his body, over 20,000,000 viewers in prime time, and the world hanging on every word.
For Biden there is now a trust deficit with the public, who only see a frailty.
He had a performance anxiety snap. What that means is that the diaphragm jams, which limits the amount of air going in and out of his body. The repercussions are a frozen body, stilted gestures, set eyes and an immobile tongue.
The lack of oxygen begins to shut down the organs of the body, the first to be affected being the brain. You quite simply can’t think. We all have our limits of stress under which we can perform, and, in Biden’s case, this debate outreached it.
It is why minutes after the debate he was back to old Biden, as he has been at rallies and media interactions, until it reared its head again when he was under stress during the ABC interview.
The question then becomes how important is performance anxiety in one’s ability to run a nation with critical decision-making powers?
The answer is not that important at all. Performance anxiety is no longer seen as a social anxiety that imposes on any other aspect of one’s performance other than speaking in public. Our critical decision-making faculties are not altered and do not pose any threat for critical decisions.
This still leaves Biden with a huge issue, as the decision-making criteria for the voting public is purely one of intuition – we are guided by our perception whether we like it or not. For Biden, there is now a trust deficit with the public who only see a frailty, which, regardless of the cause, will be assumed as being both age-related and concerning.
A tough conversation is needed with Biden from those close to him. He must stand down from the race. If he does not, then I fear the voting public will elect to make “no choice”, with millions failing to turn up to the polls and Biden effectively handing Trump the keys to the White House.