Biden can’t speak coherently and convincingly to the American public

OPINION:

President Calvin Coolidge has gone down in history as “Silent Cal.” As this moniker suggests, he was a man of few words, with some suggesting that he never had anything of significance to say. This was so much the case that when it was announced in 1933 that he had died, a wag jokingly inquired, “How do they know?”

In the 1920s, it was still possible and even laudable for a president to be reticent in public. There was a tradition that encouraged presidents to avoid unnecessary or self-serving public pronouncements. Presidential speeches were relatively few and far between.

This is hardly the situation today. Our presidents are expected to be regular and eloquent spokespeople for our nation. Since Franklin Roosevelt initiated his fireside chats in the 1930s, it has been expected that the president of the United States must, through news conferences, interviews and speeches, articulate our American ideals, our concerns and even our distress on a regular basis.

In moments of triumph, we expect the president of the United States to express our joy. In moments of crisis, we expect the president to articulate solutions, and in moments of sadness, we expect the president to console us. The president of the United States is the public voice of the American people.

This understanding of the role of the presidency comes to mind as we increasingly hear that while President Biden may be ever more inarticulate and garbled in his public presentations, he remains just fine in private meetings. Notably, Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer recently came to Mr. Biden’s defense in this vein, asserting: “I talk to President Biden, you know, regularly. Or sometimes several times in a week, usually several times in a week. His mental acuity is great. It’s fine, it’s as good as it’s been over the years.”

Putting to one side for a moment the important issue of the president’s mental acuity over the years, Mr. Schumer seems to be suggesting that the private Mr. Biden is in a far better condition than his public appearances and remarks suggest. Maybe, but that is beside the point.

It is possible, though unlikely, that there is a dramatic difference between Mr. Biden’s comportment in private and his demeanor in public. But we live in an era of public expression. We are besieged by news broadcasts, by social media, by television and by streaming services. As a consequence, in order to communicate any serious message, it is necessary to be quick, to be articulate and even to be glib.

For a president to be able to convey his ideas amid the messages that bombard us each day requires intelligence, articulate expression and agility. Without those attributes, the messaging gets drowned out in the mass of communications that descend on us ceaselessly.

One of the president’s principal roles is to be an articulate link between his government and the American people. If the president cannot convincingly convey the critical information that he wants our citizens to absorb, then his messaging becomes confused and his ability to persuade is undermined.

This is precisely what is happening today. If Mr. Biden is able to inform and convince people in small groups, as Mr. Schumer suggests (a dubious proposition at best), but is without the ability to speak convincingly in public and unable to demonstrate that he is in control of the executive branch of government, his most important role is not just diminished. It is effectively eliminated.

A president who cannot articulate a vision for the nation, elicit support for his policies or provide convincing responses to day-to-day crises fails at one of the modern presidency’s most important tasks.

There is no better example of the importance of the role of the president as a communicator than Ronald Reagan. Our 40th president was not a great intellect or a brilliant policymaker, but he was an unmatched communicator. Reagan’s ability to speak eloquently was transformative. He inspired Americans and restored a level of confidence in our nation that had been lost during the Vietnam War debacle and the Watergate scandal. He did so with his voice and through his demeanor.

Reagan’s success as president was based almost entirely on his ability to convey his political objectives simply and directly. He mastered the use of what President Theodore Roosevelt had labeled as the “bully pulpit.” In so doing, he made it unambiguous that in our era, the public performance of the president is the most important facet of the presidency.

So today, as Mr. Biden wrestles with his rapidly increasing personal challenges, it does not matter that he is allegedly fine in private, as claimed by his allies, or that he demonstrates mental agility when in small groups. What matters is what the public sees and perceives. The public is clearly uninspired and even frightened by Mr. Biden’s fading communications skills.

It is highly likely that history will judge Mr. Biden harshly for his efforts to remain in office when he is clearly no longer capable of fulfilling the most important role of a president — of speaking coherently and convincingly to the American people.

If Mr. Biden does not step aside, he will surely become the butt of labels and jokes far more demeaning than the “Silent Cal” moniker that continues to define Calvin Coolidge, nearly a century after the end of his presidency.

• Gerard Leval is a partner in the Washington office of a national law firm. He is the author of “Lobbying for Equality: Jacques Godard and the Struggle for Jewish Civil Rights During the French Revolution,” published by HUC Press.