thependulumswings

It’s the back-to-school time of the year.  Pull up a chair and sit up straight at your desk as class is now starting.

Let’s start with defining tone deaf.

Al Gore’s internet defines tone deaf as having or showing an obtuse insensitivity or lack of perception particularly in matters of public sentiment, opinion, or taste. 

Sometimes examples work best to further one’s understanding.  So, let’s use President Biden’s trip to fire-ravaged Maui as a textbook example.

Mr. Prez went straight from one vacation to the next as another vacation destination, Maui, burned.  Over 100 are confirmed dead, and as of this writing over 850 are still missing.  Missing two weeks after a catastrophic event is never a good sign.

Biden shuffled off of the beach onto Air Force One and descended upon the 50th state yesterday.  Many local officials asked him to wait a bit as traffic snarls are so bad with the responders and citizens all trying to restore some sense of normalcy much less stopping it cold for his visit.  The photo op outweighed the request.

Biden stood before the assembled with charred everything in the background.  He proceeded to empathize with the devastated citizens.

He referred to an incident in 2004, when he was a senator for Delaware.   Biden described how lightning struck a pond by his Delaware home, hitting a wire, and coming up underneath his home into the heating and air conditioning ducts.

“To make a long story short, I almost lost my wife, my ’67 Corvette, and my cat,” Biden said. “But all kidding aside, I watched the firefighters, the way they responded.”

A small kitchen fire was extinguished in 10 minutes.  And, he nearly lost his Corvette.  The horrors, all kidding aside.

This reminds us when he reminds military families who suffer the loss of a family member that his son Beau “lost his life in Iraq.”   Except he didn’t.  Every great President can relate to the common folk, even the tone-deaf ones.

But Biden continued to step in it.

Prior to his speech, he met and shook hands with a group of officials, stopping in front of a search and rescue dog. While petting the dog, he joked about the boots the canine was wearing.

“You guys catch the boots out here?” Biden appeared to ask the press watching him. He smiled and said, “That’s some hot ground, man.”

“Man.”

Why pray tell might the ground be warm?  Summer maybe.  Summer probably.  But, the memory of the savage fire heating the earth is seared in people’s memory.

But, wait.  He wasn’t done just yet.

He appeared to fall asleep in a later meeting with more victims and officials.  His handlers likely will dismiss this.  Maybe he was being reflective.  Maybe he fell asleep.  Maybe even looking like you fell asleep while being reflective isn’t a good idea coming off of weeks of vacation time.

The reactions to all of this were swift, direct, and harsh.

Fox News Radio host Jimmy Failla joked, “Biden landed in Maui and made a joke about how hot the ground was. Up next he’ll head to Pearl Harbor and order a round of Kamikazes.”

Another tweet, “can’t take him anywhere.”

At least his sleeves were rolled up on his custom dress shirt and he donned the presidential seal ballcap.  The garb gives us a sense of his willingness to go to work for the people.

Of course, that occurs only when his vacation time does not interfere.

So far he’s advanced $700 per family affected.  In Hawaii that buys two pineapples and a large milkshake.

“Aloha” means hello.

But it also means goodbye.