Biden barely clearing the bar was the worst-case scenario for Democrats

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The bar could not have been lower, nor the stakes higher for President Joe Biden than they were for his prime time press conference on Thursday night.

And while he just barely cleared the bar and likely lived to fight another day, the stakes for him and the nation remain just as high.

Yes, there were stumbles and gaffes. Even before the press conference, he introduced Ukrainian President Vlodomyr Zelenskyy as "President Putin" at a NATO event, and later at the presser, he confused his own Vice President Kamala Harris with Donald Trump. But on the Biden bungling scale those are barely bumps in the road.

BIDEN SAYS ‘ANYWAY’ AT LEAST 9 TIMES WHILE TRAILING OFF IN PRESS CONFERENCE

More troubling was the soft whispery voice, the now-and-then return to the distant stare, the difficulty finishing sentences, and an awkward reference to First Lady Jill Biden getting angry with him. Still, for Biden these were not jaw-dropping moments, like we saw in Atlanta two weeks ago.

So, did Biden do enough up there alone on the podium, responding to question after question about his mental and physical abilities to save his candidacy or even his presidency?

Rep. Jim Himes, a powerful Connecticut Democrat on the Intelligence Committee didn’t think so, posting on X just minutes after the press conference that Biden should drop out. But the honest