The reaction to Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson’s book about Joe Biden’s decision to run for re-election does not seem to be generating the publicity that its authors had probably hoped for. There are some easily understood reasons for that. For one thing, Joe Biden is no longer the President, so whatever damage his declining health and cognitive abilities could have posed to the republic is a thing of the past. There’s also the fact that the current president is generating enough headlines of his own, and his craziness and dictatorial ambitions are always enough to drown out other stories. Plus, many members of the news media would probably have a difficult time discussing the book’s topic without having to answer awkward questions about what they saw during Biden’s presidency, and how it differed from what they reported. Certainly Jake Tapper himself is getting hit with some awkward questions, mainly about why he is relaying this information now. It’s always an issue that comes up with these “newsy” political books, and Tapper’s insistence that people have only become willing to talk about this topic openly since Biden’s departure from office can only paper over so much.
Perhaps the biggest reason Original Sin isn’t making much of a splash, however, is that it doesn’t really tell the average reader, or average voter, anything they didn’t know, or at the very least, suspect. Biden’s age and his fitness were huge campaign issues from the very start of the race, because voters were worried about how he would hold up as he approached 86 years of age. Tapper and Thompson’s anecdotes of Biden forgetting names and details or losing his train of thought during meetings offer some support to the notion that voters were right to be concerned. The authors have compiled a lot of these moments, so much, in fact that they get rather repetitive in the reporting. Another issue is the reliance on unnamed sources, which, even charitably assuming 100% factual accuracy, still robs them of their power to compel the reader.
Original Sin lays much of the blame for the loss of the 2024 election at the feet of Biden’s inner circle: his family and closest advisors. They persistently insisted that President Biden was still sharp behind the scenes, even as they schemed extensively to plan his schedule carefully to avoid embarrassing gaffes and limit his exposure to the public. As Tapper and Thompson argue, their refusal to afford the president opportunities to disprove the rumors about his mental decline says quite a lot about what they really believed.
Tapper and Thompson dutifully chronicle the events of last year, but these are so burned in most people’s memory that they can be of little interest. There just aren’t enough additional details about the first disastrous debate, or the George Clooney op-ed, for there to be any deeper understanding among readers.
Anyone who could get anything truly useful out of this book absolutely will not read it, and those who will read it almost certainly don’t need to. Original Sin is thus kind of stuck in between audiences. It’s not salacious enough to shock readers, and those who accept its premise will only find its avalanche of anecdotes terribly depressing.