We all misspeak. Even presidents of the United States. When we do it, the error gets scant attention, but when President Joe Biden did it recently during an appearance in Wilkes-Barre, his opponents were quick to pounce and his supporters moaned, “Oh, no, not again!”

Speaking before a crowd of about 500 at Wilkes College on Aug. 30, Biden asked his audience to do him a favor: “Please, please elect the attorney general to the Senate; elect that big ol’ boy to be governor.”

Biden probably thought he was doing his good deed for the day by promoting the candidacies of the two Democrats who are topping the statewide ticket for this Nov. 8’s General Election. There was just one problem - he got the candidates confused.

Attorney General Josh Shapiro is the nominee for governor, while 6-foot, 8-inch John Fetterman, Pennsylvania’s lieutenant governor, is the senatorial nominee.

Members of the Republican National Committee were quick to react by posting the error on their Twitter account. Doug Mastriano, the Republican nominee for governor, retweeted the GOP’s post.

I was surprised at how little attention most mainstream media gave this knee-slapper. I also could find no indication that Biden or his spokesmen corrected, commented on or apologized for the gaffe.

Fetterman was not at the Biden appearance, saying he had a conflicting commitment but joined him for the annual Labor Day parade last weekend in Pittsburgh.

Shapiro attended and spoke at the Biden event, but neither he nor any of his campaign representatives made reference to the President’s flub.

(Coming clean: Earlier this year, one of my columns had Shapiro as a candidate for senate rather than for governor.)

This is not the first time that Biden has confused names or facts. In 2020, he mixed up the names of his wife, Jill, and his sister, Valerie Biden, when referring to them as they were onstage with him. In November 2020, shortly before being elected, Biden referred to his late son, Beau Biden, as the former “senator from Delaware,” when, in fact, he was the state’s attorney general.

A lifelong stutterer, Biden is often self-deprecating about his mistakes. In a book he wrote, Biden referred to himself as a “gaffe machine.”

Republicans, on the other hand, suggest that these errors are because of Biden’s age and growing infirmities. In a blistering piece in April, conservative New York Post columnist Karol Markowicz wrote what many Republicans and some Democrats believe: “This isn’t simply misspeaking. He seems fully out of it, and we’re all watching.”

By Bruce Frassinelli | tneditor@tnonline.com

The foregoing opinions do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editorial Board or Times News LLC.