Why Democrats Can’t Ignore Biden’s Mental Decline Any Longer
It started off as a joke, but it’s fast turning into a tragedy. The issue of Democratic nominee Joe Biden’s frequent and increasingly noticeable gaffes has given way to the trending hashtag #CognitiveDecline. And it’s no longer laughing matter.
At the age of 77, Biden is by far the oldest Presidential candidate in American history. If he does manage to get elected in November, he would be 78 by the time of inauguration – a full eight years older that the next oldest US President to ever assume office, Donald J. Trump, sworn in at 70 yrs old. The next oldest was Ronald Reagan, a mere 69 yrs old back in 1980, a veriable spring chicken in comparison to Biden.
By now, Trump’s constant stream of gaffes and invectives are widely written off as being the byproduct of extreme ignorance combined with a galactic narcissistic complex. But Biden’s slippage is something else altogether, and looks like it could be genuine cerebral impairment. As a result, his campaign is fast becoming a national embarrassment.
There is indeed something very sad and almost macabre about it – how the party and its media adjuncts can allow such a disintegrating situation to carry on. In all of his ‘virtual’ campaign appearances, Biden has exhibited incoherent outbursts, and nonsensical ramblings, as well as an inability to finish sentences. There isn’t very much to conclude here other than the Democratic Party’s choice of leadership seems to be experiencing a clear mental decay, not dissimilar to the early stage alzheimers according to some mainstream US political commentators.
It’s not as if this situation has just sprung out of nowhere. Biden’s cognitive decline was visible from before the Democratic primaries.
As recently as late June, a national poll conducted by Rasmussen showed that nearly 40 percent of registered American voters believed that the former Vice President has “some form of dementia.” Whether this is actually the case or not is a question for his doctors, but the fact that so many Americans believe he is unfit should raise alarm bells for Democrats.
There is another clear and present danger at play. Based on his present mental performance, it’s possible that Biden may not be able to complete his first term in office, which means that whichever female he chooses as his Vice Presidential running mate – Susan Rice, Kamala Harris, Gretchen Whitmer, or anyone else – could end up assuming the office of US President within 12 months.
That means that the election in November is not Trump vs Biden, but rather Trump vs Biden’s VP pick. This realization alone has massive implications for the country, especially if Biden’s back-up really has no real mandate at all to sit at the helm of chief executive of the country.
How long until the mainstream media and Democratic Party leadership (or the Biden campaign itself) openly address this potentially unstable situation?
Columnist Miranda Devine from the New York Post writes…
He might be riding high in the polls, but Joe Biden’s mental acuity increasingly is an issue in the election campaign, and growling at reporters who ask about it is no way to alleviate voter concerns.
Asked during an event with the National Associations of Black and Hispanic Journalists if he had “taken a cognitive test,” Biden snapped.
“No, I haven’t taken a test! Why the hell would I take a test? C’mon, man!”
Frowning and irritated, he paused before ripping into the reporter, Errol Barnett of CBS News.
“That’s like saying you, before you got on this program, if you take a test where you’re taking cocaine or not, what do you think? Huh? Are you a junkie?” said Biden in an interview to be streamed Thursday.
Ouch. Barnett had hit a nerve, and Biden’s flash of anger was a reminder of his interview in May with a black man, radio host Charlamagne tha God, when Biden blurted out the ruinous line that if you vote for Trump, “you ain’t black.”
This time, Biden’s startling go-to defense was to accuse a black man of being a junkie.
After the blunder, Biden appeared to look at something slightly to the left of the camera, suddenly laughed heartily, apropos of nothing, and nodded his head twice.
Maybe a staffer was frantically waving cue cards behind the camera or flashing a warning through the teleprompter.
Whatever was going on, Biden recovered his composure and delivered a sharp line about President Trump and the cognitive test the commander-in-chief recently boasted about acing. “If he [Trump] can’t figure out the difference between an elephant and a lion, I don’t know what the hell he’s talking about,” says Biden.
Phew, crisis averted. Or it would have been if Biden hadn’t kept talking.
“Look, c’mon, man. I know you’re trying to goad me, but I’m so forward-looking to have an opportunity to sit with the president — or stand with the president — in debates.”
It is an extraordinary exchange, and, in the absence of the candidate’s physical presence on the campaign trail, worth studying to try to understand what is going on in Biden’s brain.
It seemed obvious to anyone on the ground at the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary that Biden’s energy and cognitive function were fading.
It is the great mystery of the 2020 campaign why, with such a field of vibrant young talent to choose from, the Democratic establishment fell in behind a frail 77-year-old to pit against Trump, who despite the pandemic and crippled economy remains a formidable campaigner.
Make no mistake, Biden wasn’t chosen by popular acclaim. He was anointed by the Democratic Party’s new kingmaker, Barack Obama.
With the Clintons consigned to history, Biden is Obama’s candidate, not because Biden was the best candidate, but because he can deliver Obama’s third term by proxy and pave the way for Michelle Obama to run in 2024….
Continue this story at the NY Post
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