Joe Biden’s cognitive deficits are increasingly apparent to even the most amateurish observer.
Whether he has dementia at this point doesn’t matter. Half the world thinks it does, and it weakens the United States and puts us all at risk.
Whether he’s falling down the stairs of Air Force One or falling off a stationary bike, walking on stage in the fog or clutching cheat sheets designed for a 4-year-old, whether it screams incoherently or whispers creepily, the optics are shocking.
As he approaches his 80th birthday next month, even if most Americans are too polite or willfully inattentive to tell, it’s clear that Biden isn’t up to the toughest job in the world.
It projects weakness and madness at a time of international turmoil. Disrespect for the president resonates around the world, among allies and foes alike.
Even when he traveled to London last month for the Queen’s funeral, people were filmed shouting “Let’s go, Brandon” at his passing limo. He and first lady Jill Biden arrived late at Westminster Abbey and, after being ushered to the cheap seats 14 rows back, he was mocked for playing with his tongue during the service.
It’s criminal that the Democratic Party has put America in such an odious position with an emotionally feverish part-time president who doesn’t seem to be around that much — either in his mind or in the White House. The least they can do is cover its deficits more skillfully.
Last week, at a press conference, much was made of his appeal to the recently deceased MP Jackie Walorski.
“Jackie, are you there?” ” he said. “Where’s Jackie?” he continued, looking around in surprise. “I think she wasn’t going to be here.”
Well no, because she died in August, as he should have remembered since he published a long public letter of condolences after her death in a car accident, and the conference he was speaking at was in party in honor of his memory, with a film montage of his life to be played.
The memory lapse likely would have gone unnoticed, like so many other Biden oopsies, except for some reason the White House press corps decided they were tired of being enlightened about the president’s mental fitness. .
“What happened here?” reporters asked bewildered White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, who had prepared only one flippant talking point, which she repeated over and over: Walorski “was on her mind – she was at the top of his mind”. But the answer did not clarify anything.
“Was the president confused?” asked a reporter. “Was there something written in the teleprompter that he didn’t recognize?” Help us explain what happened here? »
Another reporter asked, “Why, if she and the family are front and center, does the president think she lives and is in the room?”
Yet another pointed out: ‘I have John Lennon on my mind pretty much every day, but I’m not looking for that man.’
No satisfactory answer has been given, and how could there be?
There is no explanation for how anyone in their right mind could make such a mistake.
Pity the president
The late MP’s brother, Keith Walorski, handled the “big mess” with compassion: “All I’m saying right now about the president is bless his heart for trying,” he said. he told reporters, adding that Biden is “trying his best. This may interest you : Who should win an Emmy for outstanding first Music & Singing? Vote!.” he can do with what he has right now… I just feel sorry for him.
Ouch. That’s the decent answer, although it’s not good that the president of the free world is an object of pity.
As dishonest and destructive as Biden has been, it’s hard to watch an older man humiliate himself every day as the White House continues to pretend there’s nothing to see and the media claims he is a serious candidate for 2024.
On Saturday night, Biden dressed in a bow tie to deliver another angry speech against his “semi-fascist” political opponents at a Congressional Black Caucus dinner in Washington: “I know I’m getting fucked up by Republicans, but come bring light it,” he scolded.
“Hate will not prevail in America,” he bellowed later, warming to his favorite imaginary subject. “White supremacy will not have the last word.”
How many more times will we have to endure these malevolent outbursts from a president who has promised to unite the country?
How much longer do we have to back off when it reads “end quote, repeat line” on the teleprompter?
How many times do we have to wince when he recklessly talks about international powder kegs, like Russia, Ukraine, the Nord Stream pipeline or Taiwan?
How much longer do we have to watch him wander lost on stage after giving a speech, appearing to shake imaginary hands or wave to unseen staff?
The embarrassment isn’t just for a 79-year-old career politician who needs cue cards to tell him when to get up and where to sit and what to write in a condolence book. It’s for every American.
When Biden went to Israel this summer, he came across Air Force One asking, “What do I do now?
“The truth is that it’s not Biden who’s senile, all of America is senile,” Israeli newspaper Haaretz concluded.
Who’s to blame
It’s at least a staff failure that Biden is left to wander confused in front of the cameras. Why isn’t there always an accompanist by his side to subtly get him off stage?
He continues to seek out Secret Service agents to step in and guide him. See the article : FOCUS: Record women, LGBTQ hopefuls of elections run to shake up politics in Japan. But it’s not their job to play nurse.
It is also a woman’s failure. Dr. Jill should save her husband’s dignity, but she always looks bad-tempered when she’s in place to play the part, whether it’s telling him which way to walk in the rose garden or help him put on a jacket at the airport. .
It’s not easy, as anyone who has lived through the aging of a loved one knows. But Nancy Reagan would never have allowed her husband to be repeatedly humiliated in public.
The honor of the nation is at stake, at least.
