A Mess

Now that a broad-based anti-Bernie Sanders vote has revived Joe Biden's candidacy in two recent Democrat primaries and catapulted him to frontrunner status, its time to discuss his situation—gently, I hope, but honestly.

But first a digression.

My dad suffered from dementia—Alzheimer's disease—for almost 14 years, until his death at 94. At first, his disease was hardly noticeable, and those of us who loved him dismissed the early signs as "senior moments." At first, he was more lucid than not, but he also had temporal and factual slips where he imaged events and times that never happened. He confused people and events on a regular basis, had unpredictable outbursts of anger (very unlike him), and had a strange 'look'—sort of like a thousand yard stare—that is unmistakable to those who know Alzheimers. The disease is unrelenting, unforgiving, and incurable, and within just a few years, he had trouble processing information, recognizing people, and otherwise being an independent person. As time passed, it became far worse. It NEVER gets better.

Joe Biden—because we can observe him on the public stage—is beginning to exhibit all the early warning signs I saw in my father. His family, like mine, most likely has dismissed these early signs. I'm sympathetic to their situation and to Biden's condition—truly, I am, but it's time for some frank talk. Kyle Smith doesn't pull any punches when he writes:

Even at his best, Biden was notorious for being loopy, digressive, and sloppy, and he’s long past his best. Clarence Thomas noted of Biden’s line of questioning during his Senate confirmation hearings, “You have to sit there and look attentively at people [who] you know have no idea what they are talking about.” His bizarre 2012 debate with Paul Ryan consisted of bursts of strangely out-of-context laughter and boorish interruptions. His own aides panic every time he goes off-script, to such a degree that David Axelrod once quipped that Biden was being kept in a “candidate-protection program.” When he starts riffing, he is given to making false claims such as that he was arrested trying to visit Nelson Mandela in prison. His answer to all questions in debate is a subject, a verb, and Obama.

Biden's advanced age is a concern in itself, but when it's coupled with continuous "gaffs" that aren't gaffs at all, it's time to get real.

The President of the United States must process information without impediment. He or she must not exhibit the temporal and factual slips that occur regularly with Biden. Look closely, the thousand yard stare is in evidence—not always, but often enough to be concerning—very concerning. The trained hamsters in the media dismiss all of this as slips of the tongue or momentary confusion or misinterpretation but an honest appraisal of Biden's behavior tells us it's more ominous.

Yeah, I know, the Democrats will claim that Donald Trump is "unbalanced," "insane," and doesn't process information normally, and as a consequence, should be removed from the presidency.* If that's true, why would they nominate a man who almost certainly is in the early stages of a disease that may destroy his ability to adequately process information and properly execute his job as president should he be elected.

What a mess.

FOOTNOTE:
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* Over the past few years, Yale psychiatrist, Brandy Lee, MD, has been trotted out by the media because she has been vocal about her belief that Donald Trump is mentally unfit for office. Forget the fact the Dr. Lee has never treated Trump, but provided her diagnosis based on public observation, the Dems use her opinion repeatedly.

Recently, Dr. Lee was asked to provide a diagnosis for Joe Biden, based on public observation of his words and behavior. She refused, stating:

"I do not diagnose without examination and do not speak about public figures in general, unless there is evidence of such profound danger to public health and well-being because of serious signs of mental instability in a public servant, that it would be a public disservice not to share the knowledge and training that I have. Biden has not risen to this threshold…"

He has now. Waiting ... waiting.