And that decline is . . . what? And you can’t point to him not speaking well because he’s never spoken well, or that he isn’t spry enough for a guy his age, FDR was in a fucking wheelchair (like that even matters for the job).
Already had a Canadian PM of the UK: Bonar Law, PM 1922 to 1923; born in New Brunswick prior to Confederation, moved to the UK after Confederation; only served six months as PM because he was dying of cancer.
Yes, indeed, he’s less spry. I don’t think physically spry is necessarily a qualification for president, but for heaven’s sake just acknowledge it rather than talking instead about how he goes for bike rides.
I haven’t watched speeches from his heyday and recent ones, so I can’t assess whether there’s been a decline there, but I’ve got one side shouting “he’s got dementia!” and the other side shouting “he’s always been like that!” and I strongly suspect the truth lies somewhere in between.
I’ve seen absolutely nothing to indicate serious cognitive impairment, much less dementia, but I would not be surprised to hear that there’s been mild cognitive decline, and that it is well controlled by working with advisors, and that it is more than outweighed by the benefit of his experience and general smarts. That’s the conclusion I’ve come to privately, based on insufficient evidence, but it’s a lot more plausible than what I’m hearing, which sounds a lot like denial.
I saw a clip of Biden the other day, and I thought, “wow, he’s looking pretty good. Thank god.” Then I figured out it was from 2020. There has been a noticable decline in how he looks and sounds since the last election. Now, I don’t care one bit. He can do the job, and has been doing the job exceptionally well. But I do worry that some voters will react poorly to the “decline” in how he presents.
Also, I remember Reagan’s later years, where the chorus was also “but he’s fine!” Different guy and different times, but it’s probably colouring my perception.
Well, when the alternative is who it is, and whose inanity and possible insanity isn’t really acknowledged, people are scared. Understandably so. So perhaps there is a bit of denial that Joe isn’t the same person he was as VP. Leaps and bounds ahead of TRUMP, of course.
That’s easy, all he has to remember is “man woman person camera TV” and he’s aced it.
For @Dr.Drake: I posted this in the run-up thread…
I concede there is a current of “No, he’s just the way he’s always been!” running through the conversations, and I understand it. I am in a panic at the thought that Trump could win, and I too tend to push back really hard against anything that jeopardizes this.
But there are certainly people on this board who acknowledge that with age, there comes changes in cognition. It’s normal. But it’s NOT dementia, in and of itself. And the “Biden is addled” narrative needs to be countered with a vengeance, as it has been in this thread. U.S. democracy is in peril.
Knowing that a lot of his staff had to be pardoned for the Iran-Contra thingy, that should had been enough to dismiss Bush Father. (Reagan too, but by the time that scandal came out, Reagan was in his second term.
Something to keep in mind when Trump constantly says that Ronald Reagan was an inspiration of his. (Even on that, I have seen that Trump even lies about how close he was to Reagan.)
One side (Fox News) screaming “he’s got dementia!” doesn’t make it so. You don’t take the average of the 2 statements to find the truth when 1 of those statements is demonstrably false.
I don’t have any problem acknowledging his decline. Of course he’s declined - no one is the same at 81 as they were at 65 or 70. Nor are they the same at 60 as they were at 40 but no one suggests that a 60 year old is too old because they have declined over the past 20 years. But “mild cognitive impairment” doesn’t refer to the normal decline in memory or thinking that comes with age. It’s an in-between step and I see no reason to believe Biden has MCI.
“Between” doesn’t mean “at the midpoint.” Frankly, I’d vote for Biden with early stage dementia over Trump, because Trump in power scares the beejeezus out of me, but as I think it’s just that Biden is a little frailer than D-voters are comfortable noticing. I will be voting for him in the CA primary next week (by mail).
To get back to the OP and avoiding the Biden Mental State issue
With our two-party system, the candidate is not the best person for the job but rather the person that has the most appeal to their own party’s voters. If the Dem voter go really off the rails next week and demand a Progressive Utopia a la San Francisco then you would have Warren or AOC or Sanders being contenders with Newsome possibly being the best choice of a bad lot.
And a divisive as US politics is right now, it is impossible to find someone that could win their party’s primary and be acceptable to both sides.
Frist of all- because they are both very popular. trump has a hard core base of bigots. Biden has done very wll the last 3 years- crime is down, and the economy is great.
Biden is not showing any signs of dementia… He has a minor speech impediment. trump OTOH certainly is. Not has Biden been 'wheeled out".
Americans picked Joe because they had enough craziness and insanity. We wanted a return to normalcy, which is what Joe gave us.
Because PMs are not directly elected.
Biden is the only human being on earth to have defeated Donald Trump in a political election. He lives in Trump’s head in a way no one else does. He knows he lost to Biden and lost all the wonderfulness that comes with being president of the United States. That brought him back into the race and is what keeps Biden running.
Biden feels - correctly IMO - that any other candidate would be run over by Trump’s peculiar understanding of the American psyche. They love attack dogs, loudness, and over-the-top statements. Yet all that couldn’t keep a quiet Joe Biden from smashing Trump in 2020. Trump is utterly baffled by this and has never found a way to get over it.
As long as Trump is in the race, Biden will run. In fact, must run. He is like a Marvel hero: battered and bruised, barely holding on, but always capable of summoning the strength to take down the bad guy on the last page.
Next time we’ll get the younger candidates we need. But first, Trump must go.
Well said.
TL;DR:
I have the distinct pleasure of running against the worst presidential candidate in the history of presidential politics.
–Donald Trump. speaking about Joe Biden
Imagine how it feels to get your clock cleaned by that guy 
Because American politics is a tangled mess.
I assume you are using the phrase “being wheeled out” in the colloquial sense rather than the literal one.
Yes, Biden is old, and shows signs of physical decline. Sharper decline than Trump, in part because Trump started from a lower point.
I am also concerned about his mental decline, not because I think he has dementia or has reached the point where his faculties are impaired, but rather because I see the decline in my 83 year old father, and I know how it creeps in.
Plus, being President is a tough job. It takes physical stamina and mental fortitude of one is actually doing the job.
Biden is a little slower in responding than he used to be, mostly because he is being careful in choosing his words - a practice Trump knows nothing about.
It’s easy to feed the narrative that Biden is declining mentally, because confirmation bias is such an easy thing to weaponize. Tell people enough that Biden has dementia, and soon any gaffe or stutter or otherwise common slip up becomes reason to think there may be something to the rumor.
This is where American politics is kinda hosed right now. Power accumulates due to tenure in positions in which to accrue it. The lack of term limits in Congress, for example, leaves a lot of the power brokers to be elderly.
I’ve jokingly pointed out that it’s time to hand over the reins to the next generation, that the 60 year olds deserve a chance. Fortunately, the tide is shifting in both parties, for different reasons.
The Dems have finally recognized it’s time, and thus a couple of big party positions have been gracefully transitioned, such as Hakeem Jeffries taking over a Party Leader.
Whereas the Reps are busy eating their own face. The ultra right wing has decidedly taken a turn for the crazy, with the MAGA extremists taking hardline positions and deeming any compromise a selling out. They have hamstrung their own Party Leader and made the Speaker of the House a bootlicker position.
The few old Repubs still around are either vastly out of touch with their current party (e.g. Romney), or suffering from the mental decline that Biden is accused of (i.e. McConnell).
I think that the Dems have bungled what should have been their strategy from Day 1 of the Biden Presidency. They should have been fostering Harris and giving her visible positions of authority actually accomplishing things, being seen to be effective and be learning the job. Then the country would have felt a lot better about handing over the reins, and Biden could have gracefully been a1 term President while setting up Harris to be the logical choice.
That would require Democrats to be good at messaging, which they aren’t. They’d have to overcome all the stuff I mentioned earlier about incumbents and such.
Thing is, we have one party that’s bad at messaging but better for the country, and one party that’s so good at messaging they can get a guy from Australia to believe one of their more ridiculous talking points as obviously true.
Dems need to hire actual advertisers and other messaging specialists.
I can’t help but wonder if Democrats were also concerned about projecting a disparate amount of heft at the bottom of the ticket.
Meaning: though I don’t think Kamala has Obama/WJ Clinton star power, the bar isn’t exceptionally high for her to have more charisma than the Joe Biden we currently have.
Bit of a high wire act, IMHO.
[Continued]
Instead, except for a few Senate votes, Harris largerly disappeared from the public eye.
Part of that may have been a strategy to let Biden take all the heat, but the result is that if Biden had announced himself not running and endorsed Harris, the Dems likely would have had a battle as confusing as the previous Repub one.
I swear, I heard more about Cheney from his “undisclosed location” than Harris this whole term.
So from the Dem side, there really isn’t anyone ready to step into the slot and be seen as ready to go. Whereas the Repubs are actively ensuring any candidates who might be capable are irrelevant because Donald Trump is the MAGA chief.