Washington DC is suddenly full of anonymous Democratic insiders who are dishing dirt on Joe Biden's parlous mental state. The New York Times rounds up a lot of them for a long story today, and if you read carefully one of the recurrent themes is that Biden's mental state has fallen off a cliff in just the last few months:
People in the room with him more recently said that the lapses seemed to be growing more frequent, more pronounced and more worrisome.... Last week’s debate prompted some around him to express concern that the decline had accelerated lately.... This person said Mr. Biden had shown a “sharp decline” since a meeting only weeks earlier.... A senior European official who was present said that there had been a noticeable decline in Mr. Biden’s physical state since the previous fall.
Politico described Biden as getting worse recently during routine briefings:
During meetings with aides who are putting together formal briefings they’ll deliver to Biden, some senior officials have at times gone to great lengths to curate the information being presented in an effort to avoid provoking a negative reaction. “It’s like, ‘You can’t include that, that will set him off,’ or ‘Put that in, he likes that,’” said one senior administration official. “It’s a Rorschach test, not a briefing. Because he is not a pleasant person to be around when he’s being briefed. It’s very difficult, and people are scared shitless of him.”
Angry outbursts are a bad sign. All of this is a bad sign. And it might explain why nobody talked about it until now: no one is going to tattle about occasional lapses, and it may be that Biden hasn't shown any serious cognitive issues until relatively recently.
In any case, if this is right it means things are going to get even worse in fairly short order. Unfortunately, Biden himself doesn't see it. When you start to lose your faculties, the first thing to go is your ability to recognize that you're losing your faculties.
My dad has vascular dementia and it was informative to learn from the neurologist about the loss of self-awareness.
It's sort of wild.
And unlike Alzheimers or Frontotemporal lobe dementia, in which the decline is monotonic, in vascular dementia, the changes can be abrupt.
Perfect timing! I wonder if they got to him some how.
This is what we have Amendment 25, Section 4 for. If the competence of the President is in question, the Cabinet and Vice President have the responsibility to determine if s/he is able to discharge the duties of the office. Let the Constitutional process play out.
No one in a position of authority is questioning his competence at this point in time.
A long time ago I wrote in a comment that I couldn’t watch Biden speak. Many replied… negatively. When everyone said Biden was great at the state of union speech, the clips I saw were cringy. The whole stutter excuse was funny to me. But I didn’t care, really. Whatever his problems are now, I can’t say.
For whatever reason, way back in 2021, I believed he would only serve one term. I don’t know where I got that impression. Maybe it was just wishful thinking on my part. I also thought / hoped he would help develop Harris as a leader. Obviously, that didn’t happen either.
So here we go. I don’t give a crap about Biden’s feelings. I hope he is humiliated. American politics are a shit show and half the voting public is nuts. They want chaos and payback. There are not enough of us to stop them. Quit crying about it and get ready. Get control of the House and senate!
"The whole stutter excuse was funny to me. " He has in fact had a stutter his entire life.
The stutter wasn’t a problem in 2020.
Well, why would anyone take the advice of someone on the wrong side of pretty much every issue here
You condoned a murderer in an earlier thread.
I did? Probably a gun nut killing another gun nut. I am ok with that.
You shouldn’t take the advice of an unknown person on the internet. But getting control of congress doesn’t seem controversial.
This still doesn't explain sending him out there, except, maybe, if they felt they had no choice because he wasn't listening. But, even in that case, someone should have spoken up. We way over revere the presidency.
It's a weird thing. When my mother got dementia, I didn't believe it at first. "Mom, why are the pills all mixed up?" It wasn't until I saw her sitting in the car staring at her keys that I realized we were in it.
Which may be what is happening in the whitehouse now and they really were unaware of his recent decline. Or all of it may be because Biden caught a cold on the day of the debate. It was obvious right from the start that he had laryngitis. My speculation at the time was that he trained to hard. (I was unable to watch the debate because every time except the beginning that I turned it on, Trump was telling a lie so stupid as to insult a 2 year old. I don't like sitting and being willfully treated as stupider than your average two year old and so l kept turning it off.)
Folks: he’s *tired*. If you’re campaigning and running the country at the same time, that is a level of stress and deprivation he probably hasn’t been through recently.
With little enough sleep, I also become irritable, retain information poorly, and start producing word salad.
Let’s send him to Mar a lago for a few weeks. He’ll be good as new.
Of course, as Kevin said elsewhere, that is part of the job and reason by itself that age is a concern.
I'll be the last to doubt Biden's stubborn selfishness that is leading him to a Full Ginsburg. But when I see things like this, my first question is where is it from and what is their agenda? You never see something like this unless someone has an axe to grind or a candidate to pimp for.
I have that same level of skepticism.
Funny how the people in the room never have a name.
because david axelrod, james carville, et. al., for all their bluster, are pussies.
But when I see things like this, my first question is where is it from and what is their agenda?
He's, 81 not 59. To me Occam's razor suggests he's having serious cognitive issues. The debate was exhibit A. Brain function declines as the organ ages. This is hardly controversial, and we see it happen every day.
And sure, humans have their agendas, but maybe the agenda of some is: he's not fit for the job of Democratic Party nominee for the presidency, and therefore America would benefit if someone else took on that role.
No. That is not Occam's razor.
Because dementia simply doesn't work the way that over a 90 minute debate, he would mysteriously get better.
Exactly! While it is true that unlike the monotonic decline in Alzheimers and FTD, decline in vascular dementia change can be abrupt, people with vascular dementia don't then suddenly get better again.
"Because dementia simply doesn't work the way that over a 90 minute debate, he would mysteriously get better."
That isn't true. While there is progressive decline with Alzheimers and the like it isn't monotonic you have good days and bad days.
Yeah, 'anonymous'? This isn't something you should be saying anonymously.
Huge double standard for Biden compared to Trump. With Biden’s recent diplomacy-related travel, has anyone considered fatigue and jetlag? All reversible conditions that wipe people out mentally.
Journalism is who, what, when, where, how, and why. This ain't journalism. This is trying to make a narrative happen.
Yes. Thank you.
👍👍👍👍👍
Yes, especially from a rag (calling it that is a compliment for the NYT nowadays) that long ago made clear they openly support Republicans, and Trump in particular.
yup.
the sulzberger advertiser is pissed they can't get an audience with biden.
but the only audience they'll get with porfirio trump will be a quick look-see before one of his deathsquads lays them out with machinegun fire.
This, exactly.
Russian disinformation again?
Unless there's a medical opinion tied to these reports it's nothing. I'm pretty sure his stamina and endurance are diminished at his age and could be the cause of everything. The behaviors are telling and the evasiveness is as well. But until that Dx comes out, he's not suffering dementia.
I'm inclined to agree that it not likely Dementia and that it's probably age-related cognitive decline accelerated by increased stress. Frankly, I think his anger is more related to being tired than a symptom of a cognitive problem.
If this is the case and his team is forced to press Biden into action to counter the narrative of cognitive decline, won't this just add more stress and further escalate cognitive decline?
Put aside whether or not he's the best option to beat Trump, what about his health?
Je suis d'accord. I understand that most people only feel they do what it is that they do, but I watched several persons go far past their "due date." It's not pretty. But anyway, I'm sure this is all on the family table and hopefully there isn't much arrogance.
Slowing down happens to everyone, and I mean everyone. I was an RN for 40 years. At age 64 I realized I was slowing down physically, and took more time to do my job. I saw way too many nurses who stayed on the job too long and wasn't going to be one of them. I retired within the year and feel really good about my career and my choice to leave when I did. No regrets.
NYTimes has had a vendetta against Biden for years.
Why give it more air time than they can give it themselves?
Good point. And they've been steamed for months that the President didn't give them a personalized, one on one, exclusive interview. Wah!!! But as a big, world circulation newspaper, they can get back at him. Oh yes...
Also, the NYT story was sourced to "a few" people. And cherry-picking a small number of incidents to support a narrative is a standard trick that is both uninformative and misleading. And Biden is known to have a temper (that in the past has been used as evidence of his determination). And that's before we get to the whole piling-on phenomenon. And THEN there's the conspicuous LACK of stories about Trump's much more evident cognitive impairments and decline.
Sound and fury signifying nothing. Absent any hard information, anything other than media jabber, could we please STFU about this? Really.
As I suspected: I just read that stinking piece of crap that's being foisted upon us a legitimate piece of journalism and it's nothing but a slimy hit job. The only named people didn't have a lot to say to support the narrative they're pushing and the nameless ones very much did. Is critical reading still a thing?
is peter baker or maggie haberman on the byline?
The New York Times? Cherry-picking data points to manufacture a story about a nonexistent trend? Naaah, they'd never do *that*...
the judy miller piece.
For a long time people here have suggested Trump has Alzheimer’s. I have always said a lot of his cognitive problems were because he doesn’t sleep, opting to stay up all night texting/posting/rage posting, etc. Lately though, Trump has been doing stuff highly reminiscent of my Dad (who died of Alzheimer’s) particularly when he starts to speak on a subject, loses track, mumbles “ohhh” and changes the subject.
Biden seems like a person who hasn’t had enough sleep. I see no indication of dementia. Even the article quoted by Kevin talks about his lack of sleep in the past month. Meanwhile, Trump is saying battery operated planes are bad because they can’t fly on a cloudy day.
His dad died of AD, and there is a strong genetic component to AD risk.
He's 78. I would not be at all surprised if he's in at least the early stages.
We survived when Reagan had AD in the whitehouse. Though his was still relatively mild when he left the whitehouse.
Reagan did not have naked authoritarian tendencies.
He also had adults around him
I agree -- I've known several people with Alzheimer's over the years and I don't think Biden's problems are that. I wouldn't be surprised if it were something like Parkinson's though -- the halting walk, slurred speech, poor focus -- compounded by his stutter, which is getting harder to control. If it's true, though, that this is something that has kind of crept up on him the past couple of months, then it's not going to get better, and we're just going to see more of it as the campaign drags on.
Yes, I'm sure the NYT is getting fed this stuff from concerned staffers and eagerly writing it up, but the fact that staffers weren't leaking shit about Biden before is also telling. Maybe they're just panicking and need to calm down for a while. Or maybe something's really wrong.
Biden has walked that way since he fractured his foot a couple years ago.
The blank stare can be an indicator too--or maybe too much botox.
Are we really sure they're actual Biden staffers and not the civil service who work in the whitehouse. Foxnews loves to talk with the former Biden staffer (career civil service) who was a maggot employee of the whitehouse who loves to spread lies about Biden.
the jerry tarkanian's daughterinlaw propagating the fiction that biden despoiled the vatican by shitting his pants thing.
Oh no doubt trump brain don’t work good. Difference is his people don’t care. They know trump is poop. Many of them have told reporters they know he’s poop. They still prefer trump. Biden does not give any wafflers a reason to switch.,
We need to be talking about trumps cognitive decline not Bidens. It’s time for Biden to go.
The problem is Democratic voters care about the qualifications and mental competencies of their candidates and stuff like that, hence all the handwringing about Biden. The Republican apocalyptic cult is happy to run a complete raving loon because they want to burn everything down not govern. His supporters literally carry "Real Men Wear Diapers" signs at his rallies. Hence his sundowning and utter unfitness for office isn't a story as far as the MSM is concerned. Aside from the Philadelphia Inquirer, I don't think any major outlet or editorial board has called for him to drop out, though, which is telling. Another case of Republicans being graded on a curve while Democrats are expected to be grownups.
Your right the Trump cult doesn't care. We need to win the swing voters or the double haters or the rational republicans. The only way to do this is with a different candidate and lots of surrogates talking about how unfit Trump is to serve. I am hoping the Biden replacement is determined quickly and doesn't take until the dem primary to figure out. It seems to me it needs to be Harris.
I'm pretty sure we have them both already.
You're literally creating the BS that got Shirley Sherrod fired.
Knee-jerk bullshit.
If he has decline, he has a VP. That's what she's for.
There's no reason to preemptively surrender to bullshit framing and let Trump win.
Post-debate comparison of the shift in the Biden-Trump polls:
CNN = 0% (meaning no change in the numbers)
Harris = 0%
Ipsos-Reuters = 0%
Morning Consult = 0%
USA Today-Suffolk = -3% (meaning the gap shifted 3 percentage points towards Trump)
Data For Progress = -4%
No alarming shifts, if any. That's despite the same polls showing more people think that Biden should be replaced. So what does this mean?
I suggest most people who were going to vote for Biden already see this as a fight to keep our liberal democracy. Like us, we'll vote for Biden no matter what. Does that mean we should keep Biden?
I don't think that's necessarily so.
Kamala Harris is polling about the same as Biden is against Trump. Again this points to the likelihood that people who were going to vote for Biden are going to vote for Harris or anyone who replaces Biden. But what the polls can't show is shifts in support for the "not Trump" candidate once that person's face and name is seen everywhere and is heard constantly speaking to America.
Is it a risk to change candidates? Yes, but so too is the risk of keeping someone who might only get worse with an increased campaign workload. Anyway, that's my reasoning for changing candidates. I'm still going to vote for Biden if he remains, but I was never on the sidelines nor was I planning to sit out the election. The question is, how do we get these folks to engage and vote for the Democratic candidate?
Give it time …. An OpenLabs poll leaked to Puck spelled more bad news for Biden’s campaign. The poll, conducted 72 hours after the debate, found that Harris, Buttigieg, Newsom and Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer all outperformed Biden against Trump in every battleground state.
The OpenLabs poll also found that 40% of Biden voters surveyed think he should end his campaign. That’s up from around 25% who expressed that view in May.
Harris is the important one, because she is the only one to whom Biden can pass the baton with 100% certainty. Anyone else would have to win a contested convention with a bunch of utterly unprepared delegates who came to enjoy a big party as a reward for knocking on the most doors. It's anyone's guess who they'd pick. And then there's the question of Biden's war chest. Harris would certainly be able to use it, not sure about anyone else.
If Harris starts consistently polling better than Biden against Trump, that would be a powerful argument for Biden to bow out gracefully. Biden is the best President of my lifetime, I admire him as a person and as a leader, and I would push him out in a heartbeat if it were clear that it would reduce the chance of Donald Trump returning to power.
And no money - only Harris can use the campaign treasury.
This just in . Poll shows Harris behind trump, but lot closer than Biden.
These are all meaningless. Most people have no idea who these random people are and have no actual thoughts or feelings on then, there has also been 0 republican and media messaging against them.
Your second point highlights the actual situation. Its the secure democrat voters who are affecting the polling so far. Independants and truly undecided folks arent showing much interest in the months long 'joe is senile' marketing campaign. But the die-hard dems are spooked.
Sheesh. Democrats are such bed-wetters. Remember when Obama had a terrible debate and people were running around with their hair on fire?
https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2012/10/08/romneys-strong-debate-performance-erases-obamas-lead/
Poll swings like this are almost entirely due to response rate bias.
Oh sure. Exactly the same. …. You could see the O Man’s promise. You can see Biden falling off a cliff.
….. For people like me who care only about goals/policies, Obama was the best candidate in decades, whatever happened in that debate.I decided not to vote for Biden long before the debate or Gaza .
This kind of unremembering is common, so its useful to remember that the Dems were in a panic over the untested and relatively unknown Obama.
Your point that for a lot of people, none of this media messaging matters because they made up their mind already, is a good one, but it really cuts the legs out from under your main point.
But now its clear that you never liked Biden so you are all in on the messaging that he should abandon the race. But you dont really matter in this calculation, the only thing that matters is the opinions of the undecideds and very loose dem supporters who may or may not vote....and only those in a handful of contested states.
Of course the Dem party officials and lawmakers were in a panic over Obama, all the way to Election Day, because they were all in for Hillary, no matter who the Dem voters wanted. (I remember Hillary people trying to undercut Obama people where they could. Things like locking them out of party offices. )
I said that you could see the O Man’s “promise”. That means his future, based on his record, yes, as a senator, state senator, community organizer and his background described in “dreams from my father”. I was on him early. But I wouldn’t have made up my mind early in 2008 if Hillary was not such a terrible person. I would have been fine with having Obama wait if there had been a good third option. (no names please) .
I was never a fan of Sen. Biden over his willingness to do things like cut back on social security (or was it Medicare or both?) etc. Several of his deals that he has been so proud of were deals that hurt people who did not deserve to be hurt. He kept doing that same thing as prez. That’s when I decided I couldn’t vote for him again. Long before Gaza etc. I’m too old to keep voting for candidates who don’t share my values.
And in the end, of course my vote doesn’t “count” to people like you. I live in safe blue Colorado. But I take my vote very seriously. I vote in every election. Elections that have only one minor race. And I take every person’s vote seriously. The votes of Dems in the South are as important to me as anyone else’s.
As for media messaging, what happened last week was not media messaging.
safe blue colorado voted twice for bush43.
same as virginia. same as nevada.
Obama had a bad debate in the sense that he underperformed in what was usually an ideal forum for him, being a former law professor and all. He seemed low energy, whiffed some stuff, and Romney came out looking stronger than expected, relatively speaking. Yes, in retrospect, people probably overreacted since the expectations were so high, but nobody was saying Obama did so poorly that they questioned his mental fitness, or called on him to drop out of the race, either.
Obama ran against Romney in 2012. He had been President for nearly four years. There was no "promise" to be seen. He had already shown himself to be a strong President.
As I suspected: I just read that stinking piece of crap that's being foisted upon us a legitimate piece of journalism and it's nothing but a slimy hit job. The only named people didn't have a lot to say to support the narrative they're pushing and the nameless ones very much did. Is critical reading still a thing?
I've met a lot of 81-year olds with minor intermittent cognitive problems. None of them turned into sharp highly functional 86-year olds. It's a steep cliff in your 80's.
Good point. This is about as good as it will be for Biden during the next four and a half years.
Sadly, I agree. A lot of folks are still calling this "just a bad night" due to fatigue or a cold or whatever, and Biden seems to be able to bounce back on the stump, as we've seen the past couple of days. But I fear that for every vigorous speech or interview going forward, there's going to be an increasing number of ones where he breaks down again. And again. I hope I'm wrong, but I don't think it's magically going to get better. And yes, people seem willing to give the rancid dumpster fire that passes for Trump's brain the benefit of the doubt, but not Biden's, which makes no sense, but here we are. As I said earlier, voters are just conditioned to grade Republicans on a curve when it comes to corruption or mental competence, but not Democrats.
It's still bullshit knee-jerk surrendering.
Dementia doesn't work in the way that someone gets better over 90 minutes of intense mental work.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^. this
"Dementia doesn't work in the way that someone gets better over 90 minutes of intense mental work."
That's not true. You have normal variations in performance on top of the dementia.
Uh huh. Statistically, it's more likely that "Dementia doesn't work in the way that someone gets better over 90 minutes of intense mental work." But you want to go against the trend and say that in this idiosyncratic instance, the fact that Biden got better is still proof of his incipient dementia. Why? Well, we all know why of course. But I'm curious as to what you'll say.
"...But you want to go against the trend and say that in this idiosyncratic instance, the fact that Biden got better is still proof of his incipient dementia. Why? Well, we all know why of course. But I'm curious as to what you'll say."
It's not proof that he has dementia any more than it is that proof he doesn't. Do you have any personal experience with someone with dementia? I have and it isn't something you either have or you don't. It (at least in Alzheimers type cases) is a progressive disease and at the start the impairment is very mild only occasionally noticeable. But the problem is it gets steadily worse and worse and worse. While this is happening they absolutely can have a bad period and then get better.
I personally sometimes get very sleepy after eating (maybe something with my blood sugar I don't know). I sometimes doze off for a few minutes and then wake up and feel much more alert. If I was also suffering mild dementia also this could be a bad episode followed by some recovery.
My mother died of early onset dementia, so yes, I have very close and very painful experience with non-age-related mental decline.
Also, you didn't answer my question. You essentially said "Just because this quarter came up heads twenty times in a row you can't conclude it is biased.' Well, technically, no you can't. But would you take a fifty-fifty bet against the coin coming up heads on the next flip? If so, please let me know and I'll be in touch privately later.
Sweet titty-fucking Christ! What don't you get that Biden at 86 is better than Trump at 78?
The behavior in briefings the article describes is close to descriptions of Trump's West Wing behavior in 2017.
In my father's closing years, he bombed two cognitive evaluations. In his last one, they asked him what year it was and he confidently gave an answer that was 29 years off. His blew 14 of the 15 questions. On the ride home, he crowed that he had aced it.
If Biden has this sort of dementia, look out.
The briefing stuff sounds like Trump.
Maybe if Jill Biden had actually devoted herself to the job of first lady instead of part timing it she'd have realized the problems and not encouraged him to throw away the country to satisfy personal ego.
It really bothers me that the advisors Biden is listening to as he decides what to do are Hunter and Jill. He should be listening to leaders with in the dem party. I think it will take more public call to resign from within the party to help him reach the right decision.
Doesn't it bother you that you're repeating rumors from explicitly anti-Biden sources?
Honestly, I don't get it. What is up with Kevin Drum?
There are a lot of otherwise "very smart" people who just fall flat on their faces when confronted with peer pressure to jump on the latest bandwagon. But Kevin more or less bases his blog on debunking that kind of thing. Yet in the case of Biden, he's driving the band's wagon full speed ahead.
And the article in question is exactly the kind of thing that Kevin Drum would typically debunk. Seriously, references to "People in the room with him" and "senior aides"? It is astonishing that Drum would utilize his own platform to spread gossip.
Keep in mind that Biden is currently under more scrutiny than just about anyone else in the world. And he is in regular contact with rich donors and in frequent contact with Dem party leaders who are undoubtedly subjecting him to who knows what kind of intensive analysis. And if he were a doddering and senile old man incapable of functioning, his family, friends, colleagues, close supporters, and others would most certainly let him know that quite clearly. They all know very well what's at stake. They're not some secret cabal plotting against America's interests (that's the other side). They're are all very much invested, rather, in this country's success.
And yet, as far as I'm aware, we've heard nothing but support from Biden's close and high profile associates. Since the debate last Thursday, he has held numerous events including public rallies and high profile fundraisers. Has there been any issue with any of those events? I haven't heard of it.
Now, if someone wants to say that Biden should make more public appearances to allay concern, fine. If someone wants to fault whatever lack of adequate preparation led him onto that debate stage last week, great. By all means, go ahead and constructively criticize. But treating the comments of anonymous "people" and "aides" as worth promoting? I think the most sophisticated thing I can say is that doing so is just plain dumb.
I have no interest in a blog that's actively promoting a second trump presidency (as Kevin is currently doing). Kevin can of course do what he wants with his own platform, but that's not what I come here for. So if Kevin wants to spend his time and his blog posts frequently, repeatedly, and unnecessarily denigrating the 21st century's most successful president (and thereby helping convicted felon Trump to win), I'm out.
Exactly!
kevin is a reagan democrat (at best) who prefers republicans because they also live in an idealized 1950s.
Which means he's to the right of me, an Eisenhower Republican.
"Now, if someone wants to say that Biden should make more public appearances to allay concern, ..."
What he should do is have a full cognitive exam by specialists and release the results. But he isn't doing that is he? Suggests at best that he isn't confident about what such an exam would reveal.
__________
| __ __ |
| | | | | |
| | | | | |
| |_| |__| |
| __ __ ()|
| | | | | |
| | | | | |
| | | | | |
| | | | | |
| |_| |_| |
| __ ______ |
That was gibberish
Paste it into a document as a fixed pitch font (Courier) and it's a door, although you have to delete a couple of underlines and add spaces so things align properly.
() is the doorknob
Not sure what the door is supposed to stand for, although I think it's implying Biden should leave (the room.... race).
I personally would feel a lot more comfortable discussing this if the source was other than the New York Times or Fox News. Especially since none of the sources is willing to be quoted by name.
For the past two decades, the NYT has been against the Democrats very strongly and, as near as I can tell, the bulk of their sources are Republican operatives. Their bias against the Democrats combined with their recent track record (Iraq War, the War against Hillary, etc) makes me very uneasy with the assumption that Kevin and others are making.
Major media want to renew their windfall Trump tax cuts. Follow the money and...Cue the anonymous character assassins!
Makes you wonder if the aides around Biden pushed him into this debate on purpose. That might explain the family closing ranks around him, among other things.
Makes you wonder if you watched the debate past the flubbed response.
You mean the golf showdown?
I watched every minute.
And never read the transcripts. Which shouldn't be blindingly obvious but nonetheless is.
Could be, in fact, that what's going on is a battle between the aides (who have seen the decline in recent months and see their careers going down with the ship) and the family, which doesn't notice the decline partly out of defensiveness, partly because they see him every day and it's too gradual.
I would feel a little more comfortable had Mr Biden taken questions after his Dissent in the Supreme Court speech....
This is not difficult people, Biden just needs to go out and talk to people...this is his primary job....selling his accomplishments and the Democratic plans for the future.
If he can't do this...he should resign. I am not a Harris fan, but she would become president and....we'll see....at an OPEN convention.
This is simple, (it is noted that We don't see Mr Biden out and about in the public. Question, why on earth does the Biden campaign staff not push him out the door? Are the stupid?) Best Wishes, Traveller
As the Politico article explains, these are people who in many cases have been with Biden for decades. It's a very loyal, very tight circle of people, including his wife, who want to protect him and it appears that, for lack of a better term, they've simply had trouble admitting to themselves and each other what they were seeing -- that he's declining mentally. The reason he doesn't do off-the-cuff interviews or pressers anymore is that they don't really want him to be without teleprompters.
As the article explains, they are fucking anonymous cowards, pushed by the same outlets that predicted failure at the state of the union, etc.
Who says they are all anonymous? I could see some of the nyt sources being some of the people who have come out on tv in recent days.
Then name names. That's what journalism is about, you fucking moron. I swear, I distinctly remember people being more critical readers in the past.
"...That's what journalism is about, you fucking moron. ..."
Lots of journalists use anonymous sources. You either trust the journalist (and their editors) to be more less honest about who (in general terms) was talking and what they said or you don't. Most news outlets don't just make stuff up.
You can't read can you? Bebopman claimed there were nonanonymous, sources, but they didn't name them. _That's_ what I was referring to. Tell me true: why didn't you read my comment that way?
As a former journalist (loooong time ago), I can assure that’s not always what it’s about.
Stop trying to misdirect: who are the named sources you claimed exist? If you don't give me those, that's not journalism. My partner, who is a respected journalist and editor of many years standing agrees.
Well said, very well said
Because he's the president and you're accepting framing that's not real.
Families always tend to be behind the curve with cognitive decline It's always easy to make an excuse of a bad day..but that goes from maybe a few times a year, to once a month, to once a week or more. Making arrangements for help takes time--and can be very expensive.
Trump is demented, also showing cognitive decline, and is taking his followers with him as he goes off the deep end.
Biden has not been "quick" for some time--see his late night show appearances. Even if it ends up being a Weekend at Bernie's thing, he'd still be infinitely better than Trump.
I absolutely disagree with this. My family knew my father was in cognitive decline long before his Dr. did. His Dr. kept giving my dad that same test Trump claims he “aced”. My dad “aced” it too. But those of us who saw him day to day knew the truth.
Every person and family is different. I've seen both -- ones like yours where it's evident to close family members long before they're officially diagnosed, and others where they're incontinent, nearly burn the house down because they forget the stove's on, and can barely recognize anyone and the wife's like "oh, he just has these senior moments..."
These type of fact-free, opinion pieces sourced to unnamed, random people should be viewed with alot, ALOT, of skepticism. Especially when they are nearly copies of previous, fact-free, unsourced narrative building opinion pieces.
Lets not forget the very similar trajectory of the Hillary narratives of 2016. Literally the same playbook with the 'serious, tough minded centrists' slowly adopting the storyline and making it their own.
The Republican narrative suddenly became the daily unsourced spin from pretend centrists and moron Democrats. Adherence to the storyline showed how serious and independant you were.
Then after the election was over we all realized it was always total BS, but oh well, whatcanyoudo?
but at least they were right about hillary's health.
she died from parkinson complications in march 2017.
The tragedy is that if Biden had done the sensible thing and refused to debate Trump - a refusal he could have turned to his own advantage - none of this nonsense would be happening.
Oh, sure.
Not.
Ken is correct on this...bad advice then, bad advice now. This alone makes me question Mr Biden's judgment.
But at least now we know. Traveller
The fact that Biden is not out there everyday campaigning is telling. All he needs to do is go out there to dispel the “rumors” (which I saw with my own very eyes) yet he is still in his cocoon.
He was out campaiging for several days immediately following the debate.
Does this change your mind? Or do we need to invent a new 'telling reason'?
I saw the clip in North Carolina, he did all right. He needs to the all the time. It is called politics.
No, it's not.
You do realize Biden has a day job. Which, contrary to your hypothesis, he's been doing a pretty damn good job. And hey, does anyone remember the feeding frenzy follow the Afghanistan pullout?
As someone adjacent to the elderly care industry, I’ve seen a lot of people grow old and die, many with dementia. Both Trump and Biden are well-trodden paths: the later on the “kindly old grandparent who is slipping away” course and the latter on the “nasty father whose kids hope blows a fuse before he burns through their inheritance or disowns them in a pique” course.
It is unlikely either will be of sound mind in January 2029 and I’d bet a pile of cash that at least one will die.
is this comment implying trump is the kindly grandfather slipping away & biden is the volcanic demento whose kids hate him?