Imagine the bewilderment of insider White House folks to suddenly be getting the same treatment from mainstream media that conservative politicians have been getting for a long time.
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The media's 180* turn isn't really all that surprising. When it appeared possible that Biden could pull off a re-election, he was healthy, handsome and brilliant. When it became obvious that they'd been lying all along it suddenly became necessary to help get him out of the race so that someone else could possibly win rather than lose biggly as he is almost certain to do.
The problem now is that his heir apparent doesn't have much more of a chance of winning than he does which leaves everyone wondering how they can toss a woman of color aside for the win and face the ire of their progressive base. It's a self-made quandary without an easy fix, but they're working on it. The primary takeaway is that you should never trust the media unless you're absolutely in need of whatever they're selling.
It sure didn't take long for the NYT to turn on Biden. I suppose Trump's criminal activity and incompetence are old and Biden's debate failure is "news".
If Biden really does stay inn the race I think he will need a competence evaluation to win. My take is that he should challenge Trump to a mutual evaluation by a qualified neutral authority (if such exists). Not only for competence, but other mental disorders.
Gosh, it would have been a lot simpler if the media and democrats just stuck with the "He's sharp as a tack and your lying eyes are deceiving you if you think otherwise" ploy they were using up to the very day he proved otherwise.
It has been entertaining though to see so many journalists channel their inner Captain Renault and declare "I'm shocked! shocked to find that gambling is going on here" while everyone paying attention over the last couple of years remind them to not forget their winnings.
I get a simple dementia screening with my annual physical. Name the months of the year backwards, repeat a simple phrase with names and places at the end of the test that was given in the beginning, etc. While I'm confident in my age appropriate mental facilities, it has occurred to me that if I started to lose some of my abilities, would I be competent to recognize it.
We can assume competency based on media optics, but when Trump confused Haley with Pelosi and had delusions of winning the 2020 Presidential election, do we really know who has lost the most marbles, if any. There are probably people in Bellevue who think they are king of England.
I had a friend who had a brain injury and one one of her hospital tests was to count backwards from 100 to zero by sevens. I think the whole issue is age and competency and that's it. Both fall into a zone of suspicion. One more than the other although I don't see any folks asking for Trump to step down. Winning is everything.
I have always been tolerant of politicians misspeaking, by that I mean, dropping a word, substituting the wrong word, etc. It’s because they talk so much. They talk all the time. I’m sympathetic to them even giving speeches in Poughkeepsie mentioning they’re in Philadelphia, or etc. because they stump speech so much
So just a couple days ago when President Biden said he was going to “beat Trump in 2020 “that is not something that normally registers with me.
But his performance at the debate was Mitch McConnell level senility. Both of those old farts need to go. Donald Trump mispeaks, big deal, he’s constantly speaking he’s like a firehose of words.
I think Donald's mental issues are different from Biden's senility, but still in the realm of mental incompetence. But yes, those occasional slips of words are generally forgivable for both.
I suspect there are more in our main branches of government who are older and have some unacceptable mental decline. I wonder about the Supreme Court. Even in my tender young age, I know that there are certain things that I've seen a little decline, but I'd like to think my decline in memory is compensated by a gain in wisdom and experience (ha). I'd be lost without spellcheck, though.