In an effort to explain to people why he does not hold press conferences, Joe Biden held a press conference yesterday.  It went about as one might expect. For example, he was asked if he thought that the school closings might be a political problem for him. Yes or no might have sufficed, but Mr. Biden proved his detractors wrong about his intellect by delving into the issue a bit more deeply:

Oh, I think it could be, but I hope to God that they’re — that — look, maybe I’m kidding myself, but as time goes on, the voter who is just trying to figure out, as I said, how to take care of their family, put three squares on the table, stay safe, able to pay their mortgage or their rent, et cetera, has — is becoming much more informed on the motives of some of the political players and some of the — and the political parties. And I think that they are not going to be as susceptible to believing some of the outlandish things that have been said and continue to be said.

You know, every — every president, not necessarily in the first 12 months, but every president in the first couple of years — almost every president, excuse me, of the last presidents — at least four of them — have had polling numbers that are 44 percent favorable.

So, it’s this idea that — but you all — not you all — but now it is, “Well, Biden is at — one poll showed him at 33 percent. The average is 44 — 44, 45 percent. One polled him at 49 percent.”

I mean, the idea that — the American public are trying to sift their way through what’s real and what’s fake. And I don’t think as — I’ve never seen a time when the political coverage — the choice of what political coverage a voter looks to has as much impact on as what they believe; they go to get reinforced in their views, whether it’s MSNBC or whether it’s Fox or whatever.

I mean — and one of the things I find fascinating that’s happening — and you all are dealing with it every day — and it will impact on how things move — is that a lot of the speculation in the polling data shows that the — that the cables are heading south; they’re losing viewership. You know?

Well, Fox is okay for a while, but it’s not gated. And a lot of the rest are predicted to be not very much in the mix in the next four to five years. I don’t know whether that’s true or not.

But I do know that we have sort of put everybody in — put themselves in certain alleys. And they’ve decided that, you know, how many people who watch MSNBC also watch Fox, other than a politician trying to find out what’s going on in both places? How many people —

Again, I’m no expert in any of this. But the fact is, I think you have to acknowledge that what gets covered now is necessarily a little bit different than what gets covered in the past.

I’ve had a couple — well, I shouldn’t get into this.

But the nature not — the nature of the way things get covered — and this is my observation over the years I’ve been involved in public life — changed. And it’s changed because of everything from a thing called the Internet. It’s changed because of the way in which we have self-identified perspectives based on what channel you turn on, what — what network you look at — not network, but what cable you look at. And it’s — it’s never quite been like that.

Anyway.

I did not vote for Mr. Biden.  But I’m sure that those who did vote for him are thinking, “Thank goodness we finally have someone in the White House who is not a crazy unpredictable fool like Donald Trump.”  They must be relieved.

On the other hand, there are some critics who use answers like the one above to suggest that Mr. Biden must have some form of dementia.  I think those critics are way off base.

Is this answer less coherent than his speeches from 40-50 years ago? Of course not. You never know what Mr. Biden is going to say. And neither does Mr. Biden. He never has.

It’s possible that he has some form of dementia. Hard to say. But I’m convinced that this is just how his brain works, even on a good day.  He’s always been like this.  He would have struggled with a regular job, like a truck driver or a factory worker.  I don’t think he could have managed that.  Can you imagine him keeping track of a logbook or a time card?  He would have needed help to deal with details like that.

He excelled in politics through a lack of ethics, not through a powerful intellect.

This is not disease or old age.  This is just who Joe Biden is.  It’s who he’s always been.  Just ask Clarence Thomas, who didn’t understand many of Mr. Biden’s questions during his hearings.  Mr. Biden graduated 76th out of 85 students at Syracuse Law School, after having been kicked out for plagiarism.  Mr. Thomas is one of the great legal minds of our era.  Mr. Thomas had no idea what Mr. Biden was talking about.  Because most of Biden’s questions sounded like his answer above.

After Jimmy Carter’s spectacular failures 45 years ago, his leftist supporters suggested that perhaps the world was sufficiently complex that the Presidency was too complicated for one man to manage.  Even after Ronald Reagan proved them wrong, those leftists just couldn’t see that the problem with Jimmy Carter was not his intellect, but his leftism.

Dwelling on Mr. Biden’s supposed dementia is a mistake.

First of all, it may not be true.  It’s not at all clear that he is worse off intellectually than he was 50 years ago.

But more importantly, the problem with Mr. Biden is not his cognitive difficulties, but his leftism.

Did Ronald Reagan have early Alzheimer’s disease during his term as president?  Perhaps.  But he governed as a conservative, and conservatism works, so it was ok.  He lost his memory – not his judgment.  Even in a weakened state, Mr. Reagan would not have opened our borders, doubled our money supply, shut down our energy production, retreated from Afghanistan, defunded the police, allowed our history to be destroyed, promoted gender and race conflicts, and so on.  He might have needed help with his daily schedule.  He didn’t need help with reality.  He was a conservative.

If he had been a leftist like Carter, he would have failed like Carter.  If he had been a leftist like Biden, he would have failed like Biden.

But he wasn’t a leftist.  So he succeeded.  Even though he may have suffered from the same disease as Mr. Biden might be suffering from.  The disease doesn’t matter as much as their ideology.  A secretary can tell you when your next meeting is.  But if the president really believes that you can keep printing money until inflation stops, then there is no cure for that.  Leftism is a metastatic disease with no known cure.  Just ask Californians.  Or, now, Texans (having been over-run by Californians).  Or Venezuelans.  Or Cubans.  Or anyone that has been touched by leftism.

Did Mr. Reagan suffer from dementia during his presidency?  I’m not sure.  Does Mr. Biden?  I’m not sure.  But honestly, I don’t care.

Mr. Biden suffers from leftism.  And now, so do we.

Dementia is not the problem.  Leftism is.  It doesn’t matter who the president is, or how smart they are.  The person doesn’t matter.  Their age doesn’t matter.  Where they went to college doesn’t matter.

Leftism matters.

Leftism is destructive.  Regardless of who is promoting it.

Let’s stay focused on the real problem, here…