Did Reagan Suffer from Dementia? Does Biden? Who Cares?

 

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…

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  1. Dr. Bastiat Member
    Dr. Bastiat
    @drbastiat

    Doctor Robert (View Comment):

    Dr Bastiat, for whom I have great regard, consistently overlooks the signs of Mr Biden’s dementia which have been increasingly present over the last half decade. I must respectfully disagree with him. The man (Biden) is demented. Not completely, but enough to disqualify him, in a sane world, from public office.

    The good Doctor argues that what some observers, myself included, see as dementia is instead the expression of a life-long personality disorder.

    Perhaps we can embrace the power of “and”.

    Joe Biden is a narcissistic thug AND he’s becoming increasingly demented.

     

    You may very well be correct.  I suspect that he does suffer from dementia.  I’m not sure.  But you’re probably right.

    • #31
  2. Headedwest Coolidge
    Headedwest
    @Headedwest

    Jim McConnell (View Comment):

    MiMac (View Comment):

    Actually what is most reprehensible about Biden & the Senate SCOTUS hearings is the 180 degree turn he did between Bork & Thomas. He attacked Bork b/c he claimed he did NOT believe in natural law- he then pivoted to attack Thomas FOR believing in natural law. I am sure Joe didn’t really understand what he was talking about (he had aides write the questions)- but his shameful pivot was unbelievable. But of course, nobody in the compliant press bothered to ask Joe why he stopped believing in natural law after they finished borking Justice Bork.

    I can’t understand how anyone who watched those two hearings could not feel revulsion toward Joe Biden.

    Those hearings were when I became aware of, and disgusted by, Joe Biden. Nothing has changed since. He was an evil dumb guy then, and he remains that today.

    • #32
  3. EDISONPARKS Member
    EDISONPARKS
    @user_54742

    I would never diagnose Biden with an actual medical disease like dementia, I’m not a medical professional and although my father had dementia my experience in no way provides me with the ability to diagnose the onset of dementia.

    However, comparing Biden’s speaking ability and his walking ability to as recently as his years as VP it is obvious Biden is experiencing advancing age related cognitive and physical decline.

    At age 79 this is not unusual, but what is unusual is that the citizens of the United States have made the decision to elect an octogenarian to lead the Country and the free world.

    Statistically, hiring an 80 something to a very demanding heavy workload, high stress job will usually end up exactly as we are experiencing with Joe Biden now …. an older man unable to cope with and perform the given tasks he was hired to do.

    We are stuck with Biden for 3 more years, but my larger point is Trump will be 78 in 2024 and 82 in 2028.

    • #33
  4. Skyler Coolidge
    Skyler
    @Skyler

    James Salerno (View Comment):
    Bork was a REAL originalist too. We would probably be in a much better place now if he got on the bench. Never forgive low IQ Biden for that.

    Bork is  a nutjob.  He is not an originalist as much as he is in favor of government power.  There’s not much government power he doesn’t support.  We lucked out not getting him, he would have encouraged the worst in Scalia.

    • #34
  5. Cosmik Phred Member
    Cosmik Phred
    @CosmikPhred

    Oh, so he’s a moron.  That’s a relief.😉

    Seriously, great post!

    Here’s another depressing fact we all know.  Joe’s been doing this forever and is discovering it’s easier to be one out of a hundred than The One.  From an anti-development New Castle County Councilman to a free spending POTUS.

    You’ve come a long way Brandon!

    • #35
  6. Gazpacho Grande' Coolidge
    Gazpacho Grande'
    @ChrisCampion

    Biden’s specific comments in the excerpt are themselves part of the problem – he’s talking cable news, mainstream, which almost no one watches anymore (in terms of pure audience numbers).  He does talk about “the internet”, and how that’s changed things – but that changed decades ago, it’s just more prevalent today.

    He’s stuck in his same paradigm.  Fox is more like the other networks now than Biden would understand, in terms of similar content and messaging.  He seems them as the polar/diametric opposites, due to political fealties, I see them as slightly different flavors of the same food we’ve been force-fed for some time now.

    To the Doc’s point:  Joe would be the same, maybe a little less or more coherent, regardless of his mental capacity deteriorating or staying the same throughout his entire life.  This is a guy who was VP for 8 years.  He’s still a dolt, a political hack, defined by literally everything he’s done in the public sphere – and it’s worked.   He has millions.  His family has millions.

    Not too bad for a guy who almost failed to graduate from law school, despite cheating, and getting caught.

    • #36
  7. Gazpacho Grande' Coolidge
    Gazpacho Grande'
    @ChrisCampion

    Franco (View Comment):

    Dr. Bastiat (View Comment):

    Leftists are granted a great deal of leeway in terms of ethics & ideology. The details are less important. As long as Thatcher’s ratchet effect moves ever leftward.

    Does Biden really believe in modern leftism? Whatever that is this afternoon? Maybe. Or maybe not quite.

    It doesn’t matter. He’s a leftist. So we end up in the same place as if Sanders had won.

    I agree entirely.

    But I think that the threat – at the moment – isn’t coming from the left. It’s coming from the corporatist nougat center. Facebook, Google, Disney, Pfizer, Amazon et al. Democrats aren’t just in bed with these global companies, they are their willing hostages and whores. And so are a goodly number of Republicans. It’s basically fascism as it’s commonly defined. The government and monopolistic businesses in cahoots. Communism is viscerally against this (even though their policies ultimately implode into the same results for people).

    I don’t mind these corporations making a ton of money, and I appreciate their contributions, I mind them manipulating our government to enact laws that make them more money – laws that infringe on my freedom. Once that starts to happen, I don’t like them so much anymore.

    So I guess I’m more sympathetic to commies when we are fighting fascists. I’ll fight the commies later.

    Maybe I’m calling for better targeting of our opponents. And prioritizing. Our fight right now is about freedom, not ideological direction. The ratchet effect is very real. I think things have gone beyond the ideology. We are already a socialist country. Free enterprise in America is becoming an impossible joke. It’s mega corporations and government regulations the little guy has to contend with, and now the pandemic rules just wiped out almost half of them.

    Cui Bono?

     

    Spot on.

    • #37
  8. RufusRJones Member
    RufusRJones
    @RufusRJones

    Skyler (View Comment):

    Rodin (View Comment):
    The American people who supported Biden as “normalcy” will never get what they thought they would. We will get whatever the handlers decide. The Deep State triumphs.

    The Deep State was always just the useful idiots. They won’t triumph. The communists triumph when we have systemic collapse.

    Join Victor Davis Hanson and cohost Sami Winc as they explore “systems collapse” after Biden’s first year. VDH brings the whole year into historical perspective.

    https://art19.com/shows/the-victor-davis-hanson-show/episodes/8b1a0eac-c2e3-48a9-a6a3-1303e9967fc5

    The other thing I recommend is listen to all of the podcast interviews of “Doomberg” that you can. He has a consulting firm of guys that work in industrial situations but they advise the financial system.

    • #38
  9. RufusRJones Member
    RufusRJones
    @RufusRJones

    The Democrats have to have a plan to get him out and then get a serious person as vice president if there is an emergency. 

    • #39
  10. Skyler Coolidge
    Skyler
    @Skyler

    RufusRJones (View Comment):

    The Democrats have to have a plan to get him out and then get a serious person as vice president if there is an emergency.

    This IS the democrat plan.  

    • #40
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