Minding Joe

He shifts from sad passivity to snarling aggression.

When last we met in this space, the subject of the aging Joe Biden’s mental acuity came up. I essentially contended that he wasn’t as far gone as many conservatives would have it. But now I’m not so sure. Since he turned withdrawal from Afghanistan into a Munich 1938 moment, he’s been on a permanent downhill slide. The only thing that might stop it is if the avalanche catching up to him buries him in snow. He’s already paid a mental price, and it’s one that someone in his demographic doesn’t recover from. It manifests itself in increasingly erratic behavior. First came resignation, as when in a short session with the White House press corps he placed his head atop his folded hands. A guilty house pet is known to do that, pleading for some TLC and other reassurance. He barely could summon the energy to speak, and when he did, the words registered in a hush. Subscribers, click here to read the full magazine. Not a subscriber? Click here to become a Patriot member today and receive access to The American Spectator in print and online! The next day, in a joint appearance with visiting Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, he displayed the same mental and physical fatigue in his demeanor and remarks. When it was Bennett’s turn to speak, Biden sat back in his chair, closed his eyes, and soon folded his hands, on his lap this time, and one had to assume he was dozing off. (Because no snoring was detected, it’s unlikely he was ever fully asleep.) Then came August 31, and a very different-sounding Biden (shouldn’t he be regularly drug tested?), as he defiantly marked the official end of America’s presence in what he’s turned into Talibanland. Just following the military’s recommendations, he said. He passed the blame in many ways. And he was just warming up. By the following week, he was attacking the American people, especially those who did not agree with him on his panic-driven approach to COVID-19. “Unlike anything I’d ever heard from an American president,” the kindly...