You’ve seen several versions of that poster that is supposed to distinguish us from the Trumplicans. It starts with Science is Real and goes on in various directions from there. So if Science is real, how about using it to settle a question that only science can effectively answer? Some people are saying Biden is senile, others saying he isn’t, but actual gerontologists acknowledge they can’t make a reliable judgment without examining the man. The Washington Post’s Jennifer Rubin has been insisting that Biden release his entire medical record, but that is only a step in the right direction. Lets select someone who has been honored by the Gerontological Society of America and have one of these winners examine him in all the ways that gerontologists do. I don’t know what those are. I just found the links in the previous sentences with a quick google search. Maybe there is a particular kind of gerontologist who specializes in this kind of diagnostic examination. Get the Doctor whom the GSA says is the best in the world at that kind of examination. Have that doctor publish a detailed report about exactly how aging has effected Biden’s physical and cognitive abilities, and make it available to anyone who wants to see it.
Of course this report will reveal that age has affected Biden in various negative ways. That’s true of anyone over the age of thirty. Eventually, like everyone else, Biden will die, and he is a lot closer to death than most of us. But once we know exactly how age has affected Biden, in scientifically quantifiable terms, it will be possible to judge objectively how these changes might affect his past and future presidency. Here is where the expertise of the gerontologist stops and other experts on the presidency have to step in. The Gerontologist is an expert on aging, but not on the challenges and duties of the Presidency. For that we will have to consult other experts including, but not necessarily be limited to, former presidents, including Biden himself. Biden already took a few steps in that direction when he admitted that he has been taking too many trips recently, and probably needs to limit his work hours to a certain time frame. But he needs to go further than just making a few off-hand remarks. He needs to prepare a detailed report of his own that provides commentary on the gerontologist report. This commentary must explain in detail how he plans to work around his weaknesses and build on his strengths. It might explain, for example, how he will build connections for Zoom conferencing to substitute for his former heavy traveling schedule, or how he will delegate certain members of his staff to keep an eye on things, so he can step in immediately if he is needed during his “off-hours”.
This report would have to be brutally honest, and contain plausible solutions for the many possible problems that it describes. But it should also contain the many reasons why Biden’s years of experience make him more qualified for the job in certain respects.The details of such a report are, like gerontology, outside my expertise, but they are well within Biden’s. The main reason I think Biden would prepare a compelling report is that his actions as president have always shown a fine attention to detail, and ingenious solutions to specific problems that most of us are unaware of.
Without such a report, we non-experts are forced to speculate. Here is the conclusion my speculations have led me to:
If you are sitting at your desk or a discussion table while planning policy, and your mind goes blank for a few seconds or even minutes, It doesn’t matter as long as you eventually come up with an effective policy or strategy. I look at the accomplishments of Biden’s presidency and conclude that anyone who could produce those kind of results has what it takes to be president. It’s not just that these are good laws. It’s that they deal with problems that most people don’t even know about, and that these laws are skillfully designed to tackle those problems head on. No one with dementia or senility could have come up with laws like this.
For those who don’t want to read the hundreds of accomplishments described in the above link, here are a couple of examples from the columns of Paul Krugman:
the Federal Trade Commission issued a ban on most noncompete clauses, which prevent a company’s employees from taking jobs with rival businesses; such clauses currently cover, roughly, an astonishing 30 million workers and have been a major force reducing labor market competition. (NYTimes 4/25/24)
Biden has been a remarkably effective president. Trump spent four years claiming that a major infrastructure initiative was just around the corner, to the point that “It’s infrastructure week!” became a running joke; Biden actually got legislation passed. Trump promised to revive American manufacturing, but didn’t. Biden’s technology and climate policies — the latter passed against heavy odds —have produced a surge in manufacturing investment. His enhancement of Obamacare has brought health insurance coverage to millions.
If you ask me, these achievements say a lot more about Biden’s capacity than his occasional verbal slips. (NyTimes 2/12/24)
Unfortunately, both Krugman and I have reluctantly acknowledged that it’s not enough to be a good president anymore. You have to be able to play one convincingly on TV. If you’re on television and and your mind goes blank for a few seconds, people start comparing you to an extra in a zombie movie. Biden may very well have lost the ability to be an effective television presence, and I believe that without that ability, he can’t be re-elected. Being the President and Becoming the President are two different jobs with very different skill sets. Biden’s record shows that he is very good at the former. The debate has shown me that he is not very good at the latter. For these reasons, I worry about Biden’s ability to win the election, but I would unhesitatingly vote for him myself.
If every registered voter agreed with me and Krugman, Biden would win in a landslide. Unfortunately, many people believe that Biden’s debate performance proves he can’t be president, because his public behavior reminds them of their crazy old Uncle Charlie. Some of them are demanding we invoke the 25th amendment and force Biden to resign immediately. When I point out that this bad performance could have been caused by a cold or exhaustion, they say “Can you prove that?” and don’t bother noticing that they can’t prove their interpretation of those behaviors either. Having to live with Uncle Charlie doesn’t make you a gerontologist. Those who believe Biden is not significantly different from Uncle Charlie could be right, but I think his record proves they are wrong. Psychology and/or Neurology are the best tools we have for settling that dispute. Once he has the necessary data, can Biden look his condition square in the face and come up with an effective strategy for dealing with it? Will the Public admire his honesty and courage for doing so? If the Polls show that they do, I’d be happy to accept Biden as the nominee, provided he does one more thing: Release his delegates from voting for him on the first ballot, and then spend the convention trying to win them back against whoever shows up to run against him. My reasons for that will be outlined in another essay, coming soon to a Daily Kos page near you.
Once Biden has seriously faced and dealt with these charges, he can demand that Trump undergo the same tests, and I don’t think he will do anywhere near as well as Biden. Trump frequently confuses all kinds of names, places and other basic, obvious details. Wind turbines cause cancer? Water destroys magnets on aircraft carriers? The battle of Gettysburg was beautiful, me boys? Electric boats are more dangerous than sharks? Nikki Haley stopped military intervention on January 6th? Note that this last confusion was far worse than Biden’s tendency to confuse names. Biden sometimes says a name incorrectly once and then either corrects it or goes on to other topics. Pretty much everybody does that. My high school teachers repeatedly called me by my older brother’s name, but they definitely knew I wasn’t him. Trump repeated claims about Nikki Haley seemed to indicate that he confused not just her name with Nancy Pelosi’s, but that he actually believed, at least for a few seconds, that Nikki Haley was Nancy Pelosi. That seems to me to be full blown dementia, but of course I will leave that diagnosis to the experts.