The Senility of King Biden

The president’s senility is a constant topic of discussion. Less discussed is the question of how you can tell he’s senile. If you didn’t witness his stiff, shambling, sometimes aimless walk, how would you identify his condition?

Could you identify it…

…by his inability to speak without using a teleprompter? Well, did you ever see Obama when he’s ad libbing?

…by his incoherent syntax? Pull up some remarks by one of the Bushes, and tell me what you think of that piece of evidence.

…by his fixation on certain tricks of speech? Show me the current politician who doesn’t say “Let me make one thing perfectly clear”; “Number one,” seldom followed by a “Number two”; “Here’s the deal”; and other meaningless bravado tags.

Almost everything Biden advocates is idiotic. Yet you could say the same thing about almost everything that any politician advocates.

…by his boldfaced denial that he ever said things that everyone just heard him say? There will be food shortages in America, troops will be going to Ukraine, Putin must be removed . . . no, he never said those things, and you’re ignorant or crazy if you think he did. But this is an old tradition. Two of its greatest practitioners were Lyndon Johnson (a drunk but hardly senile) and Jimmy Carter (just a chronic liar, but that was good enough).

…by the violence with which he rejects all unwelcome truths? Did you notice the mean look on President Clinton’s face when he intoned, “I did not have sexual relations with that woman”? Did you know that what made President Kennedy angrier than anything else was any hint that he didn’t write Profiles in Courage — which, of course, he didn’t?

…by his advocacy of idiotic policies, such as taxing business to “create jobs,” making “clean energy work” by outlawing its competition, and printing and spending trillions of dollars in an effort to “end inflation” and “reduce the budget deficit”? Here you may think you’ve hit paydirt, because almost everything Biden advocates is idiotic. Yet you could say the same thing about almost everything that any politician advocates.

So let me make one thing perfectly clear. Here’s the deal. Number one, the American system of politics is itself shambling, aimless, dumb, wrathful, idiotic, deceitful, and obstinate; and if people keep thinking that all they need to do is to get rid of Biden so that politics can return to normal, they are going to be bitterly disappointed. It isn’t just him; it’s the politics that’s senile.

Well, that’s it. There is no Number Two.