Quote:
Originally Posted by Mathgod
First of all, I don't think it's clear that he couldn't do the job for another term. It is, however, clear that he could not win this election. His oratorical abilities have rapidly declined, to the point where it was catastrophically harming his campaign. Whether the accusations of him having dementia are true or not, is a separate question.
Bernie Sanders is about to turn 83. I don't think there's much (any?) doubt that he could handle a presidential term if he were elected this November. So this is not strictly an age thing. This is an optics and perception problem. One that Biden was trapped in and had no way of getting out of. Hence his only options were to pass the torch, or send his party careening toward inevitable defeat this November.
So no, I don't buy into this notion that there was some kind of shadowy conspiracy to hide Biden's mental state. The thinking probably was that incumbency, along with his legislative accomplishments, and Trump being a flawed candidate, would be enough to get Biden a 2nd term comfortably. They probably figured that the path of least resistance was to not rock the boat, go along to get along, and as long as Biden didn't do terribly at the debates, he would cruise to re-election. This was probably the thinking up until the debate disaster, but by then he already had the delegates and only he could make the decision to step aside.
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I think Biden is still a lot more competent than most seem to think right now, but I think this is nuts. I think he is very barely competent enough to remain in office, though really its not ideal.
As for how we got here, I think it was mostly a frog in the pot situation for those closest to him, coupled with the completely natural inclination for each of them to maintain employment and influence. And even if any of them had concerns...it's always easier to do nothing than anything.