Is he, or isn’t he all there? That is the question many Americans on both sides of the political aisle have been asking about President Joe Biden’s cognitive fitness. Considering the distinct possibility of a rematch between two elderly candidates -- former President Donald Trump and Biden -- this cogent question deserves an independent, scalable answer. And wonder of wonders, it takes only 12 minutes to find out.
On May 1, presidential candidate Nikki Haley “called for mental competency tests for politicians over the age of 75” in an opinion piece for Fox Digital. She made a strong case that they should be required: “[Biden] rarely takes press questions. He spends most weekends at his vacation home in Delaware. Sadly, he often seems disoriented and confused. Yet the public can’t know for sure without a cognitive test ... ”
There are two exams that could be administered to candidates, and either one would do just fine. The first is the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA), and the second is the Mini-Mental State Exam (MMSE). The MoCA is the more comprehensive and takes approximately 12 minutes to complete, while the MMSE lasts 7-8 minutes.
A cognitive assessment evaluates several critical areas of executive function, which is defined by the American Heritage Dictionary as the “ability to organize thoughts and activities, prioritize tasks, manage time efficiently, and make decisions.” The test is designed to assess short-term memory, language abilities, spatial orientation, and one’s attention span.
For example, the person taking the test is asked to do a few relatively simple tasks mixed in with some not-so-easy ones. Here are a few from the MoCA*:
What is the current date, month, year, and day as well as the place and city in which you are located?
Draw a cube.
What is the similarity between a bicycle and a train?
What is the similarity between a watch and a ruler?
Read a list of digits (7,4,2) at one digit per second and ask the patient to repeat them in backward order.
Ask the patient to do five serial 7 subtractions starting at 100.
Draw a clock face that shows ten past eleven.
The MoCA is not the same as the MMSE. For example, the MoCA has the patient draw the clock face while the MMSE does not. However, in both cases test subjects are scored based on their performance in each exam section.
Cognitive Challenges
Joe Biden (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
In the case of Biden, he has publicly exhibited deficits in short-term memory recall. For example, a child recently asked him about the last foreign country he visited. He could not hazard a guess, and another youngster answered correctly that he had been in Ireland.
He also appears to exhibit attention deficits and confusion in spatial relations. Just recently, he was presented with various Air Force football player paraphernalia but left the stage with only the jersey, wandering down the aisle in a confused state. There are many such bizarre incidents. However, it seems the White House staff manages to cover for him, as they did at a recent press conference when they provided him the name, picture, and question from each reporter.
As far back as June 2020, Liberty Nation reported on a Zogby poll that showed 55% of those questioned “believed Mr. Biden was in the early stages of dementia.” In 2021 we also noted:
“Neurological problems are often physically manifested by a loss of balance, lethargy, and garbled or slurred speech. Then there are cognitive challenges like inappropriate anger or frustration, memory retrieval, general confusion, and difficulty with names and numbers. From falling three times on his way up the stairs of Air Force One to his many memory lapses, there is a legitimate question to be asked: Is the man up to the job of being president?”
Now that other candidates are calling for a cognitive screening, it will be even more challenging for the president to skirt the issue. And the more compelling question: Why should he avoid such a test if there is nothing to worry about?
*All questions were taken directly from the online MoCA test here.
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