The number-crunching pollsters at Zogby International recently asked 1,007 likely voters if 77-year old Joe Biden has severe cognitive challenges. A resounding 55% believe that the presumptive Democratic Party nominee for president is "in the early stages of dementia." Under the Zogby lens, the numbers fleshed out mostly – but not entirely – along partisan lines:
"Thus, majorities of Republicans (77% more likely/23% less likely) and Independents (56% more likely/44% less likely) thought Joe Biden had early-onset dementia; while nearly a third of Democrats (32% more likely/68% less likely) thought this was the case."
Whoa, Nellie! Republicans aside, that leaves the undecided Independents and a good number of nervous Democrats a frightening, game-changing number to overcome. Did Zogby check with CNN or MSNBC before releasing those survey results? Probably not, but the brave pollsters asked a variety of questions which tells the tale of oh no, Joe, best stay in the basement for a bit longer.
To break it down further, 50% of women and 60% of men thought the man was losing it. How do Democrats feel? The nation is just a few months from what both Republicans and progressives believe will be the turning point?
Biden's Blunder
The Biden gaffe machine had been running at full-tilt when COVID-19 put the nation under shelter-in-place orders for two solid months, essentially depriving the former vice president of hair sniffing, finger nibbling, and insulting the electorate opportunities.
From calling one Iowa voter fat and another a "lying dog-faced pony-soldier," to declaring he was running for the United States Senate, Joe Biden had nearly everyone in America questioning the man's cognitive decline. However, in fairness, Biden has been lying and saying ridiculous nonsense for decades.
Remember when he described the man running for president as the "first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy"? And still, Obama kept him around and covered for him – although the heavy sighing was obvious when Obama released a statement afterward to calm black folks down:
"I didn't take Sen. Biden's comments personally, but obviously they were historically inaccurate. African-American presidential candidates like Jesse Jackson, Shirley Chisholm, Carol Moseley Braun and Al Sharpton gave a voice to many important issues through their campaigns, and no one would call them inarticulate."
But Americans realize that Obama isn't around to keep his number two on the up and up. Biden is in the running for top dog, and if that dog is losing his marbles, how on earth will America take his candidacy seriously?
The Zogby survey should serve as a warning to Democrats that Joe isn't able to be the leader of the free world. And perhaps they have opened the door for other pollsters to delve further into the minds of the electorate. How can they avoid the subject of Biden's seemingly mental decline in the day and age of instant media? It is a question that Biden's camp must address before too long: and that alone should entail Biden undertaking a mental acuity test before the anointing at the Democratic convention. It matters little who he chooses as a running mate if he cannot remember "the thing, the thing" that he is running to protect. Most Americans, including the current president of the United States, know that "thing" to be the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights.
Biden should, at the very least, understand that much to be on the November ballot.
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