Joe Biden’s cognitive issues are destined for the memory hole

By J. Peder Zane
Real Clear Wire

There will be no reckoning among Democrats and their media lapdogs regarding their years-long effort to hide President Biden’s mental decline. No one will lose their job, precisely because they were doing their job – spinning false narratives to keep the left in power.

And, let there be no doubt, they will keep doing it. The current focus on Biden’s unfitness will last only until Democrats determine whether or not they can force him out. That effort won’t be easy. Biden is an empty suit with a boundless ego – he truly believes he is a modern-day FDR. Withdrawing because you’re not “all there” would be deeply humiliating.

If it becomes clear Joe won’t go, the party and its propaganda outlets will quickly pivot. Discussions of his physical and mental capacities will be shoved down the memory hole. His continuing gaffes and incoherence will be largely ignored, cast as boring facts that are already “baked in the cake”: Voters know about his limits so what’s the point of harping on them? Late night comics such as Steven Colbert and Jimmy Kimmel will probably try to make his ramblings kind of lovable – Joe says the darndest things. If Biden bows out, his replacement will be cast as the second coming of well, Jesus Christ, offering a path to salvation for an imperiled land.

Whether the candidate is Joe Biden or someone else, the goal will be to make the Democrat standard-bearer disappear from the race. When he or she is mentioned at all, it will be to cast the Biden administration’s unpopular record as one of high achievement. Look at all that the president and the Democrats have accomplished for the American people.

News coverage, instead, will seek to make the contest about Donald Trump’s fitness for office. Policy differences not involving abortion will be buried in the avalanche of personal attacks. New York Times White House correspondent Peter Baker signaled the pivot last Friday when he wrote:

One party has a candidate who is really old and showing it. The other has a candidate who is a convicted felon, adjudicated sexual abuser, business fraudster and self-described aspiring dictator for a day. And also really old. One party wants to replace its candidate. The other does not.

That same day, PBS “NewsHour” host Amna Nawaz characterized Trump as “an antidemocratic candidate with authoritarian tendencies, who is now newly empowered by that Supreme Court immunity ruling.”

With all her signature nuance, MSNBC host Joy Reid succinctly expressed the establishment mindset going forward: “If it’s Biden in a coma, I’m going to vote for Biden in a coma … to keep Hitler out of the White House.”

Even as Biden’s behavior suggests Reid is close to getting her wish, the next four months will be filled with fan-flaming screeds about fascism, Christian nationalism, white supremacy, Jan. 6, and dubious felony convictions. Trump’s hyperbole will be cast as despicable lies while the press ignores Biden’s insistence on repeating long-debunked talking points. Note that Biden’s opening line of the debate – probably his most prepared and rehearsed line of the night – contained two whoppers as he claimed he inherited an economy “in freefall” and that all Trump did in response to COVID was tell people to “inject a little bleach in your arm.” He also repeated the lie that Trump had praised neo-Nazis who marched at Charlottesville – tellingly “Meet the Press” host Kristen Welker branded Trump a liar for correcting Biden about this.

In fairness, we’ve heard this all before – and Trump is still leading the race. The attacks on him have been so vicious and unhinged for so long that it is easy to overlook the truly astounding fact that the man is still standing. Part of this is due to his remarkable toughness; part is due to the out-of-touch incompetence of his foes. They still don’t see that they have overplayed their hand, offering risible caricatures instead of critiques.

Democrats and their propaganda outlets still have power within their own liberal echo chambers, but they can no longer have the trust of the broader public. Most Americans dismiss their bogus narratives, including their longstanding insistence that Biden was at the top of his game. No one can be surprised by his cognitive issues, especially those in government and the media who have observed him up close for years. After interviewing him for a few hours nine months ago, Special Counsel Robert Hur concluded the president was an “elderly man with a poor memory.” The debate simply forced the media to acknowledge what most Americans could see at a greater distance.

It is a sign of the establishment’s cynicism that their only concern is that Biden might not have the capacity to run a winning campaign, not that he is probably unfit to execute the far more demanding and consequential duties of commander in chief.

The real mystery going forward: What other tricks do Democrats and the establishment media have up their sleeves to turn things around? Having already thrown the kitchen sink at Trump, it is hard to imagine that some new narrative about his evil nature will sway undecided voters.

Things could get very dark if they double down on lawfare – don’t be surprised if the Biden-donor judge in New York sentences Trump to jail in the Stormy Daniels case, or if state courts change how and when people can vote.

The pivot is coming and its intent will be clear: to help the Democrats win by any means necessary. Fortunately, we still live in a democracy and the people, not the power brokers, will have the final say.

J. Peder Zane is a RealClearInvestigations editor and columnist. He previously worked as a book review editor and book columnist for the News & Observer (Raleigh), where his writing won several national honors. Zane has also worked at the New York Times and taught writing at Duke University and Saint Augustine’s University.

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