Do Joe Biden’s old age and visible decline still matter? The buzz after his generally well-received, stumble-free acceptance speech at the Democratic convention was that they don’t. But that just meant people were asking the wrong question. And Biden’s carefully stage-managed appearances since then have revived the question, given his apparent reliance on teleprompters to get through interviews (a touchy subject with his staffers) and use of pre-screened lists to control the questions he is asked.
Donald Trump and his allies have, of course, oversold the extent of Biden’s cognitive decline and decrepitude while Biden has been off the campaign trail. Biden’s partisans and sympathetic media figures tell us that this is all that matters. After all, Biden was fine reading a prepared, practiced speech to the Democratic convention, and now all he has to do is survive the debates against Trump. Of course, none of these people consider it a sign of great mental capacity when a Republican — Trump, Sarah Palin, George W. Bush — gets unscathed through reading a speech off a teleprompter.
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