How Joe Biden Can Bow Out With Dignity

And help tens of millions of people in the process

Despite this tweet several hours ago…

… everyone knows that Biden will not be the Democratic nominee, or everyone but Biden, who is incapable of knowing it. His brain cannot make synaptic connections anymore. His 81 years of experience and ambition - or somewhat less; he’s probably been in mental decline for three or four years, a condition Covid sequestration was able to cover for several years, during which moderately alarmed and then fully alarmed handlers, donors, family members et al worked around his downtimes, came up with creative excuses, accused people who said he was failing of being right-wing dupes etc. - tells him, he’s the man; he’s earned it; he’d be letting his country down to bow out now.

Before I offer what seems to me a dignified way for Biden to step down, let’s look at what a charade this has become. We call it political theater for reason, but come on; there is not one person buying this, it’s no more than a kiddie show intermission as the grown-ups, such as they are, try to figure out how to turn a full catastrophe into a workable ticket ASAP.

Intermission will be over in, what, three days? Five? No one who’s paid attention since the horror show of a debate - Biden was two steps onto the stage when Matt Welch and I both gasped; we each have a parent suffering from cognitive decline, we know the shuffle, the 90-yard stare, the sentences that coil into themselves before collapsing - can deny what is going on. Should those who love and care for Biden - or even just their own positions within the GOP - have spoken up sooner? Of course. And as Olivia Nuzzi points out in her most recent piece in New York Magazine, “The Conspiracy of Silence to Protect Joe Biden,” many were, albeit in private.

“Have you seen the president lately? How does he seem? Often, they would answer with only silence, their eyes widening cartoonishly, their heads shaking back and forth. Or with disapproving sounds. “Phhhhwwwaahhh.” “Uggghhhhhhhhh.” “Bbbwwhhheeuuw.” Or with a simple, “Not good! Not good!” Or with an accusatory question of their own: “Have you seen him?!”

In a better world, someone would have taken Biden aside and said, “Mr. President, it’s time” and he would have listened. But therein lies a twofold problem. I’ll let Norman Mailer state the first one: “The last property of political property is ego, ego intact, ego burnished by institutional and reverential flame.” As much as any person on earth, the president of the United States has had his ego burnished, and it is a brave person who will ding that ego while ostensibly looking out for the president’s best interests. But why should he or she be believed? What chicanery might be at work beneath the loving touch?

The second reason is, no matter how loving the suggestion, a person in cognitive decline will not believe you, and they will not because they cannot.

Let me give you an example: three years ago my mother started driving on the wrong side of the road. She denied it, saying she always drove on the right side of the road. That is what she remembered doing, and she did not - could not - recall having not done so as early as seconds before. She fought for her right to remember what had been. You cannot blame her. It’s all she knows.

Joe Biden, for any and all his faults, can only remember being capable. Yes, he’s saying he has a bad debate night, but I doubt he remembers having that bad night, and that’s okay, it’s not his fault.

So here is my suggestion: in three days, or five, or whenever it’s decided by (let us hope) kindly forces, Biden address the American people and admit he has memory loss. He can say he didn’t realize; that this is the scourge of the disease, which effects tens of millions of people; I doubt there are many Americans who have not encountered it within their own families, who have not watched as their loved one slips away. Biden has an incredible opportunity here, to say, “Folks, let’s talk about this, let’s work together to find a cure and to help our fellow Americans. Let’s not be ashamed, let’s not pretend, as best as we can let’s admit there’s a problem. I’ll go first.”