Old politicians: The risks of cognitive decline

The presidential race “is suddenly becoming the dementia campaign,” said John Harris in Politico .com. With Joe Biden, 77, battling Bernie Sanders, 78, for the chance to take on President Trump,

73, “questions about age-related infirmity” are unavoidable. Biden’s surge in the Democratic primaries has been accompanied by an uptick in verbal fumbles that have been replayed again and again on Fox News, such as his mangled attempt to recite the Declaration of Independence at a campaign event: “All men and women created by— you know, you know, the thing.” Biden has always been gaffe-prone, said Miranda Devine in the New York Post. But the famously capable bloviator is increasingly wedded to his teleprompter. Anyone who’s witnessed Biden on the trail this year knows he’s suffering “cognitive impairment.” He often seems bewildered, can’t remember “if he’s running for the Senate or the presidency, or even whether it’s Super Tuesday or ‘Super Thursday.’”

“All of this feels very familiar,” said Nancy LeTourneau in WashingtonMonthly.com. In 2016, Republicans waged a “disinformation campaign” to paint Hillary Clinton as corrupt, and now they’re smearing Biden as mentally incapable. Of course, there’s nothing in Biden’s medical records that indicates a cognitive impairment. But we do know the former vice president suffers from a stutter, and that the mental effort needed to keep it at bay can result in mangled syntax. If Republicans harp on Biden’s blooper reel, said Gail Collins in The New York Times, then Democrats should roll out the footage of Trump’s bizarre gaffes. Our president has praised America’s Continental Army for “taking over the airports,” called his wife “Melanie,” and referred to the midterm elections as “midtown or midturn.” We could go on, and “before November, I bet we will.”

Voters are right to worry about a president “going senile in office,” said Graeme Wood in TheAtlantic .com. The chief executive faces brutally complex decisions every day, and we’ve all seen older relatives struggle with “a remote control.” But many older Americans have watched a younger relative “flip channels like a madman.” Perhaps “the creaky machinery of an aging brain might make a president better at the job.” Studies show that older adults “are better at keeping their emotions and impulses in check” and can display judgment superior to that of youngsters. “A leader who is economical in his actions and laconic in his tweets does not sound all that unwelcome right now.”