Before getting to that: A new New York Times/Siena poll (George is using a crayon for a pollster) has Trump opening a six point lead on Biden nationally, 49 to 43, up +3 since the debate.

What I hope is that people on the fence have been forced to resolve their resistance to Trump, and, having put that stuff aside, will continue supporting him in the possible and I'd say probable case that Biden drops out.

On to the NYT and its own Modified Limited Hangout: It has just suddenly come to the attention of the nation's "Paper of Record" that Biden's brain might not work so good.

Hey guys, did you hear? The Steele Dossier was fake and covid-19 may have (just may have) been created in a lab using money provided by Anthony Fauci.

Hop in the DeLorean, everyone! We're going back in time -- back to what everyone except liberal trash knew five years ago.

Biden's Lapses Are Increasingly Common, According to Some of Those in the Room



People who have spent time with President Biden over the last few months or so said the lapses appear to have grown more frequent, more pronounced and, after Thursday's debate, more worrisome.

OMG-- the Space Shuttle just blew up. No not that one, the first one.

Oh to have a teacher like Sally K. Ride. May your spirit ride on cosmic waves, Mrs. Ride. Excelsior.

In the weeks and months before President Biden's politically devastating performance on the debate stage in Atlanta, several current and former officials and others who encountered him behind closed doors noticed that he increasingly appeared confused or listless, or would lose the thread of conversations.

Holy shit! President Reagan's been shot! Who's in charge? WHO'S IN CHARGE?!

Oh good, it's this Alexander Haig fellow. Thank goodness he stepped up.

Like many people his age, Mr. Biden, 81, has long experienced instances in which he mangled a sentence, forgot a name or mixed up a few facts, even though he could be sharp and engaged most of the time. But in interviews, people in the room with him more recently said that the lapses seemed to be growing more frequent, more pronounced and more worrisome.

My friend Stubby told me that George Lucas -- he did Star Wars -- is teaming up with Steven Spielberg -- he did Jaws -- to make a movie.

I'm hoping it's good, but it's a weird idea -- it's actually set back in the 30s, about some kind of treasure hunter.

Han Solo's in it, so I'll give it a chance.

The uncomfortable occurrences were not predictable, but seemed more likely when he was in a large crowd or tired after a particularly bruising schedule. In the 23 days leading up to the debate against former President Donald J. Trump, Mr. Biden jetted across the Atlantic Ocean twice for meetings with foreign leaders and then flew from Italy to California for a splashy fund-raiser, maintaining a grueling pace that exhausted even much younger aides.
I'm a 20 year old physical trainer, and even I get exhausted just thinking about Ruth Bader Ginsburg's workout!!!

Do they even hear themselves? How long are they going to keep repeating these ridiculous lines?

He took a plane a couple of times in three weeks. A lot of people do that. And they do not mentally melt down from it.

Mr. Biden was drained enough from the back-to-back trips to Europe that his team cut his planned debate preparation by two days so he could rest at his house in Rehoboth Beach, Del., before joining advisers at Camp David for rehearsals. The preparations, which took place over six days, never started before 11 a.m. and Mr. Biden was given time for an afternoon nap each day, according to a person familiar with the process.

Referring to the start time, Andrew Bates, a White House spokesman, said "the president was working well before then, after exercising."

Just like Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

Whoops, I returned to the present for a moment. Lemme get back in the DeLorean and get this up to 88 miles per hours.

...

He is certainly not that way all the time. In the days since the debate debacle, aides and others who encountered him, including foreign officials, described him as being in good shape -- alert, coherent and capable, engaged in complicated and important discussions and managing volatile crises. They cited example after example in cases where critical national security issues were on the line.

This is so absurd. They know what concerns people the most is the idea of a man with dementia and loss of executive function making national security decisions, especially as he seems eager to get into a nuclear war with Russia.

So the spin is: Sure, he's demented for his domestic policy decision-making, but he stores up all of his Good Brain Time to use it to make national security decisions.

The proof that he's cogent for national security decisions? That he tells Netanyahu he'll stab Israel in the back if he retaliates against Iran.

That's supposed to be reassuring? I guess to Biden's pro-terrorist voter base, it is.

White House officials have said the president is in excellent shape and that his debate performance, while disappointing, was an aberration. Kevin C. O'Connor, the White House physician, said as recently as February that despite minor ailments like sleep apnea and peripheral neuropathy in his feet, the president was "fit for duty." He said tests had turned up "no findings which would be consistent with" Parkinson's disease.

We're not asking about Parkinson's disease. We're asking about Alzheimer's.

Strange that he's willing to say that Biden doesn't have the neurological diseases we're not asking about.

The White House has declined to make Dr. O'Connor available for questions and did not respond to detailed health questions from The New York Times earlier this year.

But Biden doesn't have Parkinson's. He won't answer about Alzheimer's or general dementia. But you should do your best to conflate for your readers these diseases, so that they believe that the doctor is denying he has dementia.

Mr. Bates, the White House spokesman, said Tuesday that Dr. O'Connor had found no reason to re-evaluate Mr. Biden for Parkinson's disease and that he showed no signs of Parkinson's and had never taken Levodopa or other drugs for that condition.

Boy he's just really sticking to that "Not Parkinson's" diagnosis.

Aides to Mr. Biden responded to questions for this story by asking several senior advisers to describe their interactions with Mr. Biden.

"He's inquisitive. Focused. He remembers. He's sharp," said Neera Tanden, the president's domestic policy adviser. In briefings, she said, "he will ask you a tough question and he will say, 'How does this relate to an average person?' And if you haven't thought of that in that time, you have to come back to him."

It sounds like he's a dummy who, at best, is capable of asking, "Will this help me or hurt me with the public?" That's the extent of his "probing" questioning of policy.

Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall, the president's homeland security adviser, recounted a June 17 terrorism briefing for Mr. Biden in the Situation Room in which he "digested an immense amount of information" and asked questions that were "probing and insightful." She acknowledged that Mr. Biden's debate performance had been different. "It doesn't reflect the experience I have with him on a daily basis," she said.

My Dude's doing so much probing they should buy him a flying saucer.

But by many accounts, as evidenced by video footage, observation and interviews, Mr. Biden is not the same today as he was even when he took office 3 1/2 years ago.

Really? By the way, did you hear? We landed on the Moon.

The MOON!!! Can you believe it!?

I'm gonna drink some Tang to start training to be a real-life astronaut!

Tell those Nassau* boys to be ready for Astro Ace!

Check this complete horsesh*t out:

...

Mr. Trump, 78, has also shown signs of slipping over the years since he was first elected to the White House. He often confuses names and details and makes statements that are incoherent. He maintains a lighter public schedule than Mr. Biden, does not exercise and repeatedly appeared to fall asleep in the middle of his recent hush money trial. His campaign has released only a three-paragraph health summary. Voters have expressed concern about his age as well, but not to the same degree as Mr. Biden's.

Really? Trump maintains a lighter schedule than Biden?

For those at the NYT pushing the Biden line that he only gets "fuzzy" because his job is so demanding and he's overtaxed: This is the standard Biden daily schedule.

10 am to 2:30 pm? Shiiiit, even I could hack that.

By the way, what evidence is there that Biden "exercises"? I know Trump plays golf a lot.

The last time I saw Biden "exercising," he fell off a bike. I haven't seen him do anything physical since then. He can barely walk 20 yards without assistance.

A senior European official who was present [with Biden at the G7 meetings] said that there had been a noticeable decline in Mr. Biden's physical state since the previous fall and that the Europeans had been "shocked" by what they saw. The president at times appeared "out of it," the official said, and it was difficult to engage him in conversation while he was walking.

Hey guys, I just heard: They shot President Kennedy. I heard the guilty party was "right wing chatter" in Dallas.

They say we're going to have a half-day for school.

Ms. Meloni and the other leaders were acutely sensitive to Mr. Biden's physical condition, discussing it privately among themselves, and they tried to avoid embarrassing him by slowing their own pace while walking with the president. When they worried that he did not seem poised and cameras were around, they closed ranks around him physically to shield him while he collected himself, the official said.

...

Asked if one could imagine putting Mr. Biden into the same room with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia today, a former U.S. official who had helped prepare for the trip went silent for a while, then said, "I just don't know." A former senior European official answered the same question by saying flatly, "No."

Some White House officials adamantly rejected the suggestion of a president not up to handling tough foreign counterparts and told the story of the night Iran attacked Israel in April. Mr. Biden and his top national security officials were in the Situation Room for hours, bracing for the attack, which came around midnight. Biden was updated in real time as the forces he ordered into the region began shooting down Iranian missiles and drones. He peppered leaders with questions throughout the response.

Again, the proof that he's "in command" is that his advisors told him that if he wants to win Michiganistan, he has to betray Israel, and he did. Super.

Is there anything else, or just that?

...

"He gave a strong speech, he didn't stumble or mumble or look confused in any way," said Judith Hope, the former chair of the New York State Democratic Party, who attended a fund-raiser in East Hampton on Saturday. "He was his old Uncle Joe self."

Ms. Hope attributed the president's debate troubles to his demanding schedule. "Are you aware of where he has been in the past seven days?" she said, raising her voice. "He continues to keep up a schedule that I could never dream of doing, that would totally defeat a younger person," she added. "I think we need to examine our expectations."

Ruth Bader Ginsburg put her 20-year-old trainer in the hospital! She's so vigorous, he couldn't keep up with her! He tried to touch his toes ten times like she was doing and had a heart attack and FUCKING DIED!!!

We've heard all of this bullshit before. Don't they know that?

Below, the incompetent, nasty bitch Latrine John Pissoir snaps angrily at a direct question: Does Joe Biden have Alzheimer's, dementia, or any degenerative illness?

Speaking of Parkinson's: Biden just vowed to cure it. Like he cured cancer.

Nancy Pelosi shows signs of dementia -- and/or drunkenness -- as she claims it's not Biden who has dementia, it's Trump.

Noted rancid conspiracy theorist Rachel Maddow is screaming that Donald Trump will send "death squads" after her.

Let's hope.

Death Squad Better, Trump. #DeathSquadBetter

Finally: James Clyburn, who was the kingmaker in the 2020 primary, says you can replace Biden.

One little hitch: You can only replace him with Kamala.

This angry black woman, a California delegate to the DNC, agrees. She says "black women will walk away, we will blow this party up" if they replace Biden with a (spit) white man. She says it has to be Kamala or no one.

Actually she seems to want to keep Biden as the candidate. But if he's deposed, he can only be replaced with a Strong Black Woman.

Someone needs to Position Kamala Harris for Success.

Meanwhile: 66% of Democrat voters -- a distinct group from the donors, media influencers like Jake Tapper and Anderson Cooper, and special interest queens who run the party -- want Biden to stay in the race.

Elena Schneider
@ec_schneider

President Biden on campaign call that just wrapped, per person on the call:

"Let me say this as clearly as I possibly can as simply and straightforward as I can: I am running... no one's pushing me out. I'm not leaving. I'm in this race to the end and we�re going to win."

That doesn't mean much. Obviously he's going to say that, until the very moment he's pressured to drop out.

But until a near-majority of Democrat voters call for his ouster, he can keep claiming, correctly, that he has "the voters" (well, his Democrat voters) on his side.

* 80% of people born before 1960 call NASA "Nassau." It's a thing. My dad used to do that.

My theory is that he did this because of Dr. No. Doctor No took place at Nassau, Jamaica (IIRC), and the plot was about interfering with NASA rocket launches. I think it got stuck in his brain in 1962 that NASA = Nassau and he could never get the two things de-linked.