Biden Owes It to America and Himself to Take a Cognitive Test

Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee former Vice President Joe Biden delivers a speech in Wilmington, Del., on July 28, 2020. (Mark Makela/Getty Images)

Commentary

When Joe Biden reacted to CBS’ Errol Barnett’s query about whether the presumed Democratic presidential candidate had taken a mental competency test with a bizarre rant likening the question to asking the reporter if he’s a “junkie,” I suspected, as I assume many others did, that the former vice president really did need a cognitive test.

Equally bizarrely, Biden had previously said he had been tested, but seems to have changed his mind. How that is possible, I’m not exactly sure.

The same day video appeared on Twitter of the former vice president answering a question on China in this manner: “The way China will respond is when we gather the rest of the world that in fact [unintelligible] in in fr- in in in in open trade and making sure that we’re in a position that the world uh that that we deal with WHO the right way that in fact that’s when things begin to change.”

On the edge of incoherent or over it? I’ll go with over it.

Some defended him on Twitter by reminding us poor Joe is a stutterer. Does stuttering mean you finish your sentences with a non sequitur? (Sounds like warmed-over intersectionality to me.)

That Biden refuses to be interviewed by Fox’s Chris Wallace, who asked some difficult questions of Trump, does not augur well. The former veep acts like a man whose handlers dread he go out in public, for fear that he will gaffe endlessly.

But it’s worse than gaffes. He doesn’t make sense. He’s not all there, a gnomic candidate, as I wrote some months ago, like Chauncey Gardner in “Being There.”

I also reminded everyone that he plagiarized in law school, was almost thrown out and had to promise not to do it again to stay in, but then did it again, several times, and had to withdraw from an earlier presidential campaign for cribbing his speeches from famous British legislator Neil Kinnock.

It’s hard to believe the Democrats are so desperate for power they would nominate such a person, but they did. (And of course there’s much more—corruption with China and Ukraine.)

So it should be obvious. I don’t believe Joe Biden is mentally competent to be the leader of the free world (aka POTUS). The thought of him negotiating with Xi Jinping or his successor more than makes me cringe. It fills me with dread for our future.

But I could be wrong. It wouldn’t be the first time—or the fifth.

The way to put this to rest and reassure us (I’m pretty certain “us” also includes leaders around the world, notably the allies he constantly references) would be for him to pass a mental competency test.

He wouldn’t even need the thirty out of thirty that Trump got, just a decent grade. Most presidents are far from geniuses on the Einstein or Tolstoy level. But they do have to know what’s going on.

If he doesn’t do this, take and pass the test, and goes on to win, I predict serious trouble ahead.

Already there is considerable buzz about who will really be in charge if Biden is president. Guesses range from Elizabeth Warren to his wife to one of the various women of color in the identity politics governed veepstakes.

Or would it be Barack Obama himself, enjoying his third term with old sidekick Susan Rice ensconced In Number One Observatory Circle, the official residence of the vice president?

Whatever happens the old idea of “the buck stops here” will be up for grabs. Who’s really pulling the strings will be an endless question in the media and on the street.

Who is “the decider”? It could be someone not remotely mentioned, someone, of course, unelected, of whom we have no idea. How ominous is that for a democratic republic.

Every gaffe, every mistake will reawaken both the accusations of mental incompetence and plagiarism. Biden will be a man constantly humiliated.

Meanwhile, protest action in the streets would likely increase well beyond where they are now. The liberal-progressive pundit class seems to think Antifa, BLM and the rest, appeased, will virtually disappear once a Democrat is elected.

Au contraire. They forgot their French revolutionary history. They don’t read Carlyle, or anything much, in the schools anymore. But if they did, they would know where this is headed.

With Chauncey Gardner at the helm.

Roger L. Simon is a prize-winning novelist, Oscar-nominated screenwriter, and co-founder of PJ Media. His most recent books are “I Know Best: For Moral Narcissism Is Destroying Our Republic, If It Hasn’t Already” (non-fiction) and “The GOAT” (fiction).

Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.