To think Biden is not fit

[stopitstopitnooow]

Watching him right now on bbc news live. I can barely hear him, he's completely unintelligible.

People will call me ageist but I believe he is just getting too old for the top job.

I’m finding it increasingly concerning that he’s in a position of such power when the world is literally crumbling. The whole Middle East situation feels like part of a bigger destabilisation play and with the Russia/Ukraine situation it’s a very precarious time. With all the gaffes he’s made etc it’s embarrassing as well as worrying. We need strong figures not bumbling, confused men who should be retiring. And that’s not because of his age it’s because he’s clearly unfit for the job health wise.

As an American voter, and a Democrat, I despair at the options before us in the next presidential election. Not unlike the dilemma presented to us in the next General Election. Is it the devil you know, or...?

He’s not at the start of dementia. He’s about six years in. They selected him, for precisely this reason. He was all over the place on camera even before he was elected president.

You don’t have to look far for the answer. She is absolutely useless, incompetent and universally loathed by Americans.

You are looking at videos of a different Biden. You need to search for US president Jo Biden.

I agree, it was very uncomfortable viewing. Like he was sundowning.

Apart from Obama, I can't comprehend how US manages to appoint the presidents they do. An eighty year old man should not be president. He doesn't inspire confidence. He seems incredible nice and likeable but that is not what is needed.

Amusing to see folk still reaching for "he has a stutter"

Yes we know he has a stutter, but I've yet to see an explanation for how that leads to confusing the third world and southern hemisphere, or his granddaughter with his late son, or Ukraine with Iran, or the South Korean president's name, or any number of other things

Woth the huge stress of being president, I genuinely worry that if Biden runs again he may die in office. From what I read, he has had a distinguished career as a politician, but that doesn't make him immune to aging.

Harris is pretty much universally slated as being useless with a horrible approval rating.

To be fair if you read through the political analysis it does sound like she has been given (several) hospital passes by the president.

As a figurehead the president doesn't have to do that much. Read from the autocue, generally evade reporters questions and climb up the stairs to Air Force One. It will be the back office doing all the work.

Biden was older at the start of his presidency than Reagan was at the end. The fear I have is that he just won't have the stamina to go through another presidential campaign. His mental agility was pretty questionable last time. You can imagine that in a debate against Trump now he will fail horribly. If I were Trump I would do my best to get him into situations where mental agility needs to be demonstrated.

I think if the Democrats replaced Harris then they may get another shot, otherwise it is going to be Trump.

He couldn't even if he wanted to. The US constitution limits any one individual to 2 terms in office.

Michelle could run though

With the huge stress of being president, I genuinely worry that if Biden runs again he may die in office

I get your point, fliptopbin, but it's happened before and processes exist to deal with the situation

Worse could be if Biden loses it completely in public and does something even his excusers can't defend, which would doubtless delight Trump but wouldn't do a whole lot for America

The problem is that everyone is thinking that there is a high probability that Biden will die in office and as a result they will get Harris.

It's not that people are worried about the consequences of him dying per se.

True enough, but realistically with the clock ticking down to the next election how much damage could she do in little more than a year?

Unless the real issue is that, with Kamala as President, Trump may have an even easier ride than he might against Biden?

I don't know.

How much damage did Liz Truss do in a month ?

I remember Bill Clinton being heralded as the first Baby Boomer president and this was over 30 years ago now. Biden is from the generation before that even and running again next year. Trump the same.

When I think of the US at the moment, the word 'hubris' comes to mind. I saw Biden being interviewed and asked whether becoming involved in both the Ukraine/Russia situation and then potentially becoming embroiled in a war in the Middle East would be too much for the US to take on. He had this almost faux incredulous response, along the lines that 'are you kidding, the US is the greatest nation that ever existed'.

They are heading for a fall. I see it at work as well, supreme over confidence and giving off this air that they are almost the smartest in the room (when quite often they are nowhere near this). This is not all Americans but there is a section of US society (the ones that typically push themselves to the top) that are like this.

I think a lot of the people around Biden think the rest of the world is not smart enough to catch on.

If Biden loses it'll be as much due to Harris than his age or lack of mental agility. Most people can't see him going for another 5 years and very few would want to see Harris as president.

So what should the Democrats do? The race is about to start and there doesn't seem to be a plan!

I’m not exactly Joe Biden’s biggest fan. Although I think he’d be more-likely-than-not to beat Trump in the next election, I’m sure there are other Democrats who would outperform him. I’d like him to step aside.

That said, his administration has done a reasonable job and that his mental decline is being vastly over-stated.

People have been pushing the ‘dementia’ angle since before the last election, and he still beat Trump in the debates (not that Trump is some sort of great intellect, far from it, but dealing with his constant stream of bullshit can’t be easy - the man is the Gish Gallop personified).

He undoubtedly gets his words confused from time to time but other than a couple of word choices, his Israel speech was entirely coherent.

Not that Trump is a good yardstick for cognitive ability, but I find it far easier to follow a 99% coherent Biden speech, with one of two slips, than deranged Donald ranting about how windmills are driving whales crazy.

They should have bloody well have planned

I've been in America for 2 weeks and we have the news channels on in the background whenever we're home. I honestly haven't heard a single mention of Kamala Harris anywhere.

Biden is on constantly, as you'd expect, with a stream of videos, interviews and tonight's address to the nation from The Oval Office. He seemed upbeat and coherent this evening, completely different to yesterday. He even looked different this evening. I suppose he has good days and bad days, but when his bad days have his supporters (like dh) cringing and watching him through their fingers, then he should step away from the role.

He seemed upbeat and coherent this evening, completely different to yesterday.

I agree. Lots to criticize about the content, but the delivery was pretty much flawless.

Not enough to carry him through the next 5 years though.

@Acheyknees gender and race right because pushing Kamala as VP has gone so well.

With that mean find capable candidates rather than ticking first boxes.

Thankfully he did seem so much better last night particularly after the return from Israel interview when he seemed so frail and elderly in his zipped up cardi

The stress must be overwhelming even for someone 20 years younger

He seemed upbeat and coherent this evening, completely different to yesterday. He even looked different this evening

He did, and I see the conspiracy theorists are already at it again, insisting he's using lookalikes