Joe Biden has had a lot to worry about lately. First, according to his own account, he has cancer thanks to emissions from oil refineries near his childhood home in Delaware: “That’s why I and so damn many other people I grew up with have cancer and why for the longest time Delaware had the highest cancer rate in the nation.”
A White House spokesman later clarified that Biden had had “non-melanoma skin cancers” removed before he took office, though that doesn’t explain why he claimed he has cancer now.
Apparently he’s contracted Covid too. The president tested positive today and will be isolating at the White House.
The New York Times published an article earlier this year on how “uncomfortable” Biden’s age is “for him, his team and his party,” especially since he made history as the oldest president in office. Why? Despite passing a cognitive test at the end of his time as vice president, rumors abound about him not being cognitively all there, and even having dementia.
Symptoms of dementia include memory loss, confusion, difficulty communicating, and getting lost in familiar surroundings — which do coincide with much of what the public has seen of the man. Biden has shaken hands with air, wandered off aimlessly, slurred his words, and forgotten names. While Cockburn is more of a spectator than a speculator, he can’t help but wonder whether Biden is fit to serve.
While Biden’s overall health remains inconclusive (at least to his own administration), Cockburn thinks this must be very difficult. Can Joe Biden really keep going on like this? His disastrous trip to Saudi Arabia had him fist-bumping murderers, and nobody can tell what he’s really saying anymore (for an example, just look at how the news handled his cancer proclamation pre-White House framing).
Now even his own party is rumbling about how he’s too old to run again. Cockburn loves to criticize the president but in this case he’ll just bite his tongue and wish him well.
