Don't Blame It On Aging

A shrinking brain is never good.

Joe Biden and Donald Trump are both giving aging a bad name. And as a physically fit 78-year-old still in possession of all my marbles -- and possibly a few extra -- I don't like it one bit. Trump may be mentally very sharp but sadly, like too many older Americans he is obese, while Biden is scaring young people by making them think he's a normal 81-year-old who happens to occasionally stutter. He definitely is not that.

Biden's problem isn't his advancing age, it's his retreating brain. In fact, Alzheimer's doesn't care how old you are -- my own mother first showed signs of it at age 57 and died at 62. We have been lied to about his condition by all of Biden's protectors, including his family and most egregiously the liberal media. Someone has got to tell Joe, "Come on, man -- we all saw the debate! You're out of it, at least some of the time, and being president means you're on call all of the time." (The silliest lie is that Joe is brilliant between the hours of 10am and 4pm. The horror of 9/11 began at 8:14am -- uh oh, should we wake Joe or not?)

The truth is that many, if not most, of Joe's peers are mentally fit 24/7. My friend Ron H. is 87 and except for slight hearing loss shows no signs of slowing down, is not an ounce overweight, and undertakes construction projects on his property that many far younger men would not even attempt. Another friend, John C., who will turn 90 in a few months, has some back issues but is up to speed intellectually; I'd certainly trust him with the nuclear codes, which is not something I can say about Biden. Then there's Harrison Ford, 81, who needs no introduction and is still entertaining us on film, as is June Squibb, a great actress who at 94 has the title role in "Thelma," currently showing in theaters, and she doesn't play an old lady.

So the issue is not that Joe is old, it's that he has dementia. Oh, and he lies and is a crook, but that's another post.