B.F. Skinner, famous psychologist and father of behaviourism  once described, as he was advancing in years, how he arranged his work space to accommodate cognitive problems with short term memory, attention and task performance. He was aware and preparing for his age-related decline in intellectual performance. . At age 63, I too am becoming increasingly aware of some fuzzy short term memory problems. Joe Biden has been infamous for his gafftastic public history for several decades. But there seems something different about his recent gaps and lapses. 

There is no shame in getting older. It happens. And to date, mankind has found no remedy to the problem of age-related decline. THE TRAGIC ASPECT to such dilemmas is the slow realization that you are “losing it” and, depending on the personality of the person, the denial, and grief that often marks some peoples experience in losing functions once taken for granted. My recent experience in taking care of my father-in-law as dementia consumed his entire personality, has educated me to the cruel treatment of dementia on the personality and life of the person affected.

I wouldn’t vote for Joe in the best of times, at the point of a gun. But I would not wish such a struggle upon another. And Joe, a sympathetic character, and demonstrability gentle spirited soul, is a particularly heart breaking victim. IF he is affected.

I would be pleased to be wrong. But as a career people watcher, my 100% gut tells me he is in jeopardy.