Instead of taking medically necessary action, Biden’s White House and campaign staff are floating their own diagnoses. The president suffered from a new malady now known as One Bad Night syndrome, or he had a late-breaking cold, or—as per the vice president—he experienced “a slow start,” or, as per the House minority leader, “a setback.” Democratic National Committee chair Jaime Harrison acknowledged Biden has a condition that afflicts us all: an inability to get younger. 

But you don’t have to be a doctor, or even a Google doctor like most of us, to conclude that these explanations sound like cover-ups. The people around Biden have also decided to turn the tables on the growing number of commentators and others who have concluded, based on recent observation, that Biden is unfit to have a second term. They have diagnosed those calling for Biden to withdraw from the 2024 presidential race as being “bed-wetters.” It does seem to be a bad idea to inject the notion of incontinence into this discussion.