Joe Biden gets some things right every now and then. Recently, he began attacking “elites” (read: mainstream establishmentarian media) who are calling for his resignation, excoriating them for thinking they know better than the American people do, and taunting any of his critics to challenge him if they dare, by announcing their own run for president and heading to a convention showdown. Bravo, Mr. President, you tell ‘em!

As this column has long noted, most of the mainstream media – exceptions are rare but do exist – are nothing but a bunch of desperate harlots prostituting themselves for ratings. That’s why they’ve turned on Biden with such fury. Sure, most lean decidedly left of center and in any direction opposite of Trump. But that’s not nearly as important as ratings. That’s why they gave Trump so much airtime in 2016, because they knew that even though they were helping his campaign build momentum, Trump gives them more clicks, likes, and reads than anyone else. This time around, they’re also helping Trump by exaggerating Biden’s debate performance; their word of choice is ‘halting’, straight out of the script they evidently all memorize and parrot.

Veteran political commentator Bill O’Reilly has long insisted that Biden has dementia and it’s only going to get worse. He speaks not as a Biden basher (which he is) but as a son whose mother had the same condition, and he had a ringside seat to her decline. Yet the media propped up Biden until the cat ran out of the bag at the debate. Now, they’ve executed Plan B: get the viewers to tune in by capitalizing on Biden’s misfortune.

If by the time you read this or in the ensuing weeks, Biden succumbs to the pleas to withdraw from the race, the spin will be that we ought to thank him for rescuing the country from the evil clutches of Donald Trump. Some will characterize Biden’s presidency as a very good one and, even more laughably, in the all-time top 20. If textbook publishers have no dignity or shame, they’ll print the words of those committing historical malpractice, who’ll couch Biden as a great leader whose reign was cut short only by Father Time, with musings about how, had he been, say, 15 years younger and more energetic to serve a second term, might’ve been Mount Rushmore-worthy.

Nonsense. Biden’s age may not be the least of his problems, but it’s certainly not his most glaring weakness. Rather, it’s his ability to lead and govern. Consider Robert Gates, hardly a partisan, who served as Defense Secretary under the younger George Bush, but also in the same role under Barack Obama, thus serving in the same Cabinet as Biden. During Biden’s vice presidency, Gates famously stated that “Biden has been wrong on nearly every major foreign policy and national security issue over the past four decades.” While Biden was a senator, long before anyone dreamed he would become vice president, let alone president, commentator Mark Levin routinely referred to him as “the dumbest man in the Senate.” Granted, Levin is a Democrat-bashing conservative, but it wasn’t as if Biden was on anyone’s radar and verbal attacks were needed to quell his rise. It would be like nowadays criticizing Sen. Ed Markey.

As mediocre a politician as Biden has been for most of his career, I’m the first to say he would’ve done a better job had he been elected 10 or 15 years ago. Here, age does play a role indirectly. I’ve argued, as many others have, that because Biden’s so feeble, he hasn’t taken on the left strongly enough. Would the Joe Biden of the 1970s, 80s, or even a decade ago have tolerated a porous border, runaway inflation caused by his irresponsible printing of money, and shutting down the Keystone XL Pipeline, and rampant wokeness that applauds individuals for self-identifying not only as a different gender, but also as a different species (students meow and bark in class)?

So as not to miss an opportunity to criticize Trump, the aforementioned media malpractitioners harped on how much Trump lied in the debate, and lamented that he wasn’t debating a younger version of Biden, who they’re confident would’ve called him out. Trump’s so-called lies were his usual liberties with statistics, such as saying that “every legal scholar” disagreed with Roe v. Wade (many did, but certainly nowhere close to “every”). But Trump wasn’t far off the mark when he described governments south of us emptying their prisons and psychiatric facilities like someone opens a window to let a fly out, happily allowing throes of people to waltz across our southern border, where in due course they make their way to blue states, where they’re courted with cell phones, credit cards, hotel rooms, and for their children, precious seats in already-overcrowded schools. Moreover, the mentally ill among them can roam the streets, randomly slashing or suckerpunching victims not to steal their belongings, but for the mere sport of it. The criminally inclined will openly loot. And there’s little fear of being arrested, because city cops have long grown weary of TGIs (Thugs Here Illegally) being released even before the police report has been completed.

That’s Joe Biden’s America. Granted, maybe a younger, stronger Biden wouldn’t have given the keys to the country to the lefty loonies, but here we are. If VP Kamala Harris or another Democrat not named Bobby Kennedy Jr. (oh, that’s right, he’s not a Democrat any longer; his own party shunned him because they’re afraid of him) replaces Biden, it won’t be the sequel to a dreamy presidency; it’ll be Part 2 of a nightmare.