Like many on the political right, I’ve spent years laughing at Joe Biden’s hapless and, let’s be honest, cartoonish political life. I don’t particularly dislike the man at all. He seems genial, friendly, and someone who tries his best to do the right thing, even if his political ideology is batty.  But you can’t compile a highlight reel of gaffes like Joe Biden and not expect people to chuckle at your relentless folly.

But with as frequent as it has become, I’m beginning to think it’s time to stop laughing.  At what point is it no longer the Biden Gaffe Machine on display, but a man whose mental acuity and faculties are slowing down immensely?  The latter is certainly not something to joke about, to make into a punchline, or to promote for political gain.   

Please understand I’m not making a medical diagnosis I’m not qualified to make. I’m not feigning concern for Biden as I make an underhanded political jab. I’m suggesting that maybe it’s time the American voter – right or left – consider that Biden’s current mental condition may not be something to discount, ignore, or joke around about. Not for him, and not for the country he would lead.

It’s one thing to stumble over your words and call Barack Obama, “Barack America.” It’s one thing to be so racially and politically tone deaf that you marvel at Barack Obama as being the first articulate and “clean” black man to run for high office. Those are gaffes.  What Biden is doing now seems different to me. 

These clips don’t seem like someone whose words got ahead of their brain. It seems like someone whose mind is not processing well:

Joe Biden thanks his longfriend timefriend who's a friend and has been a friend in and out of public life. pic.twitter.com/EoUWZeW0an

— Florian (@BetaODork) August 22, 2019

Biden finally being honest about his health care plan: “We’ll make sure it’s not quality, we’ll make sure it’s only affordable.” pic.twitter.com/WjJFsbTrQZ

— Arthur Schwartz (@ArthurSchwartz) August 23, 2019

Even notable leftists are recognizing this isn’t normal or good for anyone:

People keep saying the Biden quote is out of context but it's worse in video than in print. The last ten minutes of this are hard to watch. He is not a person capable of leading the country. He is not making sense when he speaks. https://t.co/SzrugeGsYV

— Sarah Kendzior (@sarahkendzior) August 24, 2019

And this is more than just jumbled words and confused speeches from prepared texts.  Keep in mind that in the last few weeks Biden has been confusing or concocting phony situations or accounts that supposedly occurred.  He falsely claimed, “You had over 40 kids shot at Kent State on a beautiful lawn by the National Guard.” This well-known, well-documented tragedy involved the killing of 4 students and wounding of 9.   

But even if that historical mistake was excusable, what about when the mistaken accounts were ones that he believes happened to him personally?  Biden has twice claimed that the Parkland school shooting victims visited him in the White House when he was Vice President. He stopped being Vice President a year before the shooting took place.  He also told this bizarre story that seems dubious at best, preposterous at worst:

Yeah this absolutely did not happen https://t.co/MSZHlwMRlK pic.twitter.com/KROoLw4DLe

— David Rutz (@DavidRutz) August 24, 2019

I’m not suggesting anything be done to Biden besides voters wisely dismissing his designs on the presidency at the ballot box. But I’m also not sure it’s either fair or helpful to anyone to continue calling Biden’s increasingly uncomfortable errors simple gaffes. There’s quite obviously more going on there.