According to Kevin O’Connor, President Biden’s personal physician, the current resident of the Oval Office “feels well and this year’s physical [examination] identified no new concerns. He continues to be fit for duty and fully exercises all of his responsibilities without any exemptions or accommodations.”
A close look at the six-page summary of Biden’s examination on Wednesday, however, reveals his symptoms of aging that are becoming increasingly apparent even to the most casual observer.
He suffers from sleep apnea and now uses a CPAP machine “most of the time.” He takes Eliquis in order to lower the risk of a heart attack due to his continuing atrial fibrillation (a-fib). He suffers from acid reflux and takes Pepcid in the morning and Nexium in the evening “for better acid control,” according to O’Connor.
Biden “demonstrate[es] a perceptibly stiffened ambulatory gait … a result of degenerative” arthritis in his back. It is, according to his doctor, “moderate to severe,” but not yet severe enough to require surgery.
He has “peripheral neuropathy” in his feet — which may explain some of his recent incidents of “loss of balance or coordination” (from Healthline.com).
All of this, according to O’Connor, explains Biden’s increasingly obvious decrease in mobility:
A combination of significant spinal arthritis, post-fracture foot arthritis, and a sensory neuropathy of the feet are the explanation for the subtle gait changes which I was investigating.
Biden takes a bevy of various medications, some prescribed, including Eliquis, Crestor (to keep his cholesterol under control), Dymista nasal spray (for his allergies), Pepcid, and Nexium.
O’Connor concluded, following the physical exam on Wednesday, that Biden is “a healthy, active, robust 81-year-old male, who remains fit to successfully execute the duties of the Presidency, to include those as Chief Executive, Head of State, and Commander in Chief.”
If he is, as Dr. O’Connor concludes, “fit for duty,” why are so many, including Democratic voters, questioning his “fitness” to serve for another four years? In a recent survey by Redfield & Wilton Strategies, six out of 10 voters said they agree (some strongly) that “Biden is too old to seek a second term as president.” In another survey by ABC News/Ipsos, that number is closer to nine out of 10.
This is reinforced daily by the growing list of “Biden gaffes” appearing, at last count, on eight pages at YouTube.
It didn’t help any that Biden’s exam occurred just three weeks after the special counsel found Biden guilty of violating the law regarding his careless storing of top-secret documents but said that he wouldn’t have been found guilty by a trial of his peers out of their sympathy for an “elderly man with a poor memory.”
Newsweek, a liberal weekly magazine, wrote that “Biden’s historically low job approval numbers and lackluster showing in head-to-head polls against Trump have fueled increasingly intense chatter that Democrats would be better off picking some else to run” in November. Progressive columnist and vocal Trump critic Ezra Klein stated bluntly: “Democrats have a better option than Biden.”
This must be encouraging to California Governor Gavin Newsom, who has already launched his informal presidential campaign by attending fundraisers around the country and photo ops with communists around the world.
The day that O’Connor released his review of Biden’s exam, Biden offered proof, if additional proof be needed, that something was off upstairs. He laughed, saying, “My memory is fine,” and then, taking a question from reporters about the catastrophe in the Middle East, mixed up the names of the leaders of Egypt and Mexico. This came just a week after he said he had spoken with dead European leaders in France and Germany.
Missing from O’Connor’s report was a “cognition test,” with White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre claiming that Biden “doesn’t need a cognitive test.”
Such a test is likely unnecessary to most voters, who have already concluded that Biden’s best days are behind him.
