And, perhaps, blame should be shared among those 2020 voters who let their antipathy for the Republican incumbent blind them to the accumulating evidence of Biden’s decay.

The only genuine thing about Joe Biden was his own self-delusion that he could or should be president one minute longer. “Just watch me,” the 81-year-old told doubters.

So, we did.

It’s an exquisite twist of karma that Joe Biden’s own eagerness for an early presidential debate knockout of the despised Donald Trump instead exposed Biden himself as the impostor. The man whose mind is now lost to the ages should shuffle back to Delaware ASAP.

Saturday night, Biden went to Camp David reportedly to discuss the future with family.

He will likely be remembered as the most prominent victim of elder abuse in the country’s history. And Jill as the Enabler in Chief.

Brit Hume nailed it with this tweet:

What we saw on the debate stage Thursday night has been plain to see for a long time by anyone not blinded by bias. Politicians pretending Biden was fine might be understandable to some extent, but the refusal of journalists to see what was plainly there was inexcusable.

— Brit Hume (@brithume) June 28, 2024

And now, after more than four years of fervent support, ignoring mounting evidence to protect their ideological stance as they did over the Hunter laptop exposé, the media establishment is saying "Joe Must Go" with unanimous hypocrisy.

Attorney Jonathan Turley astutely notes media’s chronic surprise when their precious conceits and expectations explode in their face. We saw the same professed shock after Trump’s stunning upset in 2016 and many times previous. 

Media have squandered their credibility for years. Sadly, as a former employee of the MSM, I don’t know how – or if – they can ever earn back even a semblance of consumer trust.

The crowning irony to this titanic Team Biden disaster was that they got everything they wanted in this debate at this time on this network with those anchors, so certain or drugged were they that all their B.S. was true or their gullible fellow citizens would continue to fall for it.

A supremely confident Donald Trump, the target of innumerable hoaxes, attacks, impeachments, and dubious indictments, unexpectedly agreed to all the conditions, then emerged as the only current, coherent alternative.

We’ll see if hidden Democrat powers and donors allow that to continue until a political oblivion on Nov. 5. Or if a stubborn, prideful Biden is convinced to give way to a viable, ambitious alternative, likely after the late August convention in Chicago. 

Republicans need to be wary of what they wish for, however. Like crabgrass, TDS doesn’t die easily, and almost any alternative to Trump could appeal to its victims.

The Biden pack’s attempted excuse was that the former county councilman had a cold and was simply tired after another entire week off. Biden has taken 40 percent of his term in vacation time, mostly to Delaware, where visitors go unrecorded.

So, they admit this commander-in-chief’s clear thinking was actually derailed by a common cold?

The indefatigable Trump, who’s just three years younger, has been campaigning daily. He looked fine.

Incumbent presidents, accustomed to the 24-hour deference of what’s become our regal presidency, its trappings, and kowtowing courtesans, have often performed poorly in opening reelection debates these past 64 years.

But none as shockingly awful and destructive and disappointing as this incumbent. As a nation, we probably need a new mask mandate to hide the intense schadenfreude that millions are feeling right now over the undignified pratfall of the prideful Biden Business Combine.

Along with the violent demolition of elite media’s fictitious narrative protecting their ill-chosen champion.

Here’s the current president in the debate explaining something:

Making sure that we’re able to make every single solitary person eligible for what I’ve been able to do with the Covid. Excuse me, with dealing with everything we have to do with. Look, if we finally beat Medicare.

Biden’s behavior was especially destructive because it confirmed a widespread existing suspicion. It's like setting concrete.

Because nothing can be Joe Biden's fault, some acolytes are trying to blame CNN for their man’s downfall. Good luck with that. I’ve not witnessed every debate. But I’ve seen and read too many. This was by far the best-run, most professional debate I can recall. CNN’s newest ownership, Time Warner Discovery, gets credit. 

Dana Bash and Jake Tapper asked questions of each man straight. They watched the clock. Cut them off on time. Alerted them if they had time left. Offered second chances if the men dodged a query.

A split-screen showed both men much of the time, a smart production decision for viewers. Not for Biden, who looked lost and inattentive as Trump spoke.

The presence of muted microphones and absence of a cheering/booing studio audience should be a permanent feature. Biden demanded it. I believe it actually helped Trump stay focused on content and not play to supporters. 

In a refreshing, I’m sure involuntary, recognition, Biden later admitted he wasn’t at his best. News Flash: Biden’s best has never been great. This was his worst, so far. 

Millions of Americans and their relatives can personally attest no one recovers from old age. Biden says he’s looking forward to the second debate in September.

No one else is. And I seriously doubt he will be the Democrats’ nominee by then. 

Donald Trump was serious and well-behaved and, therefore, impressive. His face, at times, revealed our own puzzlement. Near the end, when he had clearly come out ahead, Trump couldn’t resist displaying a little verbal bullying. But by then, Biden had imploded like an old building undergoing demolition.

The former president did have one likely-rehearsed zinger that captured what many viewers were thinking:

I really don’t know what he said at the end of that sentence. I don’t think he knows what he said either.

These catastrophic or euphoric events always seem bigger at the time than they do later. Biden is a stubborn man full of pride and an overdose of arrogance. He will stay in the race until he doesn’t.

There is plenty of time for recovery, as impossible as that seems now, with the debate ruins still smoldering. A skilled politician like, say, Barack Obama, who stuck us with Biden for his own political gain, could engineer a campaign rehab.

But the unidentified amateurs pulling Biden’s strings are not skilled. They’re the ones who clung to Bidenomics as his campaign theme for a year of failure. And then they surrounded Biden with aides to hide his octogenarian shuffle walking to Marine One.

That worked well. 

Reportedly, some Democrat big-shots and money men, faced with looming political suicide and the loss of their coveted powers on Nov. 5, down-ticket damage across the country, and newly reluctant donors, are conspiring to replace the entire ticket. 

One scenario has the Chicago convention proceeding as planned Aug. 19 giving Biden four days of late-summer glory (maybe minus a long speech on national TV).

And then afterward, as my colleague Jennifer Van Laar has outlined with typical research savvy, Democrat rules allow the ticket replacement “in the event of death, resignation or disability of a nominee.”

That would devastate the Biden family’s global influence-peddling business. But good old Joe could then hit the beach with his fading memory, bounteous faux plaudits, and all the money he's been paid for his name and not teaching. 

As compensation, Vice President Giggles could be appointed back to continue doing not much in the Senate by the unctuous Gov. Gavin Newsom, who’s been hanging around like a hawk on a fence post angling to become Biden’s replacement.

Then, of course, there’s Hillary Clinton still circling. She’ll be “only” 77 by Election Day and is currently doing publicity for yet another book that no one asked for.

Biden’s debate debacle continues a long, sordid string of his debacles that include inflation, the deadly Afghan exit, and 10 million illegal immigrants invited in by his open southern border. 

During the debate, Trump portrayed himself as the country’s reluctant savior, who could live easier outside politics but feels a dutiful call back to save the nation from four more years of Biden. 

However, if Democrats do re-do their 2024 ticket, don’t count on Trump bowing out.

Also, be careful what you wish for. Trump remains unpopular among many. A Biden replacement could be formidable, depending on who it is.

The political turmoil of the past eight years also reflects ongoing tectonic tensions in our two major parties. 

They have both survived so long (Democrats founded in 1828, Republicans in 1854) because they are like mythological shapeshifters, able to change their personalities and identities in real life to suit the political and economic priorities, personalities, and needs of the times.

Once, not so long ago, Democrats were generally the party of the working class and minorities. Republicans were generally the party of the educated, wealthy, and business.

Now, in many ways, the parties are exchanging identities. It has always amazed me that in the 2016 cycle, the only one of 17 GOP primary candidates to identify and play to the frustrations and anger of the Heartland with great success was a political rookie and billionaire who lived on Fifth Avenue.

And Democrats have become the party of wealth and business, especially Big Tech that’s helped the Biden administration censor undesirable conservative outlets, like RedState.