Vice President Trump

("Biden Insists He Is Staying in the Race")

So I watched the news conference and found Mr. Biden, in large measure, to be in control of his faculties, exhibiting his foreign policy expertise with great aplomb, deflecting difficult inquiries with the sure hand of one who has spent half a century moving discussion from his possible weaknesses to his obvious strengths.

But, because we are in panic mode, in fear that every flub will be turned from pebble to boulder, that every misplaced word or wandering thought will become tomorrow's headline, we shuddered when he referred to his second in command as Vice President Trump.

Because I know that for the many millions who did not watch Mr. Biden exhibit his mastery of topics near and far, the only information they will gather is that Joe Biden is losing it and losing it fast.

And that is the elephant sitting in the room that Mr. Biden refuses to see. Blind, willfully or not, to the undeniable problem that will not go away no matter how much he huffs and puffs. The horse is out of the barn and Joe has lost the reins.

Joe Biden has spent a career with gaffes popping up in the strangest places. Only now we can no longer laugh them off or say it is just Joe being Joe. Because Joe being Joe no longer gets the job done. That horrendous debate branded him with the scarlet letter O as in old. And old in the wrong way.

So Joe, you get an A for effort this evening and an oh crap for discarding the first black woman V.P. for the whitest, worst man on the planet. For Donald Trump, being denominated second fiddle to his senior partner, Mr. Biden, was not a demotion but a gift from the political gods.