On one level, Sleepy Joe’s news conference Thursday evening is a political Rorschach test: All sides are seeing in it what they’re looking for.

The pro-Joe Democratic cohort is boasting about a Commander in Chief’s energetic, emotionally charged and well-written opening statement; decent command of a wide range of subjects and world events; and ability to stay on his feet and reasonably lucid for nearly an hour.

The dump-Biden “bedwetter” faction, along with conservatives, are focused on the familiar pre-selection of reporters, hoarseness, verbal slip-ups, lost trains of thought (“anyway”), creepy whispers, and wandering answers and flagging vigor as the event progressed. Not to mention the frozen smile and tell-tale shuffle offstage after the event was declared over.

Whatever.

Far more disturbing in this corner: the presumptive Democratic nominee’s complete loss of any grip on economic, diplomatic, national security and political reality, if he ever had it.

Based on his vociferous assertions at the presser:

Mr. Biden honestly believes he has a stronger record than his predecessor on creating jobs (before repeated downward revisions) and reducing inflation, not to mention controlling the border.

In fact, he has apparently deluded himself that predictions that his blowout spending would lead to explosive inflation and mushrooming debt did not come true. And that the middle class has done well in his administration – despite polls showing families living paycheck-to-paycheck amid falling real wages.

He actually thinks rising corporate profits are a bad thing and that seeing them fall is a good thing (Mr. “Top Half of His Class on a Full Scholarship” having possibly missed the day they taught business in business law). And that federal rent control would be appropriate and beneficial.

He amazingly presents himself as world leaders’ choice to prevent the “disaster” of a return of Mr. Trump. He who left billions of dollars of equipment and tens of thousands behind in a rushed and chaotic exit from Afghanistan. And if that weren’t enough, further emboldened the “murderous madman on the march” he described by implying that a “minor incursion” into Ukraine would be just peachy.

He poses as the leader better able to stand up to such strongmen than his opponent, who “seems to have an affinity to people who are authoritarians.” This despite 45’s:

• Sanctions that almost bankrupted Iran (which Mr. Tough Guy immediately lifted, eventually plunging the Middle East into chaos)
• Measures that essentially blocked the Nord Stream 2 pipeline (ditto)
• Additional actions against Russia including withdrawal from two treaties and penalties for evading sanctions against North Korea, Syria, Iran, and Venezuela
• Not to mention hard-hitting tariffs on Chinese goods.

• He incredibly continues to push for the “two-state” fantasy that would reward barbaric Hamas terrorists and the corrupt Palestinian Authority – both previously rendered all but irrelevant by Mr. Trump’s muscular diplomacy that he has undercut since day one. A “solution” opposed by a sizeable majority of Israelis. 

And claims outsized credit for a hostage-exchange/ceasefire deal he is forcing by elevating an outrageous moral equivalence between the U.S.’ most reliable ally and rapists and baby-killers, and which dramatically favors the latter (who hold not just Israeli but also American hostages). Which, by the way, is also opposed by a massive 70% of residents of South Israel, where the unspeakable horrors of Oct. 7 took place.

He actually claims that his vice president is qualified to be chief executive because of:

• “The way she’s handled the issue of freedom of women’s bodies(!)”
• Her record as “a hell of a prosecutor” (this of a radical who has raised money for bail for violent rioters) and 
• Her “ability to handle any issue on the board” (especially as Madame “Root Causes” Immigration Czarina, who somehow never found her way to the border).

This of an erstwhile presidential candidate who was so well received by voters nationwide that she withdrew before the 2020 primaries even started.

The fear here is not that the nation’s highest office is held – and might be won (or stolen) again – by a frail, feeble, doddering dementia patient who not only loses trains of thought but also loses track of times and dates – plus a sense of where he is and is going, who may be on stage with him and is worthy of a handshake, or even people he has purportedly talked to or are at an event who in fact are dead.

America has endured that reality for nearly three and a half years now.

Far more dangerous is the befuddlement on nearly every issue under the sun that this policy illiterate displays in his lucid moments. And the possibility that it will continue to drive America’s economic, social and foreign agenda for four and a half more years.

Mr. Biden remains better than an even-money bet not only to survive the active coup attempts against him, along with demands for additional neurological tests, but also to be reelected. Yet whether or not he prevails in November, any voter that pulls the lever for this combination of delusion and derangement should have his or her head examined.

Bob Maistros is a messaging and communications strategist, crisis specialist, and former political speechwriter. He can be reached at bob@rpmexecutive.com.