Why is Trump so proud of passing a dementia test? - Los Angeles Times
Yes, Why?
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
President Donald Trump can trumpet his mental fitness all he wants, but you have to question his wisdom in setting a very low bar for Joe Biden. (Associated Press) By Jonah Goldberg Columnist July 20, 2020 12:20 PM
President Trump's interview with Chris Wallace, which aired on "Fox News Sunday," was remarkable in more ways than there is room to recount here.
But let's start with what should be the lead story: The president of the United States told Wallace that the mental competence test he recently took was "very hard," specifically the last five questions.
Just to be clear, the president "passed" the test, a fact he's boasted about on numerous occasions. "I aced it," he proudly told Fox's Sean Hannity earlier this month. The problem is that none of the questions on the standard Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) test are supposed to be hard if you aren't suffering from dementia of some kind. Crowing that you "aced" the MoCA is a bit like bragging that you passed a sobriety test while sober.
The last five questions of the 10-minute, nine-task exercise assess things like basic abstract reasoning — e.g., what do a train and a bicycle have in common? — and rudimentary memory. The final exercise, presumably hardest according to Trump, simply asks the patient to provide the full date, current time and location of the examination.
We should all hope the guy with the nuclear codes can "ace" this test. And some might even say we should have a president who didn't find it "very hard" to ace it.
Trump's bragging about his test results may simply be part of his strategy to cast Joe Biden as "not all there." But it's hard to fathom why the Trump campaign thinks this is a shrewd gambit.
In Sunday's interview, Wallace asked Trump point-blank, "Is Joe Biden senile?"
Trump responded. "I don't want to say that. I'd say he's not competent to be president." At first, it seemed the president was opting to take the high road. But he then went on to insist, "Joe doesn't know he's alive, OK? He doesn't know he's alive."
Perhaps he's seen data suggesting attacks on Biden's age don't play well with senior voters, so the task is to claim Biden is mentally handicapped but not as a result of his age? That's a level of nuance we'd expect of someone who aced a cognitive evaluation, but not what we'd associate with Trump's political style.
Regardless, the whole strategy of attacking Biden as mentally incompetent is risky. Forget that such tactics were once considered beyond the pale. And put aside the entirely reasonable conclusion that Biden does indeed show his age quite often — and that he has always had a propensity to say weird things. The Trump campaign is now betting his reelection's already slim chances on Biden proving Trump's diagnosis is right.
One of the central tasks of campaigning, and politics generally, is managing expectations. Beating expectations in a primary makes you a winner. Falling short has the opposite effect. For instance, LBJ won the 1968 New Hampshire primary by seven points but fell so far below expectations he withdrew from the race. President Trump has benefited from early warnings that the U.S. could see millions of deaths from COVID-19, so the current — and rising — death toll of "only" 143,000 beats expectations.
As of now, all Biden has to do to beat the expectations laid out by Trump is prove he knows he's alive — a very light lift. In normal times, presidential campaigns work hard to set expectations for the opponent unreasonably high. Before Trump's first debate with Hillary Clinton in 2016, for example, then-RNC Chairman Reince Priebus said, "The expectations on Hillary are very, very high. She's been doing this for 30 years. I think people expect her to know every little detail. She has to perform in a way that is of the highest of expectations. I think in the case of Donald Trump, look, he's the outsider, he's a person who's never run before, let alone be in a presidential debate." In other words, if Trump even held his own in the debate, he should be declared the victor.
Given that his lead in the polls continues to widen, there's no rush for Biden to call off his front-porch-style campaign. But after months of Trump's flailing, erratic and increasingly desperate attacks on Biden as a near vegetable, all Biden will have to do is come across as a reassuringly normal, albeit gaffe prone, competent leader. Biden, despite his flaws, seems up to that.
If the Wallace interview is any indication, it's Trump who struggles to meet that remarkably low bar.
@JonahDispatch
Opinion
Op-Ed: Donald Trump, a true Reagan Republican
Opinion
Op-Ed: Donald Trump, a true Reagan Republican
Reagan perfected the use of racist, dog-whistle language like 'states' rights,' 'law and order' and 'welfare queens' to appeal to white voters. Trump learned those lessons well.
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This comes from Arch Republican, Jonah Goldberg!
I found the results from tRump's cognitive test JBB!
That's frickin' hilarious!
BOOBS!
I cracked up hardest at the swastika
That cognitive test is not supposed to be hard. If one finds it difficult, therein lies the problem
He made it sound like it was a difficult test for him
It may, very well, have been the first test he ever passed, without paying someone else to take for him.
I heard Trump has someone take his tests for him...
Gotta wonder if he passed the ''urine test''...
OK - I heard that in the test they ask him to name the planets.
He only knew one of them...
Let me guess.....
I'll help. It's not Pluto.
Oh - is Pluto a planet again ? It was then it wasn't. Oh well.
You woke up on the right side of your humor this morning!
He was proud that he could answer the very hard question about the full date, current time and location of the exam... usually topics well beyond his diminshed cognitive abilities. Oh, and apparently he could identify an elephant according to the recent Chris Wallace interview. That should give everyone a lot of confidence...
He did miss the question "who is the current president of the United States".
Well - every thing is relative.
If I could solve a mate-in-7 chess problem without looking at the board I'd be bragging too - even though that would give me a rating of what - duffer 2nd grade?
So I think he has every reason to be proud in a "Donnie dood it himself on the potty - we are all so proud" sort of way.
Are you saying there's no way in hell I could pass second grade?
Oh, second grade's Ok. After 3 or 4 years it gets easier.
LOL! I just didn't know what you were talking about with the mate-in-7 chess problem, etc because I've played chess but I'm lousy at it
Yes it was a sad time in my youth when I realized that contrary to popular beliefs, we cannot all do everything.
" A man's got to know his limitation s." So no grandmastership for me ...
But boy I sure was hotter than a firecracker on "Battleship".
Oh - Happy Comrade - have you met
Comrade Adam?
I like that symbol on his hat. I want to get a tattoo on my leg with that symbol but with E = MC2 in the center
It's a little graphic joke - Atom (Adam) Moon (Selene)
I may have to re-do it. Looks like one of my electrons wandered off to a shell of it's own.
TANSTAAFL!
Ahhh...took a minute but now I get it!
Why Is Trump So Proud Of Passing A Dementia Test?
Because it's a step up for him ?
I'll bet it's more relief than pride.
Trump is lucky they didn't ask where PR is. He still doesn't know.
Hell, he's lucky they didn't ask him where Washington DC is.