Joe Biden did on Monday what he should have done on Thursday. He told a joke instead of becoming one. “I know it doesn’t look like it‚ but I’ve been around a while‚” he said at the National Association of Counties meeting Monday. “I do remember that.” Humor‚ certainly not mean-mugging‚ is the best way to alleviate tension. On Thursday‚ the president demonstrated the charges against him in his manner of denying them. On Monday‚ he displayed humor about the senility accusations dogging him at the same time he demonstrated a modicum of with-it-ness as jokes so often do. Someone finally offered him good advice. Someone finally took it. (RELATED: The Deepening Joe Deadhorse Dilemma) Following a week in which he separately spoke about conversing with the long-dead leaders of France and Germany‚ faced characterization by a special counsel as “a sympathetic‚ well-meaning‚ elderly man with a poor memory‚” and confused the presidents of Egypt and Mexico in a surreal press conference aiming to rebut charges of diminished mental capacity‚ Biden helped himself in making light of something heavy. But after years of witnessing his sharpness dull‚ the public is unlikely to forget about all his forgetting just because he shows a sense of humor about it. In laying out a Plan B‚ Politico’s Charlie Mathesian and Steven Shepard concede: “The truth is that a backup strategy can only be deployed if Biden voluntarily steps aside — or is physically unable to stand for nomination.” In other words‚ it’s not too late to switch horses but the horse must assent or show an incapacity to assent. A precedent‚ of sorts‚ exists for this. “Things are bad‚” Senator Barry Goldwater told President Richard Nixon on Aug. 7‚ 1974. “Less than half a dozen votes?” Nixon asked about senators willing to protect him from conviction. “Ten at most‚” Goldwater answered. “Maybe less. Some aren’t firm.” (READ MORE: The Spectator P.M. Podcast Ep. 21: Who Thinks Biden Can Make It Another Term? Not Left-Wing Media.) Goldwater‚ who counted on Nixon’s support when Bill Scranton‚ Nelson Rockefeller‚ and others in his party undermined him as nominee in 1964 and returned the favor by later endorsing Nixon over Ronald Reagan in 1968 and sticking by Nixon over John Ashbrook in 1972‚ dramatically indicated that he fell into the not-so-firm camp. The next day the president announced his resignation effective Aug. 9. Biden’s well-wishers‚ including the likes of Nancy Pelosi‚ Dick Durbin‚ Chris Coons‚ Jim Clyburn‚ and‚ perhaps Barack Obama and Jill Biden‚ should show the courage of Barry Goldwater in telling the president‚ for the good of the country‚ his party‚ and his dignity‚ to stand down. Biden pulling out certainly does not serve the good of the Republican Party‚ no matter how many of its members would celebrate it. Donald Trump undoubtedly does better against Joe Biden than against almost any other Democrat in the conversation to replace him. But an 86-year-old serving as the leader of the free world in 2028 causes any smart gambler to bet on the bad guys. Circumstances task Coons‚ Clyburn‚ et al. with an easier sell than what Goldwater presented to Nixon. Biden not only need not resign the presidency but he can claim that he ran for the same reasons he dropped out: to save the country from another Donald Trump term. In one move he transforms himself from a pathetic to a heroic figure among Democrats. (READ MORE: Joe Biden’s Tragic Invulnerability) But Nixon was a realist and Biden is a fantasist. His fabulistic stories of getting arrested in South Africa protesting for Nelson Mandela or his family members emerging from coal mines to play football surely indicate this. In other words‚ Nixon told lies to further his ends; Biden tells them — most loudly to himself — just because. This precise trait possessed by Joe Biden means that he cannot assess negative information in the way the realist Nixon did days before his resignation. One suspects Biden recognizes the bleakness of his final political errand not until Nov. 6. The post Biden‚ Always Delusional‚ Likely Stays in Race appeared first on The American Spectator | USA News and Politics.