This mix-up is actually more alarming than the one last week when he placed MLK’s and RFK’s assassinations in the late 1970s. In that case it was clear in context that he was thinking of the late 1960s, the correct period. He even said “1960s” at one point in his answer. Mentioning the 1970s appears to have been a simple rhetorical flub.

But why would he say Vermont here instead of New Hampshire? They’re neighboring states, right, but their respective significance to a presidential candidate is night and day. New Hampshire is the first primary on the calendar, the state that makes and breaks White House hopefuls. Vermont is, well, Vermont, a small prize that won’t vote until Super Tuesday and is all but certain to break for native son Bernie Sanders when it does. Biden would have no reason to be visiting Vermont and every reason to be visiting New Hampshire.

So why would he say “Vermont”?

Joe Biden in Keene, New Hampshire: "I’ve been here a number of times…I love this place. Look, what’s not to like about Vermont in terms of the beauty of it?” pic.twitter.com/YZBP4ybQ3z

— Steve Guest (@SteveGuest) August 24, 2019

It’d be like visiting the Iowa state fair and telling everyone how excited you are to be in Nebraska.

That wasn’t all he said yesterday:

Former Vice President Joe Biden appeared to dismiss voters concerned about his age, telling them not to vote for him in the 2020 Democratic primary race.

“I say if they’re concerned, don’t vote for me,” Biden said while speaking to reporters in Keene, N.H. When a reporter told Biden that voters he talked to were wondering if the former senator from Delaware had lost a step, Biden answered: “What do you think?”

That’s the second time in five days that a member of the Biden family passed on the chance to forcefully make the case for their guy to skeptics. “If I had ‘lost a step’ you would have seen it already at the debates,” Biden might have said, “but we’ve been through two of them and I’m still on top of the polls. Americans know I haven’t lost a step.” Instead he gives us this. I realize there’s an “enthusiasm gap” for Grandpa Joe but I didn’t think it extended all the way to the candidate and his wife.

Look on the bright side, though, Biden fans. (Are there any real Biden “fans”?) He may have the inside track for the all-important Scaramucci endorsement.