At this point, it feels like we’re simply belaboring the obvious, but a new I&I/TIPP poll indicates that it’s increasingly clear to most of the country. Joe Biden has had too many instances where he’s attempted to shake hands with invisible people or trailed off and lost the thread in the middle of answering a question. Something isn’t right, and it’s no longer a simple matter of “charming gaffes” or incidents of stuttering. In some ways, his staff probably found it something of a relief when Biden came down with back-to-back cases of COVID because it kept him in isolation and mostly away from cameras and reporters. This latest survey suggests that an increasing number of people have noticed and they are worried about the mental state of the most powerful person on the planet. (Issues and Insights)

Even before he became president, the now-79-year-old Joe Biden faced serious and persistent questions about his mental health. Among average Americans, those questions have become a major issue, the latest I&I/TIPP Poll shows.

The I&I/TIPP Poll, conducted online from Aug. 2-4 among 1,335 adults nationwide, shows that a 59% majority now say they are “very concerned” (36%) or “somewhat concerned” about Biden’s mental health.

That compares with just 39% saying they are “not very concerned” (18%) or “not at all concerned” (21%). Only 2% of respondents said they were “not sure.” The poll has a margin of error of +/-2.8 percentage points.

Speaking as someone who has reached the age where I have a few “senior moments” myself, I can empathize with Joe Biden on this topic. But then again, I didn’t volunteer to be the leader of the free world. If I go off the deep end, the worst that will happen is you’ll see a few weirder-than-normal posts on this site before somebody pulls my posting access. Biden has somebody following him around with the nuclear launch codes.

The demographic breakdown in this poll carries the same partisan disconnects that we’re used to seeing. 82% of Republicans say they are “somewhat” or “very” worried about the President’s mental health, while 39% of Democrats said the same. But that’s still more than one-third of Biden’s own party, so there should be a serious cause for concern. 56% of independents agreed.

Once you leave party affiliation behind, however, the differences begin to disappear. By gender, there was no difference between men and women on the question. (59 percent each.) Along racial lines, white and Hispanic voters were nearly equally concerned at 63 and 61 percent respectively. The outlier in that category showed up among Black voters where only 44 percent expressed concern. Broken down by age groups, the differences were also very small.

This survey is yet another reminder of a pressing question that isn’t asked often enough in the media. Joe Biden has already had his annual physical this year and was pronounced physically fit to serve. But did he have a cognitive test? He either didn’t take one or the results are being withheld from the public. Donald Trump took one (and passed) when Democrats began accusing him of having lost his mind rather than simply being the sort of person who sends out mean tweets. It’s only fair to ask Biden to do the same, particularly at a time when one slip of the tongue could literally kick off a third world war.

We’ll close with one of the more famous videos of President Joe Biden greeting the invisible man during a trip to Israel. It would be amusing if the underlying reality weren’t so frightening.