Precisely how meticulously do Joe Biden's staffers plan his public appearances? We have a better idea now that an "event template" that is sent to staffers has been leaked to Axios and other media outlets. To put it mildly, the planning required just to get Biden onto a stage and behind a podium is ridiculous and resembles the type of instructions you would need to give to a kindergartener getting ready for a class play. The instructions given to Biden include large photographs with minimal words, showing where he is when he receives them and where he needs to walk. Some have suggested that these cue cards are just the work of "a meticulous staff," but this level of detail makes it clear that the recipient of the instructions literally needs help to navigate his way across an empty space of twenty or thirty feet. 

For his events, President Biden's staffers prepare a short document with large print and photos that include his precise path to a podium, according to an event template the White House sends to staffers.

Why it matters: Since the June 27 debate, some Democrats who've attended and helped set up Biden events have wondered whether his team's focus on minute details were to obscure the 81-year-old president's limitations — rather than just a reflection of a meticulous staff.

• "I staffed a simple fundraiser at a private residence, but they treated it like it was a NATO summit with his movements," according to a person who staffed a Biden event in the past 18 months.

Driving the news: Before a presidential event, the White House sends event staffers a document to emulate when preparing their own materials for the president.

When staffers are preparing an elected official for a public appearance, it's totally understandable that they would include some key points to keep in mind. Presidents in particular usually go to a number of events (not so much these days) and there are plenty of issues and personalities involved. They might remind him of key, influential members of the audience that should be greeted and recent, relevant data that might support the points they are hoping to drive across.

But that's not what's happening when Joe Biden is being prepped to go onstage. His staffers clearly realize that he has to be reminded where he is standing when he is introduced and how to recognize and walk to the location where he will need to stand. In almost all cases, there are large, clearly printed cards waiting for him on the lectern, laying out just what he needs to say and telling him when to pause, wave, or perform any other basic human mannerisms. If this guy literally needs these types of instructions to make it twenty feet across a stage and stand in front of a microphone, how is he supposed to handle complex conversations with world leaders? Is this the guy you want handling the nuclear codes?

For the first few years of his presidency, Joe Biden's White House was almost entirely leakproof. Virtually nothing that wasn't preapproved, scripted, and planned ever made it out to the media, or if it did they weren't reporting on it. So how is it that documents like this are making their way into the press now? The answer seems obvious. It's not just the media that are currently throwing Joe Biden under the bus. People inside the White House are shooting holes in the hull of his ship. It's not that they don't still like Biden anymore. But everyone who reaches that level of seniority in Washington knows how to read the polls and they can see the writing on the wall. What they fear most is losing power and being sent out to seek actual work in the private sector. So Joe needs to go as part of the cost of doing business in the swamp.

And yet, as recently as this morning Biden (or one of his handlers) was sending out yet another letter to congressional Democrats saying that he is "firmly committed" to staying in the race. Putting all of these factors together, a devious idea crossed my mind while preparing this article. It is now completely obvious that Joe Biden will read anything printed in large letters on a card that's put in his hands. What if someone swapped out one of those cards at his next evening event and it read, "I have decided for the good of the country and my party to drop out of the race and release my delegates at the convention?" It's pretty much a sure bet that he would read it. And having said the words in public, how could he possibly walk that back without making it even more obvious that he's not in control of his faculties? Even Jill Biden would probably feel obligated to throw in the towel at that point. If anyone from Biden's staff wants to steal this idea from me, you're free to have it at no charge.