I was curious if there was any media follow up to Biden’s epic gaffe yesterday and this opinion piece had just popped up at USA Today.

You’ve got to be kidding me, right? I clicked on the story, curious to learn how Biden’s gaffe was not a “memory fail or age.” This should be entertaining. But the column in question had a different headline: “What Joe Biden’s memory lapse about the late Jackie Walorski really told us.”

I shuddered when I learned that President Joe Biden had called out to a crowd in search of a congresswoman who died nearly two months ago in an automobile accident. He’s going to turn 80 in November and let’s face it, this seemed like a memory fail – a particularly embarrassing one.

Yet there’s another way to look at this: Biden was trying to credit the late Indiana Republican Rep. Jackie Walorski – a lawmaker who voted on Jan. 6, 2021, to object to his presidential victory in Arizona and Pennsylvania and who this March labeled his agenda “radical & reckless” – for her good work on nutrition and hunger.

It’s unfortunate that he made the mistake. At the same time, it demonstrated a generosity and professionalism that was also present in Biden’s Tuesday conversation with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a frequent and harsh Biden critic, as Hurricane Ian bore down on his state.

So author Jill Lawrence admits this was an embarrassing memory lapse but says Biden still deserves credit for trying to praise Rep. Walorski. She also wants to credit Biden for calling Gov. Ron DeSantis yesterday. I guess Lawrence missed the fact that Monday Biden made a point of calling three mayors in Florida and conspicuously did not call Gov. DeSantis. During the White House Press conference that day, several reporters asked FEMA administrator Criswell why Biden had not yet called the governor. Criswell couldn’t really explain it and had to tap dance around an answer.

"But he's made conversations with the mayors, so is there any reason why not the governor?"

Biden has yet to call Governor Desantis ahead of hurricane Ian, but has found time to call the mayors. pic.twitter.com/ZzUwdpvG9C

— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) September 27, 2022

It was only after Biden’s intentional snub made news that the White House changed course and had Biden make the courtesy call which Jill Lawrence is now pointing to as proof of Biden’s deep empathy.

I’m seeing a pattern here. The evidence that there’s a lot more going on with Biden than just sweet, sweet empathy is there but Biden stans like Jill Lawrence want us to conveniently overlook it. Here’s how she wraps up her piece.

…yes, Biden not only seemed to blank on Walorski’s tragic death, he also did it at the very conference he cited in his statement after she died.

As so many of us know from our own lives, with age come memory lapses, and that’s often the least of it.

I am already on record as a fan of Biden’s presidency while at the same time hoping he won’t run for reelection in 2024. But let’s put this moment in perspective. You need only look back a couple of years to remember that some things are more important than age and a perfect memory.

No one expects Biden to have a perfect memory at his age. That’s a straw man. This wasn’t a quiz of foreign capitals or the names of the South American opposition leaders. This was something pretty basic. Who is alive and who is dead?

I made this point yesterday but it’s worth repeating. Biden’s staff must have prepped him on what to say about the late Rep. Walorski prior to this event. In other words, Biden wasn’t just forgetting a death that happened nearly two months ago. He’d talked to his staff about this the day before or maybe even that morning and still he got lost. If he’s struggling to remember who is alive and who is dead over a span of a few hours, what else is he struggling to remember?

Fine, I’m willing to give him credit for wanting to praise the work of a deceased congresswoman from the opposing party. Seriously, good for him. That’s a big improvement over his fire and brimstone speech from a few weeks ago. Are his fans and supporters willing to admit that his memory lapse yesterday suggests a much more serious problem than not having a perfect memory? So far the answer seems to be no.