An interesting take from Jack Shafer at Politico. He argues today that Democrats should be giving Biden a real primary challenge to prove that he’s actually up to the job of being president again.

President Joe Biden needs a tuneup. He’s a stiff when speaking at the lectern. When not a stiff, the 80-year-old can be a dolt, saying, as he did this week, that Russian President Vladimir Putin is “losing the war in Iraq” when he meant Ukraine, or blurting out a senseless, “God save the Queen, man,” at a gun control rally last week. The English language has never been his friend, so it’s logical that his managers, er, his aides, have limited his exposure to the press. No president since the equally doddering Ronald Reagan has held so few press conferences. Not since Ray Leonard’s ill-advised third comeback has a contestant seemed so out of condition for a big rumble…

With a tepid approval rating that puts him near to Donald Trump at his worst, Biden needs a primary opponent who can prepare him for the 2024 general election, somebody who can make him prove that he can still run the traps and beat whichever Republican he faces. If Biden can’t vanquish a worthy Democrat in primary season, he has no business entering the general…

…the onus should be on Biden to prove he’s mentally and physically nimble enough to do the job for another term before he’s allowed to run against the best the Republicans have to offer. Say what you will about Trump, who just turned 77, but he seems as competent (read that however you wish) as he was in 2016.

Shafer isn’t the first person to raise these concerns. His opinion piece is just the latest expression of worry about Joe Biden’s age and consequently his physical and mental state. Instead of just saying that Biden looks borderline incompetent, he argues that Biden should be forced to prove he’s competent.

Of course Biden does have a couple of rivals in the race, Marianne Williamson and Robert Kennedy Jr., but Shafer suggests those aren’t real challengers. He’d like to see someone like Elizabeth Warren or Gavin Newsom take Biden on. Frankly, I’m not fan of either one but I think they would both sweep the floor with Biden in a debate.

Voters have already caught on to this. There were polls out last year showing that even Democrats were concerned about Biden’s fitness. The most recent poll on this topic was released by NBC News last week.

68% of all voters say they have concerns about Biden having the necessary mental and physical health to be president, including 55% who say they have “major” concerns…

What also stands out is how concerns about Biden’s mental and physical fitness have grown since we last asked this question in Oct. 2020 — when 51% of voters said they had concerns, with 38% having “major” concerns.

And check out these numbers: In 2020, 21% of Democrats said they had moderate/major concerns about Biden’s fitness. Now it’s 43% of Dems who say this.

Frankly, the only reason a majority of Democrats aren’t expressing concern about Biden is that they’re responding as partisans who know they have no real alternative in 2024.

The Telegraph ran a story last week headlined “Biden’s doctors say he’s fine. But is he really?” The story considered all of Biden’s known health problems from his use of a CPAP machine for sleep apnea to arthritis, skin cancer, high cholesterol and frequent gaffes. A GP in London the paper spoke to said several of these problems were in fact no big deal. However, when it came to the gaffes:

“The saying ‘age is just a number’ is true to a level in meritocracy, but when the signs of a mental and physical decline are becoming more apparent, is it ageism?”

Dr Hussain agrees: “From the videos we’ve all seen of him on stage giving speeches, his cognitive functioning is below par and in my opinion he has some level of cognitive decline, possibly early stage dementia – that’s absolutely clear from his clinical situation.”…

“There’s no doubt his health is deteriorating,” says Dr Hussain. “From a clinical point of view, I would not be advising him to run for re-election because the enormity of the role at his age and level of ability is likely to be too great – and his health from this point could deteriorate rapidly.

During the previous administration there were a bunch of psychologists showing up in the media and TV to diagnose President Trump with all sorts of maladies. Here we are a few years later and the desire to point out problems with President Biden’s fitness don’t seem to hold the same interest. Maybe that’s why the only story like this I’ve seen involves a doctor from England rather than one from the US.

In any case, I think most Americans (a two-thirds majority according to the poll) have a sense that there’s a problem even if no one in the media wants to talk about it.