Former Vice President Joe Biden speaks during the Democratic presidential debate in Houston, Texas, September 12, 2019. (Mike Blake/Reuters)

The good news for Joe Biden last night? He was a lot more energetic, forceful and coherent than he usually is. The bad news for Joe Biden? He’s still Joe Biden. He’s still 76. His mind is a sloppy bowl of oatmeal with crust spilling out over the edges. It would have been entirely appropriate if George Stephanopoulos had replied to his late-evening stemwinder by saying, “Mr. Biden, what you’ve just said was one of the most insanely idiotic things I have ever heard. At no point in your rambling, incoherent response were you even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone in this room is now dumber for having listened to it. I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul.”

Linsey Davis of ABC News posed the following question: “What responsibility do you think that Americans need to take to repair the legacy of slavery in our country?” Biden’s answer looks even more demented in the transcript than it sounded last night:

Well, they have to deal with the — look, there’s institutional segregation in this country. And from the time I got involved, I started dealing with that. Red-lining banks, making sure that we are in a position where — look, you talk about education. I propose that what we take is those very poor schools, the Title I schools, triple the amount of money we spend from 15 to $45 billion a year. Give every single teacher a raise, the equal raise to getting out — the $60,000 level. Number two, make sure that we bring in to help the teachers deal with the problems that come from home. The problems that come from home, we need — we have one school psychologist for every 1,500 kids in America today. It’s crazy. The teachers are — I’m married to a teacher. My deceased wife is a teacher. They have every problem coming to them. We have — make sure that every single child does, in fact, have 3-, 4-, and 5-year-olds go to school. School. Not daycare. School. We bring social workers in to homes and parents to help them deal with how to raise their children. It’s not want they don’t want to help. They don’t — they don’t know quite what to do. Play the radio, make sure the television — excuse me, make sure you have the record player on at night, the — the — make sure that kids hear words. A kid coming from a very poor school — a very poor background will hear 4 million words fewer spoken by the time they get there.

Davis cut him off with a “Thank you, Mr. Vice President,” for which Biden should have been grateful. But the chatter about him giving abbreviated answers in previous debates had gotten to him. So he decided to blather on. And then things got even crazier.

There’s so much we — no, I’m going to go like the rest of them do, twice over, okay? Because here’s the deal. The deal is that we’ve got this a little backwards. And by the way, in Venezuela, we should be allowing people to come here from Venezuela. I know Maduro. I’ve confronted Maduro. Number two, you talk about the need to do something in Latin America. I’m the guy that came up with $740 million to see to it those three countries, in fact, changed their system so people don’t have to chance to leave. You’re all acting like we just discovered this yesterday. Thank you very much.

Joe Biden is a Botoxed babbling brook. He is not fit to be president.