Joe Biden has dementia.

I don’t say that critically, or mockingly, but sadly.

And honestly.

And the Democratic Party needs to have that same honesty. To recognize that this man, with his decades of service to our nation, has not just lost something on his fastball, he is in obvious and debilitating decline.

And is not fit to be president.

This is not a partisan observation – though I am a Republican and will be voting for Donald Trump. It is something which is known by anyone who listens to him, who remembers who he was, who sees the stumbles and confusion, the fog of age settling over a man whose life certainly deserves honor and respect.

And if it’s fair to talk about Bernie’s heart and Bloomberg’s stents, then it is fair to talk about Biden’s brain. And it is something of a disservice to the nation not to.

Because this isn’t really about heading the Democratic ticket, it is about leading the nation. A presidential candidate should be able to discharge the duties of the presidency, and it is fairly obvious that Joe Biden’s abilities are diminished.

This isn’t about age.

Bernie Sanders and Michael Bloomberg – both of whom are 78 – are a year older than Joe Biden, and both are also clearly fully functional of mind. I, personally, disagree with almost everything either one of them says. But it is obvious they have their faculties and, if elected, could mentally handle the presidency.

Likewise Elizabeth Warren, though “just” 70, has all her intellectual faculties.

But Joe Biden doesn’t.

He should not be the Democratic presidential nominee. And obvious efforts by the party’s closeted leadership to hand him the nomination should stop.

It is undeniable that the Democrat bosses, in the party and in the media, have put the fix in for Biden. Maybe that’s all bluster before Super Tuesday, to derail Bernie or Bloomberg, but it seems real. It seems like whoever’s behind the curtain has picked Biden.

Somehow they hate Bernie, Warren, Bloomberg and Trump so much that they’d rather go with a man whose verbal stumbling and angry moods seem textbook symptoms of dementia.

Is it because they are afraid Bernie’s Marxism will destroy the country, or their party? Or do they just resent him for building a base of support outside the party boss system? Is Bloomberg – the largest world funder of progressive causes whose name isn’t George Soros – somehow unacceptable to them? Have they dismissed Elizabeth Warren completely – and why?

There is one Democrat establishment candidate and, surprise, the Democrat establishment has selected him.

But that candidate is well past his prime, his eccentricities snowballing into the unspoken theme of his campaign.

Again, I am not trying to trash Biden because I – as a Republican – fear him, thinking that he would trounce Trump in November. I don’t believe he would. Personally, the only Democrat I wouldn’t want to face is Bloomberg. If he gets the Democratic nomination, he will immediately pivot to what he will say is the center, and he will remind the nation that he was a Republican mayor and that his personal bipartisanship is the answer to the nation’s supposedly polarized politics. Bloomberg is richer than Trump and, unlike Trump, is willing to use his personal fortune to run a campaign.

Politically, Bloomberg is the Republican boogey man. Biden is a joke. Ditto for Warren.

I’m not trying to sandbag Biden to protect the interests of my party or candidate.

I am merely saying what we all are thinking. The man is out on his feet. Look at his eyes. He’s not always all there. And in that situation, for any person, you don’t push them forward to achieve your political ends, you put your arm around them and get them help. Empathy and concern for Joe Biden don’t express themselves as support for his decades-long ambition to be president. They manifest as a desire to protect him and the nation from the degrading of his abilities.

We’ll have to see what the primary voters think. The party and the press have clearly decided on Biden. For whatever reason, they have decided to overlook his difficulties.

We’ll have to see if the primary voters will overlook them as well.

But this much is certain: Joe Biden has dementia.

He deserves the honor and care of a grateful nation, not the exploitation and manipulation of whoever it is that really runs the Democratic Party.