Joe Regresses To The Mean

This morning, I saw this:

On Tuesday, he had nothing at all on his public schedule. But, as I noted, he looked horrible at his healthcare remarks that he had to deliver on Wednesday and lost badly in a fight with the teleprompter.

. . . Biden was late to the event which was supposed to be at 11 a.m. He kept Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and the health care advocates who attended the even [sic] waiting for an hour before he bothered to appear. He didn't show up until around 12 p.m. And when he showed up finally, people noticed that he had CPAP strap marks still very evident on his face.

He supposedly sleeps with a CPAP machine helping him because he has sleep apnea.

But if he's showing up at that time with the straps still evident on his face, then one has to concluded it's very likely he overslept. Fox's Jesse Watters made this point.

"If he has a creasy face at noon, he just got out of bed," Watters surmised. He wasn't up late or doing anything the day before, yet he's still so late this morning?

Last month, he was spending two or three days a week on the road at campaign appearances, but according to his daily schedule, he's back in the White House this week with limited daily activities. But as it turns out, stories about Joe with CPAP creases on his face are nothing new. The photo at the top of this post is from last summer, when this story appeared:

President Biden used a CPAP machine Tuesday night while sleeping, explaining visible marks on his face when he was talking to reporters on Wednesday.

White House deputy press secretary Andrew Bates told Fox News that Biden has sleep apnea, as previously disclosed.

"Since 2008, the President has disclosed his history with sleep apnea in thorough medical reports. He used a CPAP machine last night, which is common for people with that history," Bates said.

According to Forbes in another story that came out at the same time,

An official told Forbes Biden started using the machine to optimize sleep quality in recent weeks.

Biden’s last health summary from the White House, issued in February [2023], made no mention of a CPAP machine and concluded that Biden, 80, “remains a healthy, vigorous” person “who is fit to successfully execute the duties of the Presidency.”

. . . Though CPAPs aren’t the only treatment, if sleep apnea goes untreated it can lead to a lack of quality sleep, resulting in “trouble concentrating, making decisions, remembering things or controlling your behavior.”

It's hard to avoid thinking that Joe is having trouble keeping up with the campaign schedule he'd been on last month, and he's having to adjust things and use the CPAP machine to recover. After the delayed Wednesday meeting, his former chief of staff, Ron Klain, tried to put the best face on things:

“[T]he President’s done a good job, he’s running on his record, and he also has an agenda to make the country a better place. . . . So, I think the President thinks he’s going to confront Donald Trump on his disgraceful conduct, on his record, and also talk about what he’s done and what he wants to do. And the event today with Sen. Sanders (I-VT) was a good example. It also — it acknowledged the progress they’ve made on bringing down the cost of prescription drugs. Yet, there’s still a big agenda left to be done. . . . Prices are too high. People need more money in their pockets. And so, I think both confronting President Trump on his outrageous conduct and chaos and having an agenda for what he wants to do in another four years, I think that is the key thing for getting President Biden re-elected.”

But the fact remains that Joe had suggested he'd turn things around with the State of the Union, but nearly a month later, the polls haven't moved, while he's allowed himself to be caught up in more gaffes and bad visuals. Ron Klain wants him to take on Trump, put forward an agenda, brng down prices, and fix the border. Big order.

Except they've got him back on his CPAP machine and heaven knows what else.