Elderly Man with a Poor Memory

Joe Biden. Donald Trump. And so the melee continues..

Special counsel’s report choosing to not prosecute Biden for mishandling classified had some politically damaging commentary on why they were not prosecuting. Even though he “..willfully retained” and revealed classified military and national security information, no case should be brought against him because he’s a, “..well-meaning elderly man with a poor memory” and has “significant limitations” on his mental abilities.

Of course, that was a political grenade against Biden and caused lots of commentary. The White House spun up their machine, comparing everything to Trump. Trump should be prosecuted for taking classified. Biden should not. Biden is elderly but so is Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump.

Folks supporting Biden point out that political adversaries can’t have it both conflicting ways:  1) Biden is a thoughtful intentional criminal, and 2) Biden is a babbling fool.

I have a question to ask that will clear everything up. Before laying it out, I need to take a short detour about a logical word game I learned as a grade-schooler.

Assume you’re traveling down a road and a fork in the road appears before you. You need to know which way is the path to the city. There’s a man there who will give you directions, but you don’t know if he’s of the class who always lies or the class that always tells the truth. If you ask, “which is the way,” you’ll get an answer but you cannot tell if it’s true or a lie. Instead ask the question, “What would a person of the opposite class say if I asked him the correct way.” No matter of the class of the person in front of you, they will point the wrong way. Simply go the other way.

Sometimes recursive questions remove ambiguity. What I want to ask is this, “Mr. President, do you have the mental acuity to handle national security secrets?” If yes, then you’re criminally culpable. If no, then you don’t have qualifications to be President.  Adversaries don’t need both conflicting ways.  Just one of the two. Which is it, Joe? (And no, this doesn’t have anything to do with Trump. Let him stand or fall on his own.)