I didn’t watch all of President Biden’s State of the Union address because in general I find that most of these speeches are the same regardless of party. Certainly, there was nothing uplifting or high minded in this one unless you consider calling your opponent a fascist who will destroy our democracy as high minded.

Many Democrats and members of the legacy press seem wildly taken by Biden’s demeanor during the speech calling his performance feisty, on fire, forceful, a spectacle and proof that he is not in cognitive decline. What I saw was an often rambling, sometimes unintelligible speech filled with outright lies and half-truths that, had they been spoken by Donald Trump, would have caused MSNBC’s Rachel Madow to cut away from the speech.

I’ve known several people close to me who suffered from dementia. It’s sad, and a shock when people that you’ve loved, and respected begin showing the signs. They can’t remember what they have just eaten and are not sure who you are, although they can still remember some events that occurred years ago.

For some dementia seems a slow process but for others it seems to happen rapidly although in those cases perhaps we missed the early signs. I’ve known people who displayed signs of dementia in their early sixties but in my experience, I find that they usually appear after the age of eighty.

In discussing dementia, a description that I have heard is that the sufferer is angry, often described as “an angry old man or old woman.” Some say this anger comes because they sense that they are losing their ability to make themselves understood which often leads to their speaking rapidly and sometimes almost unintelligibly in an effort to make a point before they lose their train of thought.

That is why on the night of the State of the Union I saw a man, despite the spin the White House and his campaign put on it, who seemed to be losing his cognitive abilities. I feel bad for him.

I am no expert on drugs or stimulants, but it was obvious to me and many others that the President had been given something to “perk” him up because his demeanor was out of character based on how he acted in the days before the speech and in the period following the speech. Or perhaps it was one of those moments when some sufferers seem almost normal for a few moments.

Joe Biden is not just any man. He is the leader of the most powerful nation in the world and leader of the entire “free world.” He is a man who literally has his finger on the nuclear trigger. Is he a man who will exercise that power with restraint or is he an angry old man? That is what worries me.

However, In one sense he does have a creative mind. We have all heard Biden’s story of his faceoff with gang leader Corn Pop in his younger days or the story of how after attending 7:30 a.m. Mass at the Catholic Church he would show up at the African American Protestant church and join in planning protests to defeat segregation in Wilmington Delaware. He has told this story many times despite the fact that no congregants remember him ever being there and he has admitted himself that he was never an activist in the civil rights movement at the time. Despite most of his stories having been debunked it seems that he can’t stop telling them.

Then there is the more recent story he told the press last Tuesday while visiting the site of the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse that he had commuted by train or car over the Francis Scott Key Bridge “many, many times,” this despite the bridge not having any rail lines.

It’s sad to see President Biden put on display at events where he acts confused and lost, and where he stumbles over words and often seems to seize up when speaking. It’s not a good picture for the nation, the world, or our friends and enemies.

You would think that a family member would tell the President that he will be 82 soon and that it’s time to go home and enjoy the rest of his life. However, his family, particularly his wife, son Hunter and brother James are so invested in the fruits of his notoriety that isn’t likely to happen. They are like the promoters of a battered, aging, and over the hill boxer who they keep pushing into the ring because he’s still making them money. It’s really sad.

Thomas Kirkpatrick Sr. is a Silver Creek resident.