You don't demonstrate your seriousness that Trump is an existential threat to democracy by going through the motions to renominate an 81-year-old with a 38% approval rating who 75% of voters think is too old without giving anyone a choice because that's just how things are done.

— Nate Silver (@NateSilver538) February 11, 2024

I’m currently listening to Colonel Roosevelt, the last volume of Edmund Morris’ trilogy biography of the 26th President. You might not know it, but TR’s Bull Moose/Progressive Party was important in bringing about the primary system, which replaced the Caucus & Convention system of the late 1800s. Back then, a sitting president was not guaranteed renomination, and had to work for it via, frankly, lever pulling, vote buying, graft, and spoils.

There are obvious problems with that, but at least you knew the nominee had the support of his party. Absent that, it feels artificial, as if something else, unseen and undeclared, was going on. Almost as if there was a predetermined outcome being worked towards.

Normally I take a pass on medical speculations by non-medical professionals, but:

1. The proliferation of freely available information allows for informed speculations (protected by the first amendment), not just wild speculations (also protected by the first amendment)
2. The medical community hasn’t exactly covered itself in glory since 2020, though they have covered themselves in their own laurels
3. The resident does indeed show significant signs of mental decline, begging for an answer to the questions “has he been diagnosed with anything, and if so, what is he taking for it, and if so, what are the side effects?”

Until those last questions are answered to satisfaction (that is, transparently), speculations like this will continue.