THAT TIMES STORY ABOUT TRUMP'S INCOHERENCE: I QUESTION THE TIMING

After a great deal of criticism, including critiques from elsewhere in the elite mainstream media (The Atlantic, The New Republic), we finally have a story in The New York Times about Donald Trump's age and rhetorical semi-coherence. It was written by a top Times journalist, Peter Baker, and it's a reasonably good piece, starting with the headline ("As Debate Looms, Trump Is Now the One Facing Questions About Age and Capacity"). It ticks through most of the recent Trump babelogues that have made commentators question his mental health: the discussion of child care ("Mr. Trump wandered through a thicket of unfinished sentences, non sequitur clauses and confusing logic that tied the answer to tariffs on imports," Baker writes), the electrocution/shark rant, the scurrilous claim that schools are forcing gender surgery on students ("Sometimes he makes false claims that are so far-fetched, they make him appear detached from reality"), and others. We're reminded of previous moments when Trump lost his grip on reality:

He has mixed up Nikki Haley and Nancy Pelosi, declared more than once that he beat Barack Obama instead of Hillary Clinton and while arguing that he is mentally fit gave the wrong name for his former doctor.

Many observers are hoping that this is just the beginning -- that the Times and the rest of the press will focus on Trump's age and mental capacity as obsessively as they focused on Joe Biden's.

I'm skeptical. I think the point of this article was to quiet critics, after which the Times will be able to tell those critics, "But we covered that already."

I also think this appears at the best possible moment for Trump -- right before the debate, when he benefits from lowered expectations. The Times could have published a story like this at any time over the past several months. Publishing it now gives Trump a low bar to clear tonight. Since he's probably well rehearsed and since the debate format discourages him from rambling and meandering, he probably will clear that bar. Headline tomorrow: Trump wins debate, or at least Trump stands firm.

I don't want to accuse the Times of choosing this moment to run a story about Trump's babbling for precisely this reason, but I do believe the paper has a vendetta against both Kamala Harris and Joe Biden for refusing to submit to a Times interview. So maybe that really is why the Times is addressing this issue now, for the first and, I suspect, last time.