I find it rather incredulous that people in the party "didn't know" about Biden and the age issue. His age has been a prominent issue for a long time, and his gaffs have been an issue since time immemorial.
As
@Zorba asked yesterday, did you actually watch the debate? Have you ever seen Joe Biden perform in that fashion? His career of gaffes* is in no way comparable. To some degree, age is just a number (a typical 81-year-old Japanese person is probably fairly healthy), but what we saw that night caused incredible damage to his campaign. I wasn't one to immediately call for Joe to step aside, but I can
understand the media frenzy. Even if you think the media shitstorm is completely unfair, that doesn't change the disastrous effects of that unfairness.
It's become more clear since the debate that Joe Biden has been "stage-managed" to a large degree over the past 12 months, and that concealed his cognitive decline. I still feel debate night was atypical and despite his increasing senior moments, he's still mostly up to an incredibly difficult job. If you're not part of his inner circle and are claiming to have known his condition for years, that's a bullshit MAGA talking point. I don't believe Dem lawmakers were lying whenever they said the president they've interacted with was still dialed in and highly capable of doing the job.
* There are gaffes and there are
gaffes. At the NATO conference where everyone is watching
intensely to see where he's at, he introduces Zelensky as President Putin? Corrected himself, but later referred to VP Harris as Trump? I don't care when he mistakenly referred to the president of Egypt as that of Mexico, but the recent stumbles are not normal Joe Biden gaffes.
Whether that justifies upending the ticket at the 10th hour is a different debate, and I do agree with you that there is no white knight to swoop in and save us.