I don't know who's running the country, but it's definitely not Joe Biden

I wasn’t surprised to see how badly President Joe Biden performed last week in his first debate showdown with former President Donald Trump.

The warning signs have been apparent for a long time, despite outright lies and denial from the White House and Biden advisers who’ve had the audacity to tell us that the president, 81, is A-OK.

But a lot of Americans probably haven’t paid as close of attention, and many of them were honestly surprised by the president’s physical and mental state.

I hope they’re paying attention now. And the latest polls make it seem like they are. I'll get to that in a bit.

Biden is not in a position to be running for another four years as president. I don’t see how he’s capable of finishing out this term.

His debate fiasco led to immediate calls from Republicans for Vice President Kamala Harris and the Cabinet to invoke the 25th Amendment, since it strains credulity to think Biden is actually running the country.

Even Jon Stewart, host of "The Daily Show," labeled Biden’s blank, mouth-agape stare during much of the debate as “resting 25th Amendment face.”

Biden must go: Biden has no business running for president. The debate proved it.

Why won't Jill Biden help Joe out?

All this has made me wonder: Why in the world isn’t first lady Jill Biden – or anyone else in the family – staging a major intervention before President Biden implodes his legacy more than he already has? Surely, those who love Biden should be honest with him.

Biden family scandal: Trump right about Hunter's 'laptop from hell,' though Biden claimed Russian disinformation

Biden’s wife must know better than anyone how her husband has declined in recent years. Yet, she and other close aides have gone out of their way to make sure the president interacts with as few people in the White House as possible, recent reporting by Axios confirms.

The answer is pretty simple. For Exhibit A, look no further than the first lady’s landing on the cover of Vogue just days after her husband’s flop of a debate performance.

Jill Biden looks … well … very presidential.

It’s not a stretch to say that the first lady is pulling a lot of the strings that her husband can no longer pull. And she doesn’t want to give up that power.

That’s led to comparisons with another first lady: Edith Wilson, who took over most presidential duties during the last few years of Woodrow Wilson’s presidency after he suffered a stroke in 1919. The public was kept largely in the dark.

Sound familiar?

That’s tougher to do now, what with television and social media blaring images and sound bites at all times. And Thursday's debate made painfully obvious what those closest to the president have been trying desperately to hide.

Despite this huge embarrassment, Jill Biden wants us to think that everything's still fine and that the president just had a bad night.

At a fundraiser the next day, she told attendees: “I said, ‘Look, Joe, we are not going to let 90 minutes define the four years that you’ve been president.’”

But right after the disastrous debate, she talked to her husband – in front of the crowd at a watch party – much like you would a toddler: “Joe, you did such a great job! You answered every question! You knew all the facts!”

Americans and world leaders aren't buying the latest spin

Let’s face it. It’s not like there aren’t many more capable Democrats waiting in the wings to step in for Biden if he chooses to drop out.

One of those is Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. After the debate, her name has circulated widely as a replacement among donors and other party officials who panicked after seeing Biden’s state of mind.

Politico reported this week that Whitmer called a senior Biden campaign official Friday to quell any rumors that she was behind the chatter. Yet, she also reportedly said that after the debate, Michigan is unwinnable for Biden. (Whitmer has denied saying that, too).

If Democrats were smart, they’d realize that Biden will lose against Trump.

A new poll following the debate from the CBS News/YouGov national survey found that 72% of voters don’t believe Biden has the mental and cognitive health to serve again as president – up 7 points from early June.

Opinion alerts: Get columns from your favorite columnists + expert analysis on top issues, delivered straight to your device through the USA TODAY app. Don't have the app? Download it for free from your app store.

Similarly, a USA TODAY/Suffolk University poll shows that 41% of Democrats think their party should replace Biden as the nominee.

If you didn’t think it could get more troublesome, it does. The Wall Street Journal reported that multiple European leaders have noticed – and been concerned about – Biden’s deterioration even before Thursday’s debate.

I hate to break it to the Biden family, but the charade is up. American voters and the world know that Biden can no longer do this job.

Hate Trump all you want. That doesn’t diminish the fact that Democrats have done this to themselves.

Ingrid Jacques is a columnist at USA TODAY. Contact her at ijacques@usatoday.com or on X, formerly Twitter: @Ingrid_Jacques

You can read diverse opinions from our USA TODAY columnists and other writers on the Opinion front page, on X, formerly Twitter, @usatodayopinion and in our Opinion newsletter.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Will Joe Biden drop out? It's time for Jill Biden to intervene