A few days before the debate that upended President Joe Bidens presidency, a Democratic pollster conducted an online focus group of swing voters in a Midwestern battleground state.

The first question asked for the word or phrase that immediately comes up when you think of President Biden.

In the public opinion exercise reviewed by HuffPost, the vast majority of the participants responded by referring negatively to either Bidens advanced age or his mental acuity and competence.

One respondent used the word incompetent. Asked to explain what made them feel that way, they cited interviews in which Biden seemed incoherent.

The Democratic pollster, who requested anonymity for professional reasons, had been seeing the same response for months, like clockwork. While inflation and cost-of-living concerns were the top issues hurting Biden with these voters, it was difficult to separate those worries from the lack of confidence in Bidens mental and physical abilities as a leader.

In recent months, the pollster said, it does seem like people have more specific memories of his infirmity. I hear more examples of people comparing him to relatives of theirs.

Focus groups like that one and similar polling help make sense of the chorus of voices calling for Biden to withdraw from the presidential race mere minutes after he turned in a disastrous debate performance.

To the Biden campaign, the limited movement against Biden in some post-debate polls has reinforced their view that the debate is being blown out of proportion. A national CNN poll released Tuesday found former President Donald Trump leading Biden by 6 percentage points the same margin Trump led by in April.