I mean, he also clearly has dementia. Like, we know what he used to look and sound like, he was VP for 8 years, recently. The change in lucidity and articulation from then to now is staggering. If he were my grandfather, seeing him like this would make me cry. I'll never vote for that traitorous, narcissistic, felonious piece of trash running against him, but goddam if this isn't the most pathetic presidential ballot in my lifetime by a massive margin.
Biden clearly does not have dementia. He has some other serious problems, but his mind is there. Once you decode his halting delivery, the ideas behind his positions are sound. You can tell his mind is still sharp, it's his body that is betraying him.
To me, it looked like the problem was not his brain, it was between his brain and his mouth. His brain knew what it wanted to say, his mouth took the long road to get there. And when you only have a minute or two to make your point, every second counts.
I am not saying that to try and gloss over the problem. But I've watched older relatives succumb to Alzheimer's and dementia over the years, and this is not it. It's different. It's still bad for any older person, though, much less a President.
Regardless, he's been "betrayed" and I'd really rather not have to describe the only possible reasonable candidate for President of the United States that way. Sorry?
You are correct, of course. And that's why this movement to get him to step aside is gaining so much traction. The more I see key Democrats defending him in public, the more I think the private conversations are getting heated.
There is so much riding on this election that we can't just call a mulligan and say "we laid an egg this time, we'll try again in 2028".
No no, you see: water is 2 parts hydrogen and 1 part oxygen. Hydrogen is a key component of nukes, and nukes destroy magnets. Trump was telling us in code, because the baby-eating Dems are looking for an excuse to have him replaced with a body double so he can't give obvious messages.
Biden is just old, and the cold did him no favors. He was also I think completely unprepared for the firehose of just straight up disprovable lies coming at him while also trying to actually convey his talking points. Even if well I don't think it's a great medium for an 81 yr old man. Listen to him elsewhere though and it's clear he still has his marbles, unlike Trump who is on a fast decline and unable to even explain an idea. The man isn't as young as he was clearly, and probably should have just retired long ago. But having known family and others with dementia, I don't think Biden has dementia at all, he's just old and debates like an 81 yr old.
How could he possibly be unprepared for Trump to lie, that's literally all he does. Three of my four grandparents had dementia, my father has the early stages already, I've worked in hospitals and group homes, I know the glassy-eyed stair of senility well. If he's too old to hold a planned discussion in the absolute optimal conditions, he's definitely too old to be president. Like I said, I'll end up voting for him, because why the fuck not, can't be worse than the alternative. But seriously, the thought of him having civilization-shaping meetings with other heads-of-state looking and sounding like that is unnerving to me.
Well like I've said in one of these threads, it really was the perfect storm for him. That was about as bad as he has looked and sounded in his almost 4 year term. I saw video of him at a campaign stop the next day and it was like night and day. He was still old, and still had a cold, but he looked more alive - for lack of a better word.
But I 100% agree that the party's only choice shouldn't be a rich white senior citizen. The minimum age requirement is 35, and we should be shooting for closer to that, rather than well past "retirement age".
It really is that bad. Watch the videos of Biden from the Democratic convention in 2008 if anyone has any doubts.
I remember in 2015 I thought the most pathetic ballot would be Hillary Clinton vs. Jeb Bush because it would be like we lived in a hereditary monarchy. I had no idea how bad Trump was and underestimated him bigly.
Still, since we know fascism is characterized by the near worship of a strongman leader, I'm perfectly fine taking the opposite approach. If Biden is in cognitive decline, so what? As long as his administration continues to do good work, his administration gets my vote.
You claimed Biden "clearly has dementia" which either means you're lying because you know he doesn't, or you don't know what dementia is. I've had plenty of moments like he had in this debate but even as a young neurotypical child, and most people have. Sometimes under pressure people lose their train of thought. Obviously we want a president that is not prone to that, but the other option is someone of basically the same age but is additionally a huge piece of shit
How could I "know he doesn't"? Literally no one can "know" he doesn't, not even him. But based on the hundreds of hours I've spent working with people with many varying degrees of dementia, it really really really looks like dementia. Sorry, I don't want him to have it either, but those glassy eyes are very familiar to me, and it's not a look I've ever gotten from "a young nerotypical child," whatever that has to do with anything.
Okay, so there would not have been a way to know you have first hand medical experience that you're now claiming. The pushback was against the wording "clearly" because that's obviously meant to say that this is cut and dried which I highly doubt it would be -- medical opinion and whatnot.
Are you really saying that dementia is a binary condition? My understanding is that it's something that slowly comes on. While you could easily say "this looks like dementia setting in" and get no pushback, saying "this is clearly dementia" has an incredibly different ring to it. To me that wording implies if you asked him his name he would either not know or would struggle. I never really thought my grandparents had "dementia" because despite being slower and forgetting things, they never seem to have lost their core knowledge or personality. And Biden was probably much more on his toes than they were. So yeah, I can't say I agree with this snap assessment even if he "clearly" presents some symptoms.