President Biden thread

46 minutes ago, Beerman said:

Someone else called it a stutter.  It's not the same as in the past.  This is cognitive decline. Not stuttering.  And, stutter or not,  he's proved through the years to not be the brightest bulb in Washington.

I won't name-call like you just did, and I'll keep my judgement on people who do to myself. But, I do have to wonder about those who can't see his obvious decline 

He does fumble through speeches sometimes, and says ah and eh and stutters, but I can't remember how this is different than before but will take your word that it's worse. 

Right now I think he's capable and competent and won't buy into the idea that he's "weak, frail, cognitive mess".    But yes he's old.   He's not a vibrant young man and has obvious signs of his age.  

I'm getting deja vu typing this..........

1 hour ago, Beerman said:

What do you make of him forgetting names, or referring to "President Harris", as he has done at least twice?

Biden is a better public speaker than the previous president, even when he stutters or mispeaks...that's what I make of it.  

1 hour ago, Beerman said:

What do you make of him forgetting names, or referring to "President Harris", as he has done at least twice?

I forgot the name of a guy on my bowling team that I've bowled with for the last 16 weeks last night.  My mind was quite occupied at the time.  I'm not quite ready to define that as "obvious mental decline".  

I can see why people are concerned.   Time will tell I guess.

17 minutes ago, toomuchbaloney said:

Biden is a better public speaker than the previous president, even when he stutters or mispeaks...that's what I make of it.  

We just can't help but bring up the previous president can we?  LOL.  But yes Trump long rambling speeches, lying and making up words and situations  that don't exist bothered me a bit more than Biden.  But we're talking about Biden here.

56 minutes ago, Tweety said:

I forgot the name of a guy on my bowling team that I've bowled with for the last 16 weeks last night.  My mind was quite occupied at the time.  I'm not quite ready to define that as "obvious mental decline".  

I can see why people are concerned.   Time will tell I guess.

We just can't help but bring up the previous president can we?  LOL.  But yes Trump long rambling speeches, lying and making up words and situations  that don't exist bothered me a bit more than Biden.  But we're talking about Biden here.

We are talking about Biden but our assessment of presidential capacity doesn't exist in a vacuum and the inability of Biden's conservative critics to apply the same level of scrutiny to Trump at any point in time that they copiously apply to Biden is reflective of a double standard and a focus on that narrative by certain right wing media voices.  It's difficult to take their "concern" seriously. 

1 hour ago, toomuchbaloney said:

We are talking about Biden but our assessment of presidential capacity doesn't exist in a vacuum and the inability of Biden's conservative critics to apply the same level of scrutiny to Trump at any point in time that they copiously apply to Biden is reflective of a double standard and a focus on that narrative by certain right wing media voices.  It's difficult to take their "concern" seriously. 

Large groups of psychiatrists and psychologists never once wrote letters to the media warning us that Biden was mentally unfit for public office.  The concerns of right wing media are not those of mine since they are incapable of seeing anything except their wallets.

6 hours ago, Beerman said:

It's not just Trumpsters who are concerned.  

same article "To Lake’s point, the Morning Consult poll generally shows that Trump voters and Republicans generally believe Biden is neither physically nor mentally fit, and Biden voters believe the opposite. However, independents — by a margin of 23 points — don’t agree that Biden is mentally fit now.'
 

It still seems to be skewed by political party who is concerned and who isn't.   But yes, independents in particularly are thinking he's mentally unfit.     

Perhaps some of us are in denial, but the party that ran a very successful "lock her up campaign" clearly has this high on their agenda of convincing voters.  They were successful with the "crooked Hillary" Campaign so they will probably be successful with this.   I don't think it's out of a sincere concern for the country, but with their eyes on the next election.

I also don't want to stick my head in the sand and engage in wishful thinking, and not toss out the idea.  So I hope that if he is proven to be mentally unfit the system we have in place takes care of it.  People meet with him all the time.  Machin himself during the recent negotiations said he had some very good meetings with him.  No mention of any concerns.  I'm sure there is a process in place to deal with a mentally incompetent president.  Or if he's competent but slipping I hope someone steps up.
Time will tell I guess.  

12 hours ago, Beerman said:

What do you make of him forgetting names, or referring to "President Harris", as he has done at least twice?

Biden's 'thing' has always been that he's far from being an eloquent speaker, he has no filter when speaking.  Being gaffe-prone isn't new, he's been known for that for decades.  

Being "bad at names" has been associated with higher cognitive functioning for some time, and there are now even studies that confirm this.

That doesn't mean I think he's a genius, I've always considered him to be mediocre at best in terms of his political intelligence.  But I don't consider his longstanding personality traits, and definitely not his stutter, to be signs of sudden cognitive decline, he's always been sort of an idiot, that's not a new thing.

There are a number of Republicans that he interacts with who have known him for as long as three decades, I would think they would point out if they've noticed recent cognitive changes.  

11 hours ago, Beerman said:

It's not just Trumpsters who are concerned.  

And, most would take a mentally competent Biden over Harris, so what would be the motivation to create a false narrative about his cognitive state?

"Asked whether Biden is mentally fit, voters are almost evenly split, with 46 percent saying he is and 48 percent disagreeing. But that negative 2-point margin stands in stark contrast to Biden’s numbers last October, when voters believed he was mentally fit by a 21-point margin."

https://www.politico.com/news/2021/11/17/poll-biden-mental-fitness-job-approval-522785

Meh. 

Compared to the last 3 presidents this guy is old and not a great public orator but there's no big issue to defend, IMV. If Biden is in the midst of decline we know from experience that the country can survive that.  What we will have trouble surviving is corruption that would sacrifice democracy for power. 

Biden has expressed that he will run in 2024.  I await to see how the party will react to this.   The Dems need to start seriously grooming someone else right now.