[readthenotes1]

I was using "speak clearly" as a shibboleth for general mental and physical ability.

There is clearly something wrong with him that was not in evidence in 2020. Whether it's Parkinson's, senility, 12-day-old jet lag, I don't know. But it's clear that it's hard for him to carry on a conversation, and that is basically the job of a politician.

[toast0]

His recent debate performance was poor. But he's had trouble speaking for a long time. Go back and watch older debates or speeches and see. It's all classic speech impedement stuff; he's clearly had lots of training and experience, but sometimes he can't use the words he wants and switches to different words.

I'm honestly not sure what we're looking for in a debate, but most presidential debates since I've been a voter are contests to see who can look like they're listening the best while getting back to a rehearsed talking point the fastest. [1] When you combine that with trouble with words, and maybe some over training, it doesn't look good.

Does it mean he has trouble carrying on a conversation in a real setting? I don't know, it's a totally different setting with different expectations. We don't really get a window into that.

[1] Well except that MTV town hall. Pretty sure Bill had no talking points appropriate there.

[xeromal]

I've watched several old debates and he's a killer debator even with his slip ups. He was anything but that in this recent one.

[SauciestGNU]

There are also different kinds of difficulty speaking. When he was younger, Biden would trip over words or say something not quite right, or make gaffes (supporting same sex marriage before it was the admin policy).

But now his difficulty seems to come from difficulty understanding what is happening around him. He seemed confused by his surroundings multiple times during that awful debate.

I've seen a lot of Biden supporters pointing to his stutter and speaking difficulties, but his troubles have qualitatively and quantitatively changed, and definitely for the worse.

[hn_throwaway_99]

The reason there was no coming back from his debate performance is because it wasn't just some verbal slip up or "classic speech impediment" stuff. Anyone who's taken care of an elderly parent or grandparent recognized the clear signs of age-related mental decline. And it obviously wasn't that single debate, e.g. the news about Clooney's fundraiser where pretty much everyone in attendance thought he had markedly declined, or this recent BET interview where Biden got seriously confused and lost his train of thought: https://www.cnn.com/2024/07/17/politics/video/biden-youtube-.... To your question "Does it mean he has trouble carrying on a conversation in a real setting?”, that BET interview was just a taped, 2-person, no-audience interview with a friendly interviewer. I just don't understand how anyone who's been paying attention can state that Biden's mental capacity hasn't declined significantly, and more importantly, how anyone could suggest with a straight face that Biden would have the requisite mental capacity in 4 years hence.

[terminatornet]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tSj9gkgCM8Q

could you point out the timestamp where his speech impediment is evident? this was 8 years ago and he appears to be a silver-tongued devil

[johnfn]

Whoa, thanks for sharing this. I've never seen it before. Crazy and kind of sad how much of a difference there was in the last 8 years.

[khazhoux]

> It's all classic speech impedement stuff

Maybe 10 years ago it was that.

But in the last couple of months, it's like his tongue is not moving right. I literally can't understand some of his sentences now, the syllables are so slurred and garbled.

[SuperNinKenDo]

Biden apparently had a speech impediment (basically stutter), for much of his early life, and had to train extremely hard to overcome it. So in general I've always brushed aside criticism of his speaking as it's evident to me that he's generally very articulate and well spoken if you overlook the occassional word salad.

Over the last few months I've generally defending his gaffs to friends even though I don't like Biden as a politician, because I think that kind of discourse is counterproductive politically and stigmatising socially, which I still feel.

However, I have to say, the recent downward spike in his ability to string a sentence together becomes concerning to me, not so much because I think it primary reflects any cognitive decline per se, but it seems to me like a sign that the pressure of the presidency and the campaign are affecting him in _some_ way that is causing his speech impediment to surface at its worst and most frequent yet. So I would still push back on a lot of what you are saying, but yes, at this point, something is clearly off there to a concerning degree.