This piece about Biden’s stutter, by an author who stutters, is fascinating and raw:
Detroit was Biden’s chance to regain control of the narrative. And then something else happened. The candidates were talking about health care. At first, Biden sounded strong, confident, presidential: “My plan makes a limit of co-pay to be One. Thousand. Dollars. Because we—”
He stopped. He pinched his eyes closed. He lifted his hands and thrust them forward, as if trying to pull the missing sound from his mouth. “We f-f-f-f-further support—” He opened his eyes. “The uh-uh-uh-uh—” His chin dipped toward his chest. “The-uh, the ability to buy into the Obamacare plan.” Biden also stumbled when trying to say immune system.
Fox News edited these moments into a mini montage. Stifling laughter, the host Steve Hilton narrated: “As the right words struggled to make that perilous journey from Joe Biden’s brain to Joe Biden’s mouth, half the time he just seemed to give up with this somewhat tragic and limp admission of defeat.”
Several days later, Biden’s team got back in touch with me. One of his aides gingerly asked whether I’d noticed the former vice president stutter during the debate. Of course I had—I stutter, far worse than Biden. The aide said he was ready to talk about it. Last night, after Biden stumbled multiple times during the Atlanta debate, the topic became even more relevant.
I’m assuming Cheryl will make another impeachment post when the hearing’s ready to start, but in the meantime this piece is worth a read.
oatler.
Maybe cannabis edibles would help.:)
hells littlest angel
My understanding is that Biden overcame his stutter when he was a child, over 50 years ago. Was he really stuttering last night, or was he faltering for words, an entirely different thing?
mistermix loves your ass
@hells littlest angel: The answer to that is complicated, but from what I understood from the author and his references, you don’t really overcome a stutter. You develop techniques to avoid stuttering, which take a lot of mental energy.
Omnes Omnibus
@hells littlest angel: Is a stutter something one ever fully overcomes?*
*Actual question.
PenandKey
@mistermix loves your ass: This. You’re stuck with the stutter for life. Whether you can develop techniques and “words to avoid” lists can mitigate it to the point of not being obvious, but it never really goes away. If you’re tired, or stressed, or even just having an off-day it can come back in full force and, in my experience, when it feels like it’s going to it’s even harder to stop than it is to prevent in the first place.
Patricia Kayden
So now Trump is openly meeting with his jury. Not normal.
Jay
Really, who cares.
Quit treating the Office of the President of the United States as one part horserace, one part beauty pageant.
So, Biden stuttered, or was at a loss for words, who cares. Shit happens.
It’s not like he’s colluding with Russia and Putin to destroy the United States and Western Democracy.
People have brain farts all the time. Who cares.
Patricia Kayden
I’m in moderation. Help!
Omnes Omnibus
@PenandKey: Thanks. My knowledge about this comes entirely from The King’s Speech.
mistermix loves your ass
@Jay: I think it’s a huge explanation for something that people are constantly dinging Biden about, so I care about it. It is not a negative, at all, as far as I’m concerned.
Mr. Mack
My brother stuttered his whole life. As he got older, it happened less and less, but stress or fatigue could make it happen more frequently. Likely the latter with Biden.
trollhattan
Good article, very good. I learned about stuttering from a clinical standpoint in a college phonetics and phonemics course, but that was a loooong time ago and it sounds as though some advances have been made in diagnosis and…not treatment but speech therapy techniques.
Didn’t VP Biden connect with a young man with stuttering issues who was visiting the White House? Hazy recollection, so maybe I’m making that up.
Martin
@mistermix loves your ass: Yep. We have a number of close friends that stutter, and it reverts now and then. Usually under times of mental stress, or when they are mentally divided on what they are doing. Also a friend with Tourettes and similar thing. With meds and under normal circumstances it’s under control and you’d never know, but every now and then the circumstances overwhelm the meds.
One of the things in common among the stutterers – they all took up singing. It reinforces the flow of thought and vocalization. Kind of building up muscle memory.
Biden’s challenge is going to be to break that negative feedback loop that might be forming of having stuttered on stage and now fearing he’ll do that more, which has the effect of causing him to do it more.
JMG
It is notable how much more interesting, indeed fascinating, Biden’s life story is compared to Biden himself, the decent clumsy Granddad of politics.
khead
I’m sorry. I can’t quite get myself low enough to limbo under this bar.
trollhattan
@Jay:
I’m more concerned by things like maryjane is a gateway drug, y’all and I’ll let my AG decide what to do with this pack of criminals.
On the second, I should think the lack of prosecutions of banksters following the Great Recession should serve as a lesson learned, not to be repeated. Do not let criminals go unnoticed and unpunished. Period.
Ten Bears
That is… accurate: you never really overcome tutterin’ about stalkin’, you just learn how to manage it. Can’t (won’t) speak for others but it manifests itself when I am under extreme duress… angry, frustrated, perhaps even just a bit unbalanced. Woe has befallen those who have made fun of it. Good story, and though a common affliction, it doesn’t change my feelings about Biden. I’m too old, and he’s older than me.
Raoul Paste
I’m thinking of the movie The Kings Speech and I’m sympathetic to Biden. It shouldn’t matter, but our electorate dislikes any sign of perceived weakness. He should drop out for the country’s good
God, I hate the people at Fox
Bex
I noticed Sen. Klobuchar’s head shaking in her close-ups last night. Don’t remember seeing that in previous debates.
Richard Guhl
After I had my hip replacement surgery, my orthopedic surgeon warned me not to quit using my cane until I could walk without any limp. He said that those who stop too soon often end up with a permanent limp, because even though the muscles and tendons may have healed, the brain remembers the limp and favors the injured leg. And then that limp throws the whole lower neuromuscular system out of whack, making the limp permanent.
Are Joe Biden’s gaffes a sort of permanent limp in the connection between the word retrieval and speech centers of his brain?
japa21
I really like Joe, but I was wishing so hard he wouldn’t run. I think he could be a wonderful one term President but you don’t run on that basis.
My thinking as we approach the primaries (not that my thinking means squat) is that I want a candidate that can beat Trump but also one that won’t end up being a liability in 2022 or 2024.
What I mean is that I want someone running who won’t be pie in the sky like Warren or Sanders. Neither one can accomplish what they would like to see happen and that will create problems later. I am not even sure either could actually beat Trump. Warren maybe, Sanders almost certainly can’t.
When looking at a candidate I want to see what they bring to the office of the Presidency other than plans and goals. I want to consider if they are qualified to be President in terms of character, administrative skills, personality, etc. One of my complaints about Sanders in 2016 was that he never gave me a reason to think he would be a good President. He still hasn’t and I am losing some confidence in Warren as well.
Right now, I am pretty much down to two people and going back and forth on both as to which is my number one. Harris and Klobuchar both, IMO, have the qualities to be President. They probably both will be gone by the time Illinois votes, so it may not make much difference what I think.
Richard Guhl
@Bex: she might have an essential tremor, like Katherine Hepburn.
Martin
I would like Cole to add ‘asserting that Biden’s stuttering is disqualifying’ as a bannable offense. That’s really no different than saying that Bookers blackness is disqualifying or Warren’s gender is. We openly wonder if the general populace things these are disqualifying (so of course Fox is mocking it) but we don’t assert as Democrats that they are. They are part of who they are. Biden has spent so much time in public service, giving speeches, etc. that we know it doesn’t interfere with his ability to do the job. In fact, if anything people would complain that Joe like to talk too much.
japa21
@trollhattan: First of all, he didn’t say it was a gateway drug. Secondly, it is not the President who should decide if prosecutions should take place, it is the DOJ and the AG.
It always amuses me when people want Dem Presidents to do what they consider dictatorial when a GOP President does it.
Happened with Obama and now happening prematurely with the Dem candidates.
Betty Cracker
Now I feel like a heel for expressing irritation/alarm about Biden repeatedly saying “expedentially” (not a real word) when he means “exponentially.” I assumed it was a dumb Palinism (“refudiated”), but maybe it’s due to the stutter…
Omnes Omnibus
No, that is the right view. The president should not be directing the prosecution of anyone. Biden was saying he would adopt the stance that every president until this one adopted.
joel hanes
@Jay:
Deeply unfortunately, telegenicity has been a dominant force in our politics, especially our national politics and double especially the Presidency, ever since Nixon’s sweating and five-o’clock shadow. Not sure if there’s a way to counter people’s tendency to judge by looks and manner on a visual medium. (Marshall McLuhan explained why this is inevitable)
Even more deeply unfortunately, long-form print media are decaying, and even blogs are tl:dr for the twitterati.
Further, the media business directly benefits from horserace narrative. This one we can do something about. Everyone should write to CNN and tell them that Cillizza and his ilk are destroying our nation (John Stewart was right on about this when he confronted Tucker Carlson). Fox will always want a Tucker, but other networks can still be shamed if their audience cares enough
Eric S.
@mistermix loves your ass: That makes sense. The one stutterer I know gets much worse as the Manhattans add up.
trollhattan
@japa21:
He used that exact term. Not “enough evidence..whether or not it is a gateway drug.” Which is why it came up in the debate.
Not good.
trollhattan
@Omnes Omnibus:
I want to hear, “Selecting my attorney general, I want to hear his or her plan for investigating and prosecuting crimes committed by the current administration.”
Candidates who are not clear on this don’t have my support.
japa21
@trollhattan: In other words, he did not call it a gateway drug.
trollhattan
@japa21:
You can tapdance all you wish, but he did.
Mandalay
@Martin:
Something of a strawman since nobody has done that AFAIK, unless you have a link.
But your comment does invite this question: how about those here who argue that Biden’s age is disqualifying? Should they be banned?
If so, why? If not, how is that qualitatively different from arguing that stuttering or blackness is disqualifying?
MomSense
@trollhattan:
I feel differently about his comment that he would let his AG decide. After the way the Justice Dept. has been politicized (more like mobbed up) we desperately need to try to reinstate boundaries and take the politics out of prosecution. We also need to clean house in the Justice Dept – and all the others – to get the political hacks out. I figure there is a lot of burrowing going on. The next administration hopefully will be Democratic and competent.
Sis
@hells littlest angel: The article addresses this question.
japa21
@trollhattan:
Sigh
Jay
@joel hanes:
Canada elected Stanfield, Cretien and Clark.
trollhattan
@japa21:
Learn rhetoric. He made a statement formed as a question. It’s a thing done in politics, courtrooms, etc.
Question the second. Does he support keeping marijuana on Schedule I? I’d like to hear your answer.
Ruckus
@Richard Guhl:
Essential tremor presents in different ways, but I didn’t know that it would be obvious in the head without being obvious in the extremities.
It doesn’t jive with what I’ve been told by neurology.
Betty Cracker
@trollhattan: Biden especially has an obligation to let us know if there will be a post-Trump kumbaya with Republicans in the current administration because Biden has made absurd assertions about Republicans having an “epiphany” after Trump leaves office and working with Democrats in good faith.
I agree that presidents have no business directing the prosecution of political enemies as Trump has done. But it’s possible to convey that you won’t let serious crimes that undermine democracy go unpunished without leading “LOCK HIM UP!” chants. Sounds like Biden missed that opportunity.
Omnes Omnibus
@trollhattan: There have been multiple occasions including during the debate last night where he has said he supports decriminalization and expunging the records of offenders.
Ruckus
@Mandalay:
As many of us olds can and have attested to right on this blog, age is/can be a disqualifying attribute. We all age, we aren’t all white or male or smart or tall, none of which are disqualifying. Some age slower, some faster some better, some worse but we age and meet the same fate.
Omnes Omnibus
@Mandalay: A stutter is a physical disability. Age, in and of itself, is not.
Omnes Omnibus
@Betty Cracker: Did you watch the debate? He said he is for impeachment and removal and would defer to his AG to make the call on charges. From the way it was said and the other comments he made about Trump, it was pretty clear to me that if he were his AG he would bring charges.
Bruce K
I developed a stutter after I got hit by a thyroid storm. I can totally sympathize with Biden, and Steve Hilton can go get a steak knife and a corkscrew and use them to go [censored] himself.
rp
I’ll be the bad guy and say that, IF Biden’s stuttering is an indication of declining energy and/or mental facilities (i.e., because he isn’t able to moderate it as effectively as he used to), it’s relevant to his candidacy. The stuttering by itself is not any way disqualifying, but when many of us have already had concerns about his age and cognitive abilities, it’s worth noting.
That said, the stuttering is an extremely minor component of the much more significant concerns about his age.
J R in WV
Parents’ neighbor was the wife of a cardiac surgeon and stuttered a lot. Then they divorced and it went away overnight. Interesting. She became a teacher and lived a modest life, much happier without all the money and stress.
Cacti
@Omnes Omnibus: I don’t believe that developmental stuttering is classified as a physical condition, because it doesn’t have an identifiable physical etiology causing its onset.
Betty Cracker
@Omnes Omnibus: Saw most of it, but I missed that part, which is why I said it “sounds like” Biden missed that opportunity.
Matt
@Betty Cracker: Given how “exponentially” is almost always misused, I’ll grant Biden the right to use “expedentially” however he wants.
JaneE
My cousin stutters. When he was younger it was painful to watch him struggle to say simple words that just wouldn’t come out, especially when he was a little stressed. I know he was happy to see us, and that was part of the reason he couldn’t get the words out. He “grew out of it”, or at least now he has to be really upset before he starts stuttering. Normally, now he just pauses a second before forming words that are a problem, and what is left of his stuttering is probably not recognized as that by someone who hasn’t known him all his life. Or maybe now it is just old age and senior moments catching up with us all.
That Fox clip may play well there, but there a lot of friends and family of stutterers that will realize just how mean it is.
gvg
@Omnes Omnibus: No that is the wrong view at this point. the President picks the AG and correctly takes overall views about these things into account. This question is about who he will pick for his cabinet. It’s really significant in judging what a candidate is really going to be like.
Now after his pick is confirmed, he should properly leave it alone. But that isn’t where we are right now.
Gemina13
@Martin: I have stuttered nearly all my life. My mother first taught me tongue-twisters, and then encouraged me to join school choirs. Singing made a much greater difference than the damn tongue-twisters, which made me anxious about speaking at all.
I’m not surprised that the assholes at Fox are mocking Biden for this. Most of them were probably the bullies who called stuttering kids r*tards, even though most of us likely read and wrote better than they did.
Martin
@Mandalay: I’m not the only one in this thread to be nervous about the direction this might be taking. I merely suggested that I’d be okay with Cole adding it should it go in that direction.
I would argue that age is similar but somewhat different. Everyone who is now 75 was once 50 and once had a chance to run for president and made a choice not to, or wasn’t nominated. I think youth deserves representation as much as race or gender or disability. We have no lack of representation of medicare age individuals. I don’t think being white is disqualifying, but I do think representation matters.
Another Scott
Thanks for the pointer. It’s a good piece.
I’m kinda surprised that the author didn’t mention that Obama has had similar speaking issues, too, at times. I don’t know if it’s technically a stutter, but it’s out there.
I’ve been critical here of Biden for his “gaffes”. In one of the debates in particular, he seemed rushed and over-coached and seemed too often to be throwing up word salads. If he stays in the race, I’ll have to reconsider whether he was “confused” or fighting to get the words out smoothly.
Cheers,
Scott.
cckids
@Martin:
I didn’t know that! My son has a stutter; singing has helped him, but I didn’t know it was a common thing. Another one that helped him tremendously when he was younger & the stutter was worse, was essentially doing impressions/talking with an accent (he does a killer Sean Connery). The stutter would disappear like magic. It was just fascinating.
Richard Guhl
Dan B
Reading this great article I was struck by how similar stutterer’s experience is to LGBT experience. The young alpha males in the pack like to “practice” on the ones considered weak. People of Biden’s age grew up in an era when difference from the norm was considered a sign of illness or at least suspicious. LGBT people and stutterers vary in their ability to conceal themselves but there are mire ways to cope than hiding. Another way is to be outrageously outside the norm and not give a fuck. There’s power in this approach. A friend in high school was effeminate and gregarious. He didn’t hide, he flaunted. Now he’s a professor. My mother told me, skinny introverted me, couldn’t be friends with him so it didn’t help me.
I wish Biden would “come out”. It would probably gain him some supporters. Even if it didn’t it would serve a good purpose, elevating a marginalized community. This would raise my estimation of him.
Dan B
@Dan B: I feel that the current GOP has gone full tilt “Alpha males rule” and zero sum governance. Cruelty is an unfortunate by product of rule by the most superior.
But there us another model of governance. It’s one that has been successful from high school and beyond for LGBT people, and others who were kept out of the club – form your own with others who just want to be treated with some dignity and given a fair shake. It’s why the narrative that blacks don’t like gays, muslims don’t like women or gays, and vice versa, continues to have so much traction.