USA Politics

Yea similar reactions here, I’ll echo Jer’s point that I wonder what they actually did to get him to have such an energized and coherent performance, also considering the length of his speech and that he didn’t stumble much. I’ve been worried that there would be a non-campaign from Biden because I wasn’t sure if he was actually capable of still giving these kinds of speeches.

I guess his SOTU performances have always been his better public speaking moments, but yea this needs to be the beginning of regular campaign mode and not a one off.
 
Jer said:
Finally watched the State Of The Union, and I don’t know what they did to reanimate Biden for this speech, but they need to start doing it for every speech of his.
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He did well. There wasn't any central message just an endless rant-like tone, but nobody expected anything too clever from him.
The very first sentence of the speech, "If I were smart I'd go home now", indicates that the big bet for the leader of the free world was if he could do a full hour or so without stumbling, mumbling, freezing, major gaffe etc., and he did, so definitely a success. The democratic crowd did its part with standing ovations every 30" to keep him energised and focused.
Every American should be allowed to whatever substance he took, though I don't think it's sustainable for the whole campaign or he'll have a heart attack.

Anyway, he did much better than anybody ever expected, thus a good night for Democratic party after all.
 
It's been refreshing seeing the cognitive dissonance of MAGA conservatives kick in. Turns out that even though Biden still stumbles here and there due to his stutter he is not the incoherent and rambling lunatic that right wing media would have you believe with out-of-context super cuts of his biggest fumbles and gaffes. Turns out that Biden is far more coherent than Trump, even though he's a few years older.

I appreciated that he wasn't afraid to call out people, including the Supreme Court Justices. Also, he was right when talking about not underestimating the voting power of women. I'm sure there'll be plenty of people who wouldn't otherwise vote for Biden who will do so this election due to Dobbs.

The response by the Alabama senator is truly bizarre and baffling. To the point where even many conservatives online are saying that they found the entire thing weird.
 
Jer said:
Finally watched the State Of The Union, and I don’t know what they did to reanimate Biden for this speech, but they need to start doing it for every speech of his. I didn’t know he still had it in him.

If the rest of the country keeps seeing this Biden between now and Election Day, I will feel much better about his chances of winning.
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Jer said:
Finally watched the State Of The Union, and I don’t know what they did to reanimate Biden for this speech, but they need to start doing it for every speech of his. I didn’t know he still had it in him.

If the rest of the country keeps seeing this Biden between now and Election Day, I will feel much better about his chances of winning.
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Pffft, no big deal, it's only B vitamins shot. :ninja:
 
  • Wow
Reactions: Jer
If a washed up athlete pulls out a world record does this qualify for doping “evidence”? Some will question for sure.

Anyway, whatever drug Biden did he still did it himself. It was him speaking there, pulling out all this energy and anger.

I see it as a fair game, he had to perform and did what he had to do, so what?
 
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LooseCannon said:
Nobody who has followed Joe Biden's career should be surprised that he rose to this moment in particular.
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LooseCannon said:
"He couldn't possibly have done this on his own. Despite the absence of any evidence, we will assume the old man is doing cocaine"
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LooseCannon said:
Almost like Biden maybe wasn't washed up, that was just MAGA propaganda since they can't run against his record.
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I’m sorry, but it’s not MAGA propaganda that for at least the past couple of years Biden has been shambling around like a zombie, slack-jawed and often confused about details in public, and stumbling over his words in a way that you can’t just write off as due to his stutter. He has been quite visibly and consistently diminished for some time now, which is why his SOTU performance was such a shock.

I could just as easily say this “Biden’s been perfectly fine all along, what’s wrong with you people?” line is naked left-wing propaganda. At the very least his public presentation has been consistently poor.
 
He's definitely an old man, and he definitely ate his wheaties before the SOTU. I'm sure he put a lot in to preparing for it and making sure it landed, and I'm sure he was pretty exhausted afterwards. I watch a lot of US political coverage and while it's obvious that Biden is old, I never considered him to be old in a way that was concerning, if that makes sense, given what his job is. I don't know, I'm against the gerontocracy in general but I always thought he was fine, and I figured he'd come out swinging at the big events. Joe Biden has always been a guy best in front of a happy crowd, and worse in interviews and press conferences.

For reference, I do believe most of the stumbling of words is his stutter. Stutters are tough to control at the best of times, and they become a little tougher to manage as you age. As for remembering details, well, everyone fucks up details sometimes, and I don't recall anything that was particularly concerning. I do remember when he forgot one of the Reps died, that was pretty rough, but shit like that happens all the time. Was it Obama who said there was like 57 states or something?
 
LooseCannon said:
For reference, I do believe most of the stumbling of words is his stutter. Stutters are tough to control at the best of times, and they become a little tougher to manage as you age. As for remembering details, well, everyone fucks up details sometimes, and I don't recall anything that was particularly concerning. I do remember when he forgot one of the Reps died, that was pretty rough, but shit like that happens all the time. Was it Obama who said there was like 57 states or something?
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This. I stutter (in part due to my fast paced talking, which makes me trip over words), and avoiding to do so takes a substantial amount of brain processing power, although I suppose less so for people better trained in relevant strategies. Biden had overcome it to such a degree you didn't notice it until the man was 75+, and had a harder time coping with it. As I said, avoiding stuttering comes with cognitive cost) Biden is remarkable in that department, and has personally mentored stutterers for decades, as late as the last presidential election. There's a video out there, with a kid, severe stutterer, who was brought by his father to hear Biden speak. Biden was filmed being extraordinarily kind to him in person (the father told Biden they had come to hear him speak, to show the kid that you can overcome it and become President), but of course MAGA ran that as "here is Biden being creepy with a kid!"
 
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I also have a stutter. Not as bad as Biden's was when he was young, enough that sometimes it comes out, even now. So yeah, it stinks when people are assuming what the challenges of having a stutter is. All of the things they play like Biden is stumbling on words sounds very similar. Can't find the word so you get stuck on a sound, and that sort of thing.
 
I think Biden’s age would be more a salient issue if the GOP nominated someone younger. Trump is not much younger and frequently slurs his words and mixes people up in a way that Biden is frequently criticized for. Imo right wingers criticizing Biden’s age are being disingenuous when Trump clearly has similarly declined.

I like Biden’s “it’s the age of the ideas” argument and find it to be the most effective message. Either way we’re going to be stuck with someone who is well past their prime to properly do the job, so what matters is whether the president is qualified for the job and focused on the right issues, something Trump utterly fails at in both categories.
 
Right-Wingers have never been consistent with their outrage. Remember when Obama wore a tan suit and they acted like he had pooped on Times Square, judging by their rage. A suit, while constantly bending over backwards to downplay Trump’s actions. Applying different yardsticks is fundamental to their MO.
 
I think the effect on conservative American psychology of having a black guy as president who turned out to be fairly “normal” culturally and politically within the establishment is something that will be studied with great interest many years from now.
 
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