Is Bush suffering from presenile dementia?

[superdave]

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/living/articles/2004/09/14/a_medical_cause_for_bushisms/


This summer, Joseph Price, a self-described "country doctor" in Carsonville, Mich., was reading a long article in The Atlantic about Bush's speaking style. Author James Fallows alluded to Bush's malapropisms and to speculation that Bush had a learning disorder or dyslexia. But those conditions generally manifest themselves in childhood. Furthermore, Fallows wrote, "through his forties Bush was perfectly articulate."

Dr. Price's children happened to have given him a daily tear-off calendar of "Bushisms" for Christmas. "They are horrible, but they are also diagnostic," Price says. When he read that Bush had spoken clearly and performed well while debating Texas politician Ann Richards in 1994, Price thought: "My God, the only way you can explain that is by being Alzheimer's."


I found this article fairly persuasive. It explains alot of things...the evident deterioration of Bush's mental abilities, his stubborness, and his desire for the familiar.

[Dan Loney]

Which is more common, presenile dementia, or some form of ongoing drug addiction?

The obvious conclusion to me is ongoing alcoholism. But Presidents have access to very expensive, and very up-to-date, pharmacies.

Okay, in all (still partisan and Bush-hatin') seriousness. The recurring thread in his malapropisms, though, is that he simply never misspeaks when he's being sincere. It's when he tries to sell people on some compassionate program of his that he trips himself up. He was extremely clear last year in the "Bring it on" speech. He was extremely unfocused and clueless in the April press conference. He was fairly direct in his RNC speech. That's erratic.

So, we have, in what I think are decreasing orders of likelihood:

(1) He's just that much better when prepared or, he's just that lazy, and can only reach acceptable levels when truly motivated
(2) He's on more drugs than Eli Lilly can crank out
(3) He's got this variation of Alzheimer's no one's ever seen before
(4) Problem? What problem? The guy loses fights to pretzels, is blotchier than Jackson Pollock's Greatest Hits and is about as steady as Karla Faye Tucker's farewell performance, but he's under a lot of stress, the poor guy

Now, what explains the fact that all of his advisors are just as stupid as he is? What kind of brain cancer explains what Cheney, Rice, Rumsfeld and Ashcroft have done? Maybe the White House was built on an old Indian burial mound.

[Barbara]

Which is more common, presenile dementia, or some form of ongoing drug addiction?

The obvious conclusion to me is ongoing alcoholism. But Presidents have access to very expensive, and very up-to-date, pharmacies.

Okay, in all (still partisan and Bush-hatin') seriousness. The recurring thread in his malapropisms, though, is that he simply never misspeaks when he's being sincere. It's when he tries to sell people on some compassionate program of his that he trips himself up. He was extremely clear last year in the "Bring it on" speech. He was extremely unfocused and clueless in the April press conference. He was fairly direct in his RNC speech. That's erratic.

So, we have, in what I think are decreasing orders of likelihood:

(1) He's just that much better when prepared or, he's just that lazy, and can only reach acceptable levels when truly motivated


It's all about preparation. He's perfectly articulate when he's reading prepared speeches and doesn't start to babble until he's trying to express his own thoughts. I just want to know if it's just some sort of disconnect between his brain and his mouth that causes his sentences to be jumbled or are his thoughts really that jumbled? That, to me, is the $64,000 question.

[Barbara]

The last line of the article:

The Democrats would rather feel superior to their opponents than beat them, and so far they are doing a very good job.


Sad but true.

[superdave]

It's all about preparation. He's perfectly articulate when he's reading prepared speeches and doesn't start to babble until he's trying to express his own thoughts. I just want to know if it's just some sort of disconnect between his brain and his mouth that causes his sentences to be jumbled or are his thoughts really that jumbled? That, to me, is the $64,000 question.
I'm not trying to be rude, but did you read the article? A key assertion in it is that Bush performed very well in his gubernatorial debates.

[GringoTex]

Penile what?

[Barbara]

I'm not trying to be rude, but did you read the article?

I don't mean to be rude, Dave, but did you? Because you forgot to mention the neurology professor who thinks the dementia thing is horsecrap.

Yes, I asked for a second opinion. University of Massachusetts neurology professor Dr. Daniel Pollen thinks it is bootless to speculate about Bush's condition without a formal neuropsychological assessment. "I think it's unfair to say somebody has or does not have a dementia as an analysis based on his public utterances," says Pollen, who is not a Bush supporter. Noting that Bush spoke well in his debates with both Richards and Al Gore, Pollen adds that Bush's "peak performances are not in the range I would consider for anybody to have Alzheimer's disease in the near future."

It explains alot of things...the evident deterioration of Bush's mental abilities, his stubborness, and his desire for the familiar.

I don't see anything about a "desire from the familiar" in that article. First of all, what makes you think he has such a thing and how does that relate to presenile dementia?


A key assertion in it is that Bush performed very well in his gubernatorial debates.

I don't care.


Look, Dave, you really do need to be less... beligerant and defensive, I guess. You jumped all over me for reasons that totally mystify me since I wasn't commenting on your article and was responding to something Loney said.

[argentine soccer fan]

Presenile dementia?

Sounds like something that can easily be cured with Viagra.

:D

[Crimen y Castigo]

In college I understand he got hooked up to jumper cables.

[Karl K]

The last line of the article:




Sad but true.

Sad??

I think it's downright hilarious.

Their candidate is going down in flames, but the only way they can feel at all good -- since in the end, they just feel SOOOOOOOOOOOO bad about the current state of political affairs -- is to assume the all-too-typical pose of smug condescension and "harummmph" feelings of intellectual superority.

Really, it's incredibly amusing.

[Barbara]

Sad??

I think it's downright hilarious.

Their candidate is going down in flames, but the only way they can feel at all good -- since in the end, they just feel SOOOOOOOOOOOO bad about the current state of political affairs -- is to assume the all-too-typical pose of smug condescension and "harummmph" feelings of intellectual superority.

Really, it's incredibly amusing.


Look in the mirror, buddy, because your post is chock full of condescension and feelings of intellectual superiority.

Hell, my cat feels intellectually superior to the Shrub.

[argentine soccer fan]

Hell, my cat feels intellectually superior to the Shrub.

So? Cats always feel intellectually superior to humans. And they probably are. :D

[ratdog]

Sad??

I think it's downright hilarious.

Their candidate is going down in flames, but the only way they can feel at all good -- since in the end, they just feel SOOOOOOOOOOOO bad about the current state of political affairs -- is to assume the all-too-typical pose of smug condescension and "harummmph" feelings of intellectual superority.

Really, it's incredibly amusing.

Nice to see Karl is still monomaniacally focused on his idee fixe. Oops, I just said something in a ferrin tongue. Therefore, I must be some kinda intelleckshul. Since you're back, Karl, do you mind kindly addressing anything relelvant here concerning the contrasting diagnoses in the article or are you just here to rant against "eggheads" to wreak your vengeance on whatever college professor stole your girl or ran over your dog back in the day?

As for Bush's er... "problems". I think he just can't think for himself too well and this is reflected in his stumblin' fumblin' bumblin' when he has to respond off script. The few people I've known or met who have the same painful embarrassing inability to express themselves off the cuff aren't/weren't, to my knowledge, on drugs or suffering from dementia. Some of them are/were perfectly intelligent in other capacities. One was a physics grad student friend of my bro-in-law. Bush, however, is hardly a physics grad student and his consistent life-long record of mediocrity and failure argues that he just can't think terribly clearly and this is expressed in his tortured syntax and hilarious malapropisms. For better or for worse, however, he doesn't have to worry about that because President Cheney's got his back.

[superdave]

I don't mean to be rude, Dave, but did you? Because you forgot to mention the neurology professor who thinks the dementia thing is horsecrap.
Yeah, but how fun would the article be if i had mentioned that?

[Barbara]

Yeah, but how fun would the article be if i had mentioned that?

Sigh.

Dude, that's weak.

Look, I like you. For the most part you are right-thinking. But you need to take off the blinders.

Our case against Bush is strong enough that we don't need to resort to the tactics of the "right."

[superdave]

Lighten up, Francine. Not everything has to be the Bataan Death March.

[Barbara]

Lighten up, Francine. Not everything has to be the Bataan Death March.
I dunno. The next couple of months are going to feel like a death march unless Kerry manages to get his feces organized.

[Ian McCracken]

One of the most competent and brilliant problem solvers that I work with daily has difficulty conveying any sort of confidence in his speeches. He stumbles over words, but give him a problem to solve and he always makes sound judgements and planning. This fixation and smugness by liberals over the president's speech patterns will only serve to see that they are defeated again, this time I suspect rather resoundingly. Liberals have a need to feel like they are the smartest person in the room. That's an underlying flaw and demonstration of their personal lack of confidence.

[ratdog]

One of the most competent and brilliant problem solvers that I work with daily has difficulty conveying any sort of confidence in his speeches. He stumbles over words, but give him a problem to solve and he always makes sound judgements and planning. This fixation and smugness by liberals over the president's speech patterns will only serve to see that they are defeated again, this time I suspect rather resoundingly. Liberals have a need to feel like they are the smartest person in the room. That's an underlying flaw and demonstration of their personal lack of confidence.

Quit channeling Mr. Keller's empty burpings.

Bush's mutilation of his native language would be just half-amusing fodder for political cartoonists if it wasn't for his whole lifetime worth - including the last 3 1/2 years - of other proof that he simply isn't the sharpest knife in the drawer. Get over it.

[BenReilly]

The last line of the article:




Sad but true.

This has pretty much been true since Eisenhower-Stevenson. Republicans are either stupid or evil (when they're demonstrably not stupid, i.e. Nixon or Gingrich). Dems do much better with the "evil" opponents.