What Joe Biden Can't Bring Himself to Say (article about stuttering)

[CousinIT]

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2020/01/joe-biden-stutter-profile/602401/

His verbal stumbles have voters worried about his mental fitness. Maybe they’d be more understanding if they knew he’s still fighting a stutter.

His eyes fall to the floor when I ask him to describe it. We’ve been tiptoeing toward it for 45 minutes, and so far, every time he seems close, he backs away, or leads us in a new direction. There are competing theories in the press, but Joe Biden has kept mum on the subject. I want to hear him explain it. I ask him to walk me through the night he appeared to lose control of his words onstage.

“I—um—I don’t remember,” Biden says. His voice has that familiar shake, the creak and the croak. “I’d have to see it. I-I-I don’t remember.”

We’re in Biden’s mostly vacant Washington, D.C., campaign office on an overcast Tuesday at the end of the summer. Since entering the Democratic presidential-primary race in April, Biden has largely avoided in-depth interviews. When I first reached out, in late June, his press person was polite but noncommittal: Was an interview really necessary for the story?

Then came the second debate, at the end of July, in Detroit. The first one, a month earlier, had been a disaster for Biden. He was unprepared when Senator Kamala Harris criticized both his past resistance to federally mandated busing and a recent speech in which he’d waxed fondly about collaborating with segregationist senators. Some of his answers that night had been meander­ing and difficult to parse, feeding into the narrative that he wasn’t just prone to verbal slipups—he’s called himself a “gaffe machine”—but that his age was a problem, that he was confused and out of touch.

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. In November, after Biden stumbled multiple times during a debate in Atlanta, the topic would become even more relevant. . . .

[samnsara]

1. Joes great. hes had to endure so much in life. ..and hes not perfect..

..thats what makes him so empathetic and caring. Thats why I support him. Frankly I have NEVER heard him stutter...and if i did, so what?

[CousinIT]

3. I'd rather have a stuttering decent Joe than a rage-tweeting sociopath for POTUS

But that's just me.

[raging moderate]

2. Everyone should watch "The King's Speech."

During World War II, the King of England did an incredible job of leading the resistance to the relentless Nazi attacks on Great Britain. He gave some of the most inspiring speeches the world has ever known, mostly over the radio. He did this despite the fact that he was struggling against a severe life-long stuttering problem. When his brother's abdication suddenly pushed him onto the throne, he employed a speech therapist to help him with his stuttering problem. His slow cadence and long pauses only made these speeches more powerful, as they demonstrated a true triumph of the will over painful and overwhelming odds. The strategies that helped him overcome his speech also made him sound more impressive, as he demonstrated the courageous persistence that helped his people repel the invaders.

[Jarqui]

4. This is an issue that is closer to home and troubles me

I had a speech impediment and still do. It took a lot of work to get it to where people don't notice it too much.

Mine is different - not stuttering. But it is something like stuttering. Perseverations when trying to find words. I can't find words that I know I know. It was due to an injury. Took seven years to improve. Long story.

When it is happening, you get self conscious. Even though it is happening quickly, time slows down and it seems to take forever to find a word. You get self conscious that you are keeping people waiting. If the word doesn't come, you start to panic. If the word still doesn't come, the pressure builds to a point where it gets to be too much ... and then you blurt words - not the ones you wanted - a fall back like a pressure valve letting some pressure off so that whoever you were talking to got something to digest. You wind up saying things that were not precise and do not accurately express what you want to say. It can be very frustrating and cause problems - like saying something the wrong way to someone in a way you truly did not mean.

The flurry you might go through can be like a tornado going off in your head. If you are tired as candidates flying around the country would be, it is worse. If you are stressed, like speaking in front of thousands or under the glare of media lights, it is worse.

I see Joe going through some of this. When he's attacked for his gaffes, they're attacking someone who has a little disability. Why not go around kicking people in wheelchairs? It's pretty low.

Now, they're looking to spin it into senility.

When you get older, this impediment can creep back. It's a little like training for the Olympics except you can never stop training. You have to keep fit. A person campaigning for President would have a pretty tough time scheduling doing this. They're so busy.

I think some of the criticism of Joe related to this has been unfair.

[Gothmog]

5. This is a great article