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Biggerboat1 said:
zorg1000 said:

I agree that Biden certainly doesn’t inspire tons of enthusiasm just like I’m sure most 80+ year old people don’t but I’ve heard plenty of interviews/speeches where he sounds fine so is he experiencing mental decline or is he just an old guy with a stutter? That’s a very important distinction.

I think people focus on his age so much because how much the GOP makes up shit about him being senile (they did this in the 2020 election as well) and the media needs something to talk about, with Trump they had controversy after controversy and Biden is the boring, old guy so they need something to generate engagement and turn things into a horse race. Because of these things, there is so much focus on his mental state that every little slip up gets hyper focused on and is a form of confirmation bias.

I know you’re not defending Trump but there is such a double standard between the two. Trump can go on a rant saying the most nonsense shit, things that are flat out wrong or make no sense and jump from one topic to the next in a completely incoherent mess while saying words incorrectly or saying the wrong names/years/locations and he doesn’t get a fraction of the accusations about being in mental decline because he’s yelling and high energy while Joe is senile when he has a coherent message with a few flubs because he talks slow, quiet, boring and has a stutter.

I think a slow, quiet, boring old guy with a stutter is a bad enough pic for president tbh, but I personally see some of these moments he's having as some sort of mental decline, whether that be a natural diminishing of faculties or an actual diagnosable condition, I have no idea.

A special council report re. the improperly stored documents investigation, describes him as an"elderly man with a poor memory"...

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-68245617

There's definitely some fire behind the smoke imo.

As for Trump supporters and the double standards, I have no idea how to assess those folks, DT does talk nonsense half the time but I'd say that doesn't even make the top 5 attributes that make him unsuitable for office.

Dem voters are on the whole sane though, & I think the desire for a more credible candidate is legit & it's a crying shame that this is where US politics inside baseball has gotten.

I guess my thing is, I would find these concerns about his age/mental state to be more valid if he wasn’t going up against a guy almost his age and arguably in a worse mental state. Like if the GOP nominee ended up being DeSantis or Haley who are in their 40s/50s then the arguments saying he’s too old would hold some weight but that’s not the case, it’s a battle between a guy in his early 80s and a guy in his late 70s.

Age is really the only thing the GOP can try to hammer him on in regards to winning independents/moderates that has stuck since their typical talking points like economy, crime & the border are hard to attack him on. Economy-GDP growth, stock market growth, low unemployment and falling inflation, Crime-violent crime decreased in 2023 and is on track to return to pre-Covid/George Floyd protest numbers, Border-they lost this talking point with their recent shenanigans that killed the border security bill that they negotiated. Other issues like abortion are clearly a losing fight for Republicans and attacks on Hunter Biden are only relevant to the MAGA base. The situation in Gaza is obviously a major and valid criticism but that’s more of an issue in regards to people on the left, Republicans in general are even more pro-Israel so they aren’t winning people over on that front either.

Basically his age/mental state is GOP propaganda and is the only thing that has really stuck as a concern with independents/moderates and the media loves a horse race so they are glad to signal boost this message and the more that people here about this issue, the more they will fixate on it and overreact to every slip up or gaffe.



When the herd loses its way, the shepard must kill the bull that leads them astray.