Bush: The early years.
Oct. 13th, 2004 09:46 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
eiriasSo today I ran across this movie comparing some clips from the 1994 Texas gubernatorial debates to some clips from the first Bush v. Kerry presidential debate. There's really a striking difference - he used to be much more articulate and confident, and I can actually see why the people of Texas chose him as governor. At the end of the video, a physician is quoted speculating that Bush may have presenile dementia, or early-onset Alzheimer's.
Of course, I'm sure the most extreme segments were chosen from each to highlight the point the compiler was trying to make; and I don't know how comparable the situations were. In particular, it's possible that in the Texas debate, Bush and his opponent knew the questions in advance - one would expect that to increase fluency. (But then again, didn't he have advance notice of the questions in the first debate, too? And he did much worse in the first one than he did in the second, where neither candidate knew what to expect.) Furthermore, I think the granting of medical diagnoses to people you haven't met is irresponsible at best. But my interest is piqued nonetheless - has he actually deteriorated mentally? If so, why?
The passage suggesting dementia is taken from a letter to the Atlantic written by Dr. Joseph Price, which has been reprinted in the Washington Monthly, a liberal online magazine. Dr. Price is actually wrong to refer to the "Bushisms" as "confabulation" - this term refers to the "filling-in" of episodic memory gaps with fictitious events in order to cover the amnesia. That doesn't include the kind of mistakes Bush makes, which seem to be things like spoonerisms and other speech errors. That's not to say it couldn't be an organic problem, though. Or, you know, maybe he's just not getting enough sleep these days.
Of course, I'm sure the most extreme segments were chosen from each to highlight the point the compiler was trying to make; and I don't know how comparable the situations were. In particular, it's possible that in the Texas debate, Bush and his opponent knew the questions in advance - one would expect that to increase fluency. (But then again, didn't he have advance notice of the questions in the first debate, too? And he did much worse in the first one than he did in the second, where neither candidate knew what to expect.) Furthermore, I think the granting of medical diagnoses to people you haven't met is irresponsible at best. But my interest is piqued nonetheless - has he actually deteriorated mentally? If so, why?
The passage suggesting dementia is taken from a letter to the Atlantic written by Dr. Joseph Price, which has been reprinted in the Washington Monthly, a liberal online magazine. Dr. Price is actually wrong to refer to the "Bushisms" as "confabulation" - this term refers to the "filling-in" of episodic memory gaps with fictitious events in order to cover the amnesia. That doesn't include the kind of mistakes Bush makes, which seem to be things like spoonerisms and other speech errors. That's not to say it couldn't be an organic problem, though. Or, you know, maybe he's just not getting enough sleep these days.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2004-10-14 08:34 am (UTC)Even if he has some verbal disorder it very much works in his "aww shucks I'm just a good old boy" advantage.
(no subject)
Date: 2004-10-14 02:25 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-10-15 12:27 pm (UTC)