What if....
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...Biden decides to decline the nomination...
Well, the Heritage Foundation is already hard at work.
@wtg The Heritage foundation you say?
It’s difficult to respond without cussing.
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@wtg The Heritage foundation you say?
It’s difficult to respond without cussing.
Yup.
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But the prospect of lawsuits, challenges etc., makes things very messy.
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Update. As feared, Biden is losing ground in polls.
https://www.vox.com/politics/359024/biden-age-leaks-lapses-polls
The interview with Stephanopolous will be broadcast on Friday evening. Initially I heard that it was going to be taped on Friday and broadcast on Sunday, but they've made it a Friday primetime event.
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Peggy Noonan.
To me it feels like August 1974.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/opinion/opinion-biden-can-t-spin-his-way-out-of-this/ar-BB1pmUff
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Nate Cohn talks about the polls. Hope you have free New Yorker read available...
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Zeke Emanuel on exceptionally sharp octogenarians.
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Peggy Noonan.
To me it feels like August 1974.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/opinion/opinion-biden-can-t-spin-his-way-out-of-this/ar-BB1pmUff
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Sanja Gupta is a neurosurgeon. His take:
From a neurological standpoint, we were concerned with his confused rambling; sudden loss of concentration in the middle of a sentence; halting speech and absence of facial animation, resulting at times in a flat, open-mouthed expression. To be clear, these are only observations, not in any way diagnostic of something deeper, and none of these doctors wished to suggest that was the case.
The consensus from the doctors reaching out to me, however, was that the president should be encouraged to undergo detailed cognitive and movement disorder testing, and those results should be made available to the public.
Biden’s health history
The last official report in February was a health summary which concluded that the president was “fit for duty.” The White House said a team of 20 doctors, including a neurologist, participated in completing his physical. An “extremely detailed” neurologic exam found nothing consistent with neurological disorders, the summary said. It also found no evidence of Parkinson’s disease that might explain his stiff gait and decreased expression in his face. Although Parkinson’s disease is the most common cause of parkinsonism - a set of movement symptoms such as stiffness and tremor – there are other causes as well, and it was not clear in the medical report that those had been investigated. They did find evidence of neuropathy and arthritis in his feet, which can cause numbness, weakness and pain. There was no mention of any sort of cognitive testing.
t’s true that the trajectory of aging varies from person to person. Biden is 81, and former President Donald Trump is 78. Both have already lived longer than the average American male lifespan of 74.8 years. This isn’t necessarily surprising, as both men have access to high-quality health care, and they don’t drink or smoke. Biden’s medical team has previously disclosed that he had two separate brain operations for aneurysms, including one that ruptured on the left side of his brain, in 1988, and there is some evidence that this type of hemorrhage may increase the risk of delayed cognitive problems later in life. Trump’s father died of Alzheimer’s disease at 93. Neither man has any other known risk factors for cognitive decline.
https://www.cnn.com/2024/07/05/health/gupta-biden-cognitive-testing-analysis/index.html
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Sanja Gupta is a neurosurgeon. His take:
From a neurological standpoint, we were concerned with his confused rambling; sudden loss of concentration in the middle of a sentence; halting speech and absence of facial animation, resulting at times in a flat, open-mouthed expression. To be clear, these are only observations, not in any way diagnostic of something deeper, and none of these doctors wished to suggest that was the case.
The consensus from the doctors reaching out to me, however, was that the president should be encouraged to undergo detailed cognitive and movement disorder testing, and those results should be made available to the public.
Biden’s health history
The last official report in February was a health summary which concluded that the president was “fit for duty.” The White House said a team of 20 doctors, including a neurologist, participated in completing his physical. An “extremely detailed” neurologic exam found nothing consistent with neurological disorders, the summary said. It also found no evidence of Parkinson’s disease that might explain his stiff gait and decreased expression in his face. Although Parkinson’s disease is the most common cause of parkinsonism - a set of movement symptoms such as stiffness and tremor – there are other causes as well, and it was not clear in the medical report that those had been investigated. They did find evidence of neuropathy and arthritis in his feet, which can cause numbness, weakness and pain. There was no mention of any sort of cognitive testing.
t’s true that the trajectory of aging varies from person to person. Biden is 81, and former President Donald Trump is 78. Both have already lived longer than the average American male lifespan of 74.8 years. This isn’t necessarily surprising, as both men have access to high-quality health care, and they don’t drink or smoke. Biden’s medical team has previously disclosed that he had two separate brain operations for aneurysms, including one that ruptured on the left side of his brain, in 1988, and there is some evidence that this type of hemorrhage may increase the risk of delayed cognitive problems later in life. Trump’s father died of Alzheimer’s disease at 93. Neither man has any other known risk factors for cognitive decline.
https://www.cnn.com/2024/07/05/health/gupta-biden-cognitive-testing-analysis/index.html
@wtg said in What if....:
It also found no evidence of Parkinson’s disease
I'm not sure how to reconcile that with the Guardian article that @chas linked
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/jul/06/joe-biden-neurologist-doctor-meeting
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Not sure there's anything to reconcile. The Guardian article mentions that the neurologist who came to the White House several times is a "Parkinson's expert", which I think is leading people to make a connection that may not exist. I mean, neurologists diagnose and treat Parkinson's and a whole bunch of other conditions. Not to mention that we don't even know if he saw Biden when he visited the White House. A lot of people work there and they may meet with doctors for reasons other than an exam of the President.
BTW, here's Biden's whole medical report: https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Health-Summary-2.28.pdf
I didn't know he has sleep apnea.
His blood pressure is great, considering he's not on any BP meds.
When the world wearies and society ceases to satisfy, there is always the garden - Minnie Aumônier
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Not sure there's anything to reconcile. The Guardian article mentions that the neurologist who came to the White House several times is a "Parkinson's expert", which I think is leading people to make a connection that may not exist. I mean, neurologists diagnose and treat Parkinson's and a whole bunch of other conditions. Not to mention that we don't even know if he saw Biden when he visited the White House. A lot of people work there and they may meet with doctors for reasons other than an exam of the President.
BTW, here's Biden's whole medical report: https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Health-Summary-2.28.pdf
I didn't know he has sleep apnea.
His blood pressure is great, considering he's not on any BP meds.
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