Concerned about the president's health

So, you're saying that Dubya used to be more articulate an orator?

The only thing I noticed different about him in the last debate was him grinning like the cheshire cat. Somebody must've told him to smile while Kerry was speaking. But it was a quivery smile, almost a twitch sometimes.

Yeah. I noticed. I think he is suffering from a severe arthritic problem and pain. I think that box people have noticed on his back is a device that prevents pain without having to take meds--a Spinal Stimulator type thingie.

I noticed the drool, too. Or whatever it was. Disappeared maybe halfway through? Was distracting for a while and then I realized it wasn't there.

His brain was doing something other than what his voice was saying, but I don't know what was up with that.

I agree about the quivery smile, princess, also the weird timing of it. That and the podium-pounding thing were employed at strange times.

To me, he almost looks like he'd had a stroke or something. The left side of his face was all pulled down and less animated. I didn't notice the drool, but then, my TV sucks and we have lots of static lines.

Lash, are you serious? Would that also make him drool? Not be able to think? Quiver when he smiled?

I didn't notice the drool. Will have to check the video.



(Princess, that eye thing is freaky. Is that just through halloween?)

I didn't watch the debates, but what you describe sounds like a mild case of Bell's palsy. That's usually not a permanent condition. My dad had an attack of it once. Lsted about a week.

Really think something is up medically.

Well all I know is that I'm terribly concerned....

I suppose most here understand from past posts that I am severely anti Bush. I disagree with various bits of Kerry's comments too. However, I was startled to a certain sitting back, from a comment by my brother in law(x) in a conversation recently that veered from how my niece will fly up to visit me over the holidays... to the debates, he said he couldn't watch the first one, he was too nervous for them both, and forced himself to listen to the radio.

This touched me. I have been physically stone cold before a speech myself, in a state of developed fear. I remember being introduced to a room of about two hundred people and trying to remember what I thought I would say to open my talk... and blanking. Turned out, that particular time, that I just started talking and it turned out more than fine. But I've been through other times that I had trouble with the microphone that I wanted to just fly away. I do remember my ex telling me that his brother always had a bit of irish whiskey before an important talk or interview, to quell his fear. (Not that I recommend that, exactly, but I understand it.)

This brought me to engagement on a personal level with both of them. I know they are vying for tremendous power, and I am as sardonic as the next about the misuse of it, perhaps more sardonic, in aggrievement. Still, it is a long time under the glare of questions.










Particularly for George.

Bush postponed his annual physical; has he had a stroke?
Yes, I think that Bush has had a stroke. The left side of his mouth was definitely drooping. His arm movement to pound the podium was very odd - he seemed to have difficulty raising his arm and his movement was jerky as he lowered the arm.

Bush has had his annual physical in August for the past three years. This year, he's postponed it until after the election with the explanation that he's very busy.

Why isn't the press speculating on this?

Yes, just through Halloween

Bell's palsy... My daughter had that a couple of years ago. It's stress induced. His mouth wouldn't have worked right, though, if it was like my daughter's case. She kind of talked and moved her mouth like it was shot full of novacaine on one side. It got better on its own in a few weeks. It can take a couple of months to go away.

Watching the debate I noticed the deformation of the left side of his mouth... pulled down and slightly swollen.
I speculate that Cheney's BoTox treatment for HIS sneer worked so well that Bush's handlers tried to exploit the same technicque to wipe away W.'s perpetual sneer as well.
Perhaps they misjudged the size of Bush's nerve... if so, they weren't the first to do so.

Then again, it could have been the novocaine from the procedure where they implanted the transciever in his lower left molar... now he can get Radio ROVE without that bulging booster/amplifier in the middle of his back!

Hmmm - small stroke, or TIA? That isn't good, if so.

Apart from Bush's wellbeing - who wants anything of that ilk affecting someone with so much power...

I hope it isn't so!

Bell's palsy paralysis is usually extremely obvious in my experience.

Is he still loking weird?

if not - mebbe TIA.

These often precede a stroke.

exactly why I'm concerned...and you can take it at face value....jeesh the guy has screwed things up immeasurably in GOOD health.... a reduction in what little senses he does have could be REAL bad for the country and the world

And you may take this at face value as well...no matter how I feel about him as president or man and whether I like him or not I wish health misfortune on no one......

I didn't notice what you all are talking about, but I wouldn't be surprised if it were brought on by stress. The poor guy is trying hard to keep up but he just wasn't prepared to be president.

http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room//index.html

Is the President losing it?



First it was presenile dementia. Now, it's a stroke.

A rash of armchair-diagnosis speculation about President Bush's health, based on his faltering speech in the first debate to his drooling and drooping Wednesday night, is flying around the Web. And there's nothing to feed "is-he-really-fit-to-lead?" grousing among Democratic partisans in the blogosphere like the fact that President Bush, who was pronounced healthy at his annual check-up in August 2003, has refused to get his annual physical this year before the 2004 election.

A letter by one Dr. Joseph Price of Carsonville, Mich., to the Atlantic Monthly in response to James Fallows' July/August cover story on Bush and Kerry's debating styles, first raised the idea that Bush's mental faculties might be in decline.

But it was Bush's less-than-lucid performance in the first presidential debate against Senator John Kerry that sparked the creation of a short video montage juxtaposing footage from that debate with video from George W. Bush sparring with then-Texas Governor Ann Richards, ten years ago. (You can see more footage of the younger Bush's debating prowess here.)

"In the 1994 video he was going along and having no trouble having a nice flow of language. But now he's so faulting and labored and limited," says Robert McInerney, a retired internist in Pittsfield, Mass. "He's getting as inarticulate as I am, and I'm in my senior years," adding this caveat: "[But] I think it would be foolish to make a diagnosis over a one-minute video clip."

Bush's insistence on tightly-controlled appearances has other doctors wondering, too. "I think he's deteriorated in terms of his problem with word-finding, repetition of phrases and understanding what other people are saying," said Dr. Justin Frank, a professor in the Department of Psychiatry at George Washington University Medical Center, who is the author of "Bush on the Couch." But Dr. Frank also stressed: "He would need to be tested to see if he has dementia. This is all speculation without testing. He could just be extremely acutely anxious. Anyone can get anxious and sound disorganized."

Still, Dr. Frank said that during his book tour this summer from L.A. to Philadelphia, seven or eight different physicians and psychologists came up to him at readings to discuss their concerns about the President's mental health: " Four people said they thought he reminded them of their patients in the early state of Alzheimer's. Several people wondered if there is a gradual deterioration from chronic substance abuse.

But Bush's improved performance in the latter debates made others doubt that there's anything organic amiss: "In someone who has got a developing dementia, they have good days and they have bad days. But it isn't 90 minutes of bad debate one day, and 90 minutes of good debate one day. It's much more subtle than that," says Dr. Raymond A. Wertheim of Bethesda, Md.

After Bush's performance in the third debate, Dr. Frank changed his own at-arm's-length diagnosis: " I think that the reason he looked demented in the past debates is that Kerry figured out how to make him anxious. And when he's anxious he gets disorganized. But Kerry did not make him anxious this time. So, the issue for him is trying to manage anxiety. That's his main concern."

Now, that still doesn't explain Wednesday night's spitting.

-- Katharine Mieszkowski

[14:17 PDT, Oct. 14, 2004]

Good thread, HugeCows, and welcome to A2K. I didn't watch the debate either, but I am concerned now. As Deb points out, TIA's can be a precursor to more severe things, and if the man is ill, like Bi, my heart goes out to him, but although we may hurt for the man, we must also think of the consequences and ramifications of something happening to him if he is elected.

FreeDuck, I hope it is JUST stress.

Well, my husband and I will vote early on Monday. I have finally decided how I am going. It ticked me off that we were sent an absentee ballot, and do not have to have a witness.

This aspect of the election issue must be examined with a view to who is "a heartbeat away"...
Do we want Dick Cheney running the country in name as well as in practice?

Will it make any difference?

well...cheney is smarter......and more openly smug and self serving...all such positive traits....