Quote:The signs have been there for too long. Bush fell off a couch after, his aides say, "falling asleep." He has appeared in public with bruises on his face, the kind of injuries a person would suffer from falling in alcohol-impaired conditions. He disappears from public view for extended periods, takes more vacations than other Presidents.....
See, this is the part that convinces me.
People don't fall down and hurt their face. The body automatically responds by throwing the hands in front of the face. I have never fallen on my face, ever.
You might hurt your wrist, your elbow, or your knee. But unless you are strongly under the influence of something, you won't fall on your face.
And I don't want to hear any half-baked litany of injuries that have happened to members on this forum about their knees, ankles, etc. I am talking about standing or walking on the floor, not on a ladder, and falling forward and hitting your face. Fact is, you have to be pie-eyed drunk to do it, it is as simple as that. That is why when people are found dead in their homes from falls, alcohol is almost always indicated.
If one is on a ladder, I can see falling off and hitting your face, because we are not used to falling from a height. We are very skilled, since childhood, in falling forward from ground level, but not on a ladder. Or the misuse of power tools can cause a facial injury.
But Bush does not get up on ladders, because maintenance is done by White House staff. Similarly, Bush has no reason to use power tools to fix anything. That is also done by staff.
So tell me, how does a physically fit, former athlete of sorts, who has a nice quiet mansion to walk around in, end up injuring his face twice his first year in office?
Don't tell me you actually buy that "choking on a pretzel and hit my face on the furniture trying to dislodge it" bit.
And the extended Crawford trips make it all the more likely. Why so many trips? Because on the Crawford ranch, in relative privacy Bush can get the tereatment he need to either,
A) get off drinking or
B) prevent a relapse.
Ihn Washington, it would have been impossible to keep such treatment out of the public eye. In Crawford, it would bee much easier.
For all I know, the strategy might have worked, and Bush might well have been dry since his first year. But there is little doubt that Bush was drinking heavily his first year, at least on a couple of occasions.
Because you have to be very, very drunk before you are unable to automatically throw your hands up in front of your face while falling forward.
