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View Full Version : What's Really Gone Wrong With W?



Nbadan
09-10-2004, 06:18 PM
The Atlantic Monthly, as a conservative magazine, has been as big an apologist for the Bush administration as anybody--and probably more damaging than most, as they have the credibility that, say, Fox just doesn't. They've backed off from their support of the Iraq war since the death of editor Michael Kelly in Iraq, and have actually done some good, in-depth reporting critical of both starting the war and prosecuting it. However, they've still been cheerleading Bush, mocking Democrats, and generally being deliberately obtuse about the harm being wrought upon this country.

So imagine my surprise when I open up this month's issue and read the first letter to the editor:


When George Meets John

James Fallows's description of John Kerry's debating skills ("When George Meets John," July/August Atlantic) was interesting, but what was most remarkable was Fallows's documentation of President Bush's mostly overlooked changes over the past decade--specifically, "the striking decline in his sentence-by-sentence speaking skills." Fallows points to "speculations that there must be some organic basis for the President's peculiar mode of speech--a learning disability, a reading problem, dyslexia or some other disorder," but correctly concludes, "The main problem with these theories is that through his forties Bush was perfectly articulate."

I, too, felt that something organic was wrong with President Bush, most probably dyslexia. But I was unaware of what Fallows pointed out so clearly: that Bush's problems have been developing slowly, and that just a decade ago he was an articulate debater, "artful indeed in steering questions and challenges to his desired subjects," who "did not pause before forcing out big words, as he so often does now, or invent mangled new ones." Consider, in contrast, the president: "the informal Q&As he has tried to avoid," "Bush's recent faltering performances," "his unfortunate puzzled-chimp expression when trying to answer questions," "his stalling, defensive pose when put on the spot," "speaking more slowly and less gracefully."

Not being a professional medical researcher and clinician, Fallows cannot be faulted for not putting two and two together. But he was 100 percent correct in suggesting that Bush's problem cannot be "a learning disability, a reading problem, (or) dyslexia," because patients with those problems have always had them. Slowly developing cognitive deficits, as demonstrated so clearly by the President, can represent only one diagnosis, and that is "presenile dementia"! Presenile dementia is best described to nonmedical persons as a fairly typical Alzheimer's situation that develops significantly earlier in life, well before what is usually considered old age. It runs about the same course as typical senile dementias, such as classical Alzheimer's--to incapacitation and, eventually, death, as with President Ronald Reagan, but at a relatively earlier age. President Bush's "mangled" words are a demonstration of what physicians call "confabulation," and are almost specific to the diagnosis of a true dementia. Bush should immediately be given the advantage of a considered professional diagnosis, and started on drugs that offer the possibility of retarding the slow but inexorable course of the disease.

Joseph M. Price, M.D.
Carsonville, Mich.

All this lends credence to the notion that W. isn't calling the shots in the White House. Even more frightening is the fact that when Reagan was in the same position toward the latter part of his second term, his underlines had cart blanc to do whatever the hell they wanted to do.

Bandit2981
09-10-2004, 06:25 PM
being a coke and booze addict is finally catching up to him

DeSPURado
09-10-2004, 06:29 PM
Personally I like the theory developed by the guy who wrote the Bushisms books. He stutters only when he is talking about a subject he doesn't like, has no interest in, or is lying about. Increased stress and decreased attention tend to cause his confabulations. He never gets that way when he is talking about killing terrorists.

Yonivore
09-10-2004, 06:35 PM
Ooops, sorry! I didn't realize you guys were in here masturbating.

Bandit2981
09-10-2004, 06:35 PM
i think you have this thread confused with your SpursWoman pap smear fantasy...run along now

DeSPURado
09-10-2004, 06:36 PM
Leave it to Yonivore to bring in the fourth grade potty humor.

Tommy Duncan
09-10-2004, 06:54 PM
That's it. Bush is an intelligent individual, but certainly not the smoothest public speaker.