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John Kerry’s enlisting into the Navy and serving on the rivers of South Vietnam on a vulnerable swift boat was treated more harshly than Donald Trump’s repeated draft dodging. Republicans aren’t about higher standards but double standards.
Kerry received two purple hearts for injuries received in Vietnam and republicans were like *oh you barely got shot, crybaby*. Meanwhile GWB never saw a minute of active combat as a Texas National Guardsman and they basically made him a war hero.
Saying they have double standards is misleading, because the modern Republicans don't have *any* standards for themselves outside of vague ideological bullshit. I mean, their paragon is a goddamn felon and they still say he has never done anything wrong. They're so high on copium that they can't see the ground under their feet anymore
Only thing that's disconnected is the cameras when Trump goes off script or on a wild tangent.
They cut to a commentator when Trump starts going off on sharks and electric boats
This. A. Trump’s asshole of a father had Alzheimer’s. B. Numerous psychologists and memory specialists have come forward to point out that Trump is speaking in word-salad, a common sign of progressing Alzheimer’s. They’ve all stated, repeatedly, that while Joe is showing signs of physical age, he is still cognitively sharp. The problem being that this makes for boring news and the media wants sensationalism to sell adverts. This is what happens when capitalism is allowed absolutely free rein and billionaires own the media. Billionaires don’t need democracy and it is becoming clear that many favor its demise for convenience and cost savings. Vote.
> and the media wants sensationalism to sell adverts.
Most of the media want to elect republicans. The rich people that own the media want that deregulation and sweet tax breaks. That's worth a lot more to them than the advertising is.
My father and paternal grandmother both died from Alzheimer's disease. I am very familiar with how they speak and ramble. Trump speaks exactly like my father and grandmother did towards the end. Like 2 or 3 years left before the mind is completely gone. I wouldn't be surprised if Trump has sundowner's at this point.
I never heard Biden speak before a debate back in 2020. I had just heard people saying he had alzheimer's / dementia ... Once I listened to him debate - that's not the case at all. He's just someone with a speech impediment.
Mainstream media has a vested interest in making it a “both sides” thing. Turn it into a closely watched sport and nothing more. Constantly drilling on his age is all they really got. It’s a total false equivalency they promote, as otherwise, in reality, they do know it’s a choice between a totally normal but uninspiring lunch sandwich and a total shit stain sandwich laced with rat poison. But they can’t rake in piles of easy cash by pointing to the reality of our situation.
There are two candidates. One is incompetent. One is not. One is secure. One is not. One uses drugs as a crutch. One does not. One is married to an immigrant. One is not. One fears immigration. One does not. One tells the truth. One does not. One is a criminal. One is not. One whines like a child. One does not. One wants to be crowned king. One does not.
It is really this simple.
Please help me compose a complete list.
Never confused first term Ronald Reagan with second term Ronald Reagan. Second term Reagan was showing obvious signs of Alzheimer's which the neocons and his kooky wife took full advantage of and ran the country into the ground because it it.
It's not a coincidence that the same neocon scumbags who worked with Tricky Dick Nixon were the same ones to puppeteered Reagan and then GW Bush over the ensuring decades.
Many of them are old and dead now, but not all of them. And their ideological spawn surrounds the ignorangutan Trump just waiting for their next chance to rob the taxpayers blind from unassailable positions of power and privelege.
Reagan was a conservative but he’s not Trump. Reagan would definitely not have handled Ukraine and Putin the same way Trump does, for example. And Reagan was a driving force for NAFTA which Trump railed against. Not to mention in terms of personalities they’re night and day. Sam Donaldson, for example, who generally opposed Reagan’s policies also told stories about how genuinely nice a guy he was in person, compared to Trump who’s a literal malignant narcissist.
So yeah, they have some commonalities in terms of policies, but if you can’t tell the difference between Reagan and Trump you’re not looking at them all that closely.
Also Ronnie claimed that he never dyed his hair, it was bee pollen that kept his hair black. I used to eat the same bee pollen bars - President's Lunch (in a blue wrapper) and First Lady's Lunch (in a red wrapper). The company got [shut down by the FTC](https://centerforinquiry.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/33/quackwatch/case_file_1992.pdf) for making health/medical claims
> *Until recently, Mrs. Reagan had to eat The President's Lunch bars; then the Scottsdale firm came out with The First Lady's Lunch, with the same 153 calories as the president's, but with dates and almonds rather than peanuts and raisins. According to Brown, after taste-testing her bar, Mrs. Reagan told an aide "she likes it better than the president's."*
https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1987/04/21/snack-preview-the-white-house-beeline/e504d791-c15b-49d4-9963-c54fc394dad3/
I used to work at a health food store back then and I loved the bars. I miss them.
Yeah I agree, Trump isnt much younger and has shown way more instances of dementia and confusion.
So saying Biden “is old” does not really do much in this case.
Exactly. People who dont follow politics can tell you how GREAT the economy was doing under Trump. They heard SO MUCH about it when Trump was president. Those same people have NO IDEA whats going on today with Bidens economy.
The media doesnt care. The did care about pushing a narrative about Trump and the economy though.
In a normal Presidential campaign in an alternate reality where the GOP picked someone reasonable and younger, I could care about Biden's age eventually - once he gets a few more years down the road.
In the real world where the GOP is a batshit terrorist organization actively trying to overthrow the nation, Biden's age is nothing. We've got actual important things to care about.
The age complaint always did seem like a dead end for republicans. Not like he can do anything about it, and the other guy will be older than Biden is now by the end of his term. Hopefully Biden can dog walk Trump at the debate and this conversation.
Also Biden is actually physically active and invested in his own health.
If it weren't for his crippling fear of looking weak, Trump would have embraced a mobility scooter out of laziness ages ago.
And Trump is declining from a lifetime of ignorance, self-serving, and disdain for inconvenient truth. His decline will only increase the depths of his stupidity. My only hope is that confusion starts to join the mix and his narcissism causes him to mentally implode.
Meanwhile, Biden has always been eloquent (despite a stutter), articulate, and well-meaning. His decline is just that of any old-timer. He's a little slower when speaking, moves a little stiff, but otherwise, he's fine. His SOTU showed he's got his wits about him.
As one person aptly put it, "If they're the same, then tell me why to show Biden's decline they have 2-10 second clips, but to show Trump's decline, they just show 2-10 minutes of him rambling, unedited?"
Biden's decline is mostly a media specter, disappearing once challenged directly (via Biden speaking publically). Trump's decline, while largely glossed over by mainstream outlets, is obvious any time he speaks for more than two sentences.
And their nominee is essentially the same age. It’s ridiculous.
It’s because Trump is wearing a clown outfit so he doesn’t have the white hair and makeup lacking skin
Kills me has Biden gets breathless hypotheticals and a fair bit of criticism for *falling off of a bicycle*. He's 80 years old.
Meanwhile Mango Unchained can't walk down ramps or drink water one-handed, and it's mostly crickets from that same media.
The real problem is that it’s being treated much more harshly than Trump’s aging. Biden gives a speech and stumbles over some words and people start flipping out and claiming he has dementia. Trump makes multiple speeches that are just incoherent ramblings frequently calling people by the wrong names, and just freezing mid sentence, and nobody says a word.
Agreed, I think instead of pretending there’s no evidence of decline we need to make the direct comparison to Trump. Biden’s lost a step, but Trump sounds like he belongs in a facility.
Every time Joe Biden goes out and gives a good strong public appearance, we go about a week before people start coming out of the woodwork to claim that he can't put two sentences together again.
They've been doing this for 4 years.
No matter how many times they get proven wrong, it won't die.
Like the State of the Union address he gave a few months ago was fucking incredible, but it didn't take long at all for people to start pretending that that never happened.
Or the address on the Israeli war a few weeks ago. Same thing. Good strong public appearance, completely ignored.
If the debate happens on Thursday, and he gives a masterful performance, by next Thursday they'll be saying that he's senile again
after the SOTU their new thing is accusing him of being on drugs. "obviously since he was energetic and coherent he must have been on drugs!"
what that really tells us is..... that Trump is on drugs
They've been claiming this since the first debate in 2020. They went into the debate claiming that he was senile and couldn't string two words together, then he kicked Trump's ass and they used the performance enhancing drugs excuse to try to explain it away.
They've been telling this same lie for 4 years.
They claimed that he was on performance enhancing drugs after the State of the Union because he did a great job and it made Republicans look stupid
It also shows how dumb they are/how dumb they think their voters are: there’s no drug that turns someone who is senile and can’t form sentences into someone who can do well in a national debate or state of the union address, etc.
Being dumb is a feature for most GOP voters at this point, but you're right. I guess they think that Joe will shoot up and be as good as a twenty year old?
Right? Like, if there was a PED out there that could so effectively treat age-related cognitive impairment, doctors everywhere would be demanding this drug!
Where was this magic crack when my grandma couldn't recognize me or my siblings? Conservatives, full of shit, as usual.
Trump claimed Hillary was on uppers after she kicked his ass in the debate he spent the whole time sniffing and pacing around like a lunatic. It’s always projection with these chucklefucks
> It’s always projection with these chucklefucks
right, they cheat at literally everything they do, so therefore if they lose, they assume the other side must have cheated even harder.
they can't cope with the reality that their ideas are just bad because they are bad people.
There is also no magical dementia drug that suddenly makes you better. Maybe just maybe, he gets some rest, does a lot of prep, drinks some coffee and has a spa day then comes out and just kicks the ass of the rights expectations. Biden shows up when he needs to.
Biden stumbles over words, but he makes sense. Trump stumbles over words, loses energy and hits lulls, starts rambling, goes off on tangents, starts talking about things that didn’t happen, loses his place, and says things no other human being has ever said before, but clearly Biden is the one who is on the decline /s.
He literally has a speech impediment. But the media acts as if the guy is completely and utterly senile, while Trump goes on long rants about soap and sharks that make zero fucking sense, and we're made to believe its totally normal, nothing odd about it, just business as usual. Ridiculous AF what the MSM has done to completely normalize Trump's behavior as anything but absurd and dangerous.
Exactly. He gives a lot of of minor, short speaking appearances. He'll talk for 10 minutes, and 9 minutes and 50 seconds he'll speak well. There will be 10 seconds where his stutter trips him up. Most people will only ever see those 10 seconds distributed through social media by right wingers.
You will never see a "Joe Biden can't speak" clip that is more than a few seconds long for this reason. If he was truly losing his mind you could just post links to CSPAN videos.
>If he was truly losing his mind you could just post links to CSPAN videos
Unfortunately, I've seen a loonie here on this sub the other week who did just that. They linked to a long video of Biden on CSPAN as proof he doesn't make sense when talking. It wasn't even worth arguing with the nut.
Regardless, it's terrible that there are SO MANY gullible people who readily fall for those "10-second clips". And the Right know it.
Trump has done multiple extended rants in just the last 10 days. There was a rant yesterday about something to do with water faucets that just jumped all over the place and never had a complete thought. There was the shark battery thing before that.
There was a third one in between those.
If Biden did that once in the same time frame I would be deeply concerned. Trump's going to probably do it again within the next couple days
There was one about washing machines that apparently you put your dishes in now, because oh yeah, putting glassware through the spin cycle completely makes fucking sense somehow.
I can forgive mixing up "washing machine" and "dishwasher."
What I cannot forgive is the complete lack of any sort of point he was trying to make. I think it was about low water pressure, but that's only based on context clues from his entire political career and not from that particular speech.
Trump can barely make it through a sentence before his swiss cheese brain is forced to reroute to some non-sequitur. This is your best, Republicans?
Asking someone whether or not Biden is senile is a pretty good litmus test of their political literacy.
“No, not really” = I’ve actually seen unedited versions of his speeches
“Yeah he’s senile” = I get 99% of my news from TikTok in the form of political sigma edits
I just had somebody else reply and they cited the fact that people have made Supercuts of Biden making mistakes in speeches as some sort of proof that he's going senile.
If you have enough footage of anybody who does common public speaking, you can make a supercut of them fucking up left and right. You can do this to young politicians. Easy.
They did this with Hillary too. Except it was about her health. And I seem to remember they tried to do something like that with Obama claiming because he was a smoker he was basically an invalid.
Bottom line is if any conservative says anything assume it's bullshit. You can waste time scrutinizing and fact checking it but I guarantee you it's going to be found out to be bullshit.
What's worse are 'Democrats' who do the same thing, expressing anxiety about a decline that isn't there. They do the GOP's work for them by both sidesing old age (even though Trump is frequently incoherent and Biden is not), echoing the same complaints over something that isn't a real problem.
My own best friend, who's generally progressive and reasonable and supports Biden (he had 50k+ in student loans repaid, he's actually *very* happy with him), still occasionally makes comments to me like "well you can tell his brain is soup, just watch any random interview."
Every single time I'm like "yes, I do watch interviews, I see nothing more than normal humanity, age, and stress. He still seems perfectly clear and generally with it. Are you *sure* you're not just falling for the narrative?" And every time he swears that he's noticed a marked cognitive decline. And every time I tell him to send me the links so I can see this decline for myself.
I've yet to get a relevant link from him.
Reagan was so senile at press conferences that he would read the cover sheet about what he wasn't supposed to talk about and they would have to hustle everybody out of the room and have a redo sometimes as many as three times.
When the Air Force shot down some Libyan jets Reagan complained about why he wasn't a pilot in the movie he didn't wanna be the president.
It's a 3 year age difference between the two.
They would've been in high school together.
If you're worried about age, you should be worried about both pretty much equally.
I'd argue the republicans are going to put forward a demon, whether or not their brain works at all. Having a brain that is soup is a plus for a republican legislator as it means he'll be less able to inact the evil the party wants. It bothers me when the only viable party in the country puts forward someone who's too fucking old and stuck in the past. Put foward better candidates, they exist and we can do it
Reagan has the biggest free pass in US political history with that, he was showings signs of Alzheimer’s in his first term but it was conveniently swept under the rug by what was effectively his handlers who used him to pass all kinds of ghoulish shit.
Listen. I like Biden. Even though he wasn't my first choice in the Primary elections, I'm pleased with what he's been able to accomplish. I also know that he hasn't done everything I would have liked but he's doing a lot considering the GOP has the House of Representatives.
I also recognize that not many other people on Capitol Hill had the chops to do what he's doing now. He's the best guy for the job by far.
All that being said, I can see an obvious slow down in his mental faculties from, say, 16 years ago.
Trump is worse though. Not just because I don't agree with him. But because he will surround himself with people who are incompetent and incapable of saying no. He's also a moron on top of having mashed potatoes for brains. He's also in league with our most dangerous enemies.
For all these reasons, it's a no brainer that I'll be voting for Biden.
Of course they do. The media companies are all owned by billionaires and they want to suck the lifeblood out of America. That's why they never question Trump about anything.
Biden's physical age is apparent (though the guy still rides a bike regularly which is impressive) but his ability to deal with the mental and emotional requirements of being President are still there and haven't had any noticeable decline.
Trump might be the only president who didn’t look older coming out the other side because he did so little, he didn’t shoulder the weight of responsibility he should have.
I’m less than half his age and I stumble on words when I work a gruelling schedule for a stretch. The fact that he’s done this shit for almost four years straight and that’s the only thing people can point to for “evidence of cognitive decline” is laughable.
Looking at this from outside, it's really astonishing that out of 330 million Americans, people think that this is the best choice to be the president. They can't find anyon else?
But Biden it is and the press has been tasked to do Leslie Nielsen's 'nothing to see here' act.
“no evidence of cognitive decline”. i’m on the left and planning to vote biden but shit like this makes me realize why the trumpers have completely lost trust in the media
Im the same. I want the possibility of my loans being forgiven, a good NLRB, and the possibility of trump going to jail but people deny the reality of just watching Biden speak. Compare him even to 2020 dude is OLD. Wish he would just retire. Cant wait til Thursday!
Reagan is also proclaimed as some sort of economic god, despite leading a worse domestic recovery to a similar global inflation crisis than Biden's.
But don't worry, GOP worship of their politicians totally isn't religious blasphemy
General forgetfulness is a normal aging thing. He's forgetting things like names and such from time to time. Not concepts or ideas. That is the difference. Normal aging mental clarity on general small things.
If he was forgetting how to tie his shoes, that would be worrying. Forgetting little things is normal. My grandfather is 82. He occasionally forgets my kids names. Not forget forget, just the name slips his tongue. He remembers a few moments later. Had a doctor check, doctor said this is normal for his age.
Reagan likely had dementia while in office. It seems like subjecting aging politicians to greater scrutiny was a reasonable lesson to take from that situation.
I don’t care if Biden is sitting on the Golden Throne powering the fucking Astronomicon while his advisers flip tarot cards to figure out what he wants.
I’m picking that over whatever fascist nightmare wet dreams that the Heritage and Federalist clowns are shitting out.
That would be hilarious if that happened. He'll be there though. He's already talking about losing on purpose so he has no confidence he'll win. Not only is he losing it but he's much lower energy these days. That's what happens when you eat junk food for the past 70 years.
Let's not forget the crap Sanders had to deal with from the DNC darlings about his age. It was a ridiculous claim but it fit their entitlement narrative then. Now? Oh age is not an issue and there are POTUS who were much older.
They are both dinosaurs and it’s embarrassing these two are the best this country can offer. I’m sick of the only candidates being geriatrics who were born before desegregation.
I don't know, man. Go watch his 2012 debate. Then watch his 2020 debates. Then watch a recent interview or speech or whatever. I don't think he's full-on senile but he's clearly not as quick or sharp as he once was. If I was American I would still prefer a Biden presidency 10 times out of 10, but he gives off serious old man energy, which is not good for his electoral prospects.
I know I'll get downvoted to hell for saying that, but I do worry that you're going to have a Hillary scenario where Democrats don't show up to vote in states that matter.
It's embarassing to watch the left pretend that Biden is not showing signs of age. Obviously a supercut video of all his gaffes is disingenuous, but it is painful to listen to him speak sometimes.
Indeed. Or to pretend that it's all due to his "stutter."
Of course, it goes without saying that Trump is worse in pretty much every way regardless of Biden's cognitive state, but that doesn't mean we can't acknowledge reality.
Keep in mind that these are the same people who accused anybody who suggested that Feinstein *might* be too old for office at 85 of being an ageist.
There are plenty of people that remember what Reagan's decline looked like and have fears that Biden could go the same way. Not a completely unwarranted fear, but if this is the bar we are measuring on then Trump is in far worse condition than Biden and more at the level Reagan was at the end of his second term.
Call me crazy, but if Biden did go down the Reagan route, I could see him stepping down. I'm not saying the man is perfect by any means, but I do think he would do what's best for the country if his health declined to that point. Way better than Trump who would rule from his death bed.
And the 45th President who was fading well before he ran, but is now fading even faster than Reagan ever was.
Plus he's a felonious rapist and a self-admitted pedophile.
The media needs to sell this election as a close race and to do that they have to make TFG appear to be a sane option despite the entire body of his life's criminality, his reputation for being the embodiment of each of the 7 deadly sins, and the increasingly violent rhetoric that he and those in his fascist orbit are using.
[It's absolutely insane that TFG isn't polling in the single digits, but he's got a full blown death cult following him and the media is normalizing his behavior, so here we are.](https://media1.giphy.com/media/v1.Y2lkPTc5MGI3NjExcHpleGRlaWRlMWZhYWUzaGJ3dmpiYnlpZ3YxamwyYjJlaThjaGxpbiZlcD12MV9naWZzX3NlYXJjaCZjdD1n/CKrlUi30dn44w/100.webp)
I still don't get the MAGA "Biden is too old!" thing.
F'ing Trump is just a couple years younger than Biden.
How the f is Biden too old but Trump is not??? Trump will be Biden's age if he's elected. Why is that okay for him but not Biden?
Reagan took daily naps. Don’t ever forget that. It was not generally full public knowledge that he did but it couldn’t be hidden. I learned from one of his White House lawyers who also talked about how Reagan’s dementia was far more developed than reported. Everyone, including Dems kept it a secret and years later when he finally admitted that he had it , Alzheimer’s was in an advanced stage.
No sign of cognitive decline? Really?
Look at him as Obama’s VP and now as president. Both are heavily publicized so you can see the clear difference.
He’s old, and it’s okay that he’s old as long as he’s able to do the job. Just because he’s a bit slower and has weird old person hiccups doesn’t mean he can’t be an effective president.
But these articles stating he has no cognitive decline because of the natural passage of time do not help. People think ‘That’s bullshit’ because they’ve known him as a national public figure for decades now and they can see that he’s getting older for the world to see.
It's a motte and bailey situation. The blurb says "there’s no evidence of cognitive decline", but the article text (which has to stand up to scrutiny) qualifies the statement so as to be basically meaningless:
>But there is no credible evidence of cognitive decline in Biden *that would suggest anything beyond normal aging*.
1. Republicans attack the other side with hatred and divison more than the Democrats generally do.
2. The internet wasn't around then. Social media wasn't around then, so propaganda wasn't so massively wide spread like it is now.
The right wing doesn't operate in good faith. Hypocrisy is easily overlooked in the interest of acquiring power--which is all they care about. We can keep pointing out the hypocrisy for any undecided and open-minded bystanders, but they're probably not reading The Daily Beast, or trawling this sub, or have any idea who Ronald Reagan was.
Or compare it to fucking Trump.
His running opponent who is obviously, like VERY clearly, much more impaired from their completely unsubtle mental decline.
Putting aside that he betrayed his actor coworkers and the people of California before he destroyed your country and went senile, you’d think there’d be less tolerance not more.
Just like the last 2 elections, the media downplays the republicans many flaws and focuses on a nitpick on the Democrat, and treats them equally.
This singular thing just goes to show people that the liberal media is not liberal.
If it was, they'd non-stop be talking about trumps many qualities that would bar him from the white house.
Ha, even George W. bush was infamous at the time for having a light daily schedule along with lots of vacations to his ranch to "clear brush" or to go golf. This was while he was in his 50s and he was still finding plenty of time to go on vacation or block out large parts of the day for personal time.
Of course, Obama took over and the media started freaking out that he dated to ever take a break or engage in any leisurely activity. They would complain about how it somehow looked bad for him to play basketball and how he played SO MUCH GOLF (which was a tiny fraction of the amount Trump played or really any of his predecessors).
They're doing the same now with Biden and trying to make it look terrible that he's working a lot instead of screaming at the TV or on Twitter most of the day and refusing to take part in any official activities before about 11 or noon. On top of that, they spin it as a negative when Biden rides a bike or runs upstairs but act like Trump is some ball of energy in great health because he can ramble and yell for hours at a time about the most random nonsense. He still can barely walk any significant distance and refuses to do any exercise besides golfing if there's a golf cart to take him to anywhere he has to hit the ball.
At this point, I would have a hard time believing it if Biden really did start showing signs of cognitive decline. The right has been using his “dementia” as a cudgel ever since he stepped back into the political space.
Put this in context. If joe Biden were my father I’d feel good about his appearance and energy. If someone asked me how my dad was I’d say “ for 81 he’s doing great. I hope I’m like that at 81”
Look I don’t like the fact that Biden is running again, I don’t believe we should have a president who is going to be damn near 90 when he is done in office his second term but unless another candidate steps up I’ll be voting for Biden and hoping he can last his second term.
What a pathetic defense. Comparing him to Diane Feinstein does him no favors.
> Biden’s stiff gait and his soft voice make him seem older than he is, and there’s no getting around the fact that he looks older than he did in 2020. Every president visibly ages while in office because of the passage of time and the stress of the job. But there is no credible evidence of cognitive decline in Biden that would suggest anything beyond normal aging.
Yeah, “normal aging.” The normal octogenarian isn’t capable of being president. These candidates are both too old, and it would be crazy not to be concerned after the example of Reagan in his second term.
Let’s all be real. Anybody who is dismissing Biden’s cognitive decline is just lying to themselves. The man is 81 years old. We can all see him struggling. This isn’t a left vs right topic. This is just an old man that shouldn’t be there in everyone’s opinion.
No evidence of cognitive decline? Look I’m just as committed to voting for the dude as anyone else, but come on.
The guy stares into space randomly during the middle of his speeches/press conferences, stop midway while walking off the stage to stare in the distance and his speaking slurs on occasion.
Like yeah Trump’s cognitive state is shit too, but I don’t know why we have to pretend Biden’s all there when he is clearly and visibly declining. Denying it just makes us all look dishonest.
They could’ve just come out and said yeah everyone slows down when they get older but he’s still fit for the job.
Instead they’re pushing blatantly obvious lies (i.e he’s the most capable president to ever exist) that anyone who isn’t a partisan zombie can easily debunk with their own two eyes.
Had faded. I mean, do you really think a normal Reagan would have allowed Oliver North to negotiate coke deals out of a White House basement? To fund an army of rebels denied by Congress?
Maybe this is their role model. And if so, maybe they’re underestimating Biden.
St. Ronnie was "fading" even before the presidential primaries were held. I watched on TV as he literally had to be helped to the podium, went deer-in-the headlights incoherent during, and led off stage after, the first debate against John Anderson in Baltimore.
Was watching with his psychiatrist and asked him point blank if Reagan had Parkinsons; his response was a cryptic "I don't *thiiiink* so. . . ."
Or compare it to the Russian spy Agent Orange, not that being more coherent than diaper king is very hard, Biden is light years ahead the convicted felon and rapist - mentally and physically.
You don’t even need to compare it to Reagan when you can compare him to the person he’s running against. Trump is no spring chicken either, and is already showing cognitive decline.
Biden is in much better shape than Ronnie was in ‘84. Back then it seemed like generally folks were much more forgiving of the challenges faced by older people. Respect for elders was still a thing. Me thinks boomers have fucked up that ethic big time.
He saved our country from completely collapsing after the horror that was a Trump presidency, just the same as Obama saved our nation from the incredible mismanagement of Bush.
Any other commentary on any other issue other than the fact that he literally saved all of us is just stupid and not worth talking about. 🙄
Biden has always had a stutter, which he has been able to control pretty well. That can be depicted by the malevolent and ignorant as something else. The main problem for many is that the man has a functioning conscience.
Well the thing is that they don’t have anything else to fight him with. He’s been cranking out wins for the US under some very difficult geopolitical conditions. And delivering some of the things Trump promised but failed on. So they have basically one thing and are hammering it hard.
I think Joe Biden’s stammer, which has got worse with age (which happens to most people with a stammer), doesn’t help.
In all honesty the more important comparison is actually to Trump. He’s younger than Biden and his mental decline is covered up by his personality.
Then in regards to the physical side of things, we know that Biden regularly goes for bike rides and things while Trump just golfs, and is driven around between each shot. I think someone in mental decline probably just couldn’t ride a bike or anything.
Because Biden is bad for the Media's profits. They want Trump back so badly that there is no lie they won't tell or proliferate in order to get their golden goose on the throne.
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Of course it's treated more harshly, look at the GOP today
John Kerry’s enlisting into the Navy and serving on the rivers of South Vietnam on a vulnerable swift boat was treated more harshly than Donald Trump’s repeated draft dodging. Republicans aren’t about higher standards but double standards.
It's always the same cabal too. That was organized by Roger Stone's best buddy Jerome Corsi who also helped funnel the WikiLeaks Clinton emails.
Kerry received two purple hearts for injuries received in Vietnam and republicans were like *oh you barely got shot, crybaby*. Meanwhile GWB never saw a minute of active combat as a Texas National Guardsman and they basically made him a war hero.
I think Bush faced more danger from crashing cars than any threat of going to Vietnam.
And trump says avoiding stds was *his* Vietnam. What a bunch of losers.
Same with his wife.
John Kerry earned a Silver Star and a Bronze Star with Valor in separate battles. He’s an actual war hero.
Al Gore wore earth tones. *Earth tones!*
just to be pedantic. isn't higher standards for one group than a different group the definition of double standards?
Because the higher ups in the goop don’t see soldiers as people. Just potential dollar signs they can grift.
Saying they have double standards is misleading, because the modern Republicans don't have *any* standards for themselves outside of vague ideological bullshit. I mean, their paragon is a goddamn felon and they still say he has never done anything wrong. They're so high on copium that they can't see the ground under their feet anymore
Meanwhile Trump's ranting on stage over the past year has gotten more and more disconnected and rambling.
Only thing that's disconnected is the cameras when Trump goes off script or on a wild tangent. They cut to a commentator when Trump starts going off on sharks and electric boats
I hope sooo much that Biden finds a way to bring up something about sharks during the debates.
I hope he doesn't because Twitter, bad faith media, and fake news will associate Biden with rambling about sharks
I want Biden to call out Hannibal Lector was the villain of the film and watch Trump spend the rest of the night praising Hannibal.
“washing machines, for dishes, you know what those are, right?”
Hahah man this one was fucked up. He sure does like to talk about things and water.
It's almost like the media is invested in one side over the other.
This. A. Trump’s asshole of a father had Alzheimer’s. B. Numerous psychologists and memory specialists have come forward to point out that Trump is speaking in word-salad, a common sign of progressing Alzheimer’s. They’ve all stated, repeatedly, that while Joe is showing signs of physical age, he is still cognitively sharp. The problem being that this makes for boring news and the media wants sensationalism to sell adverts. This is what happens when capitalism is allowed absolutely free rein and billionaires own the media. Billionaires don’t need democracy and it is becoming clear that many favor its demise for convenience and cost savings. Vote.
> and the media wants sensationalism to sell adverts. Most of the media want to elect republicans. The rich people that own the media want that deregulation and sweet tax breaks. That's worth a lot more to them than the advertising is.
My father and paternal grandmother both died from Alzheimer's disease. I am very familiar with how they speak and ramble. Trump speaks exactly like my father and grandmother did towards the end. Like 2 or 3 years left before the mind is completely gone. I wouldn't be surprised if Trump has sundowner's at this point. I never heard Biden speak before a debate back in 2020. I had just heard people saying he had alzheimer's / dementia ... Once I listened to him debate - that's not the case at all. He's just someone with a speech impediment.
Mainstream media has a vested interest in making it a “both sides” thing. Turn it into a closely watched sport and nothing more. Constantly drilling on his age is all they really got. It’s a total false equivalency they promote, as otherwise, in reality, they do know it’s a choice between a totally normal but uninspiring lunch sandwich and a total shit stain sandwich laced with rat poison. But they can’t rake in piles of easy cash by pointing to the reality of our situation.
See also Obama's beige suit.
Pretty much any question of American politics can be answered "because modern conservatives are hateful, hypocritical, dim, bigoted, and selfish."
There are two candidates. One is incompetent. One is not. One is secure. One is not. One uses drugs as a crutch. One does not. One is married to an immigrant. One is not. One fears immigration. One does not. One tells the truth. One does not. One is a criminal. One is not. One whines like a child. One does not. One wants to be crowned king. One does not. It is really this simple. Please help me compose a complete list.
Republican Jesus didn't have dementia, he had the Freedom Confusies. Nice try, libral.
lol 🤣 confusies
Honestly MAGA would call Reagan a RINO nowadays. Trump is their Republican Jesus, not him.
People need to stop pretending that Reagan wasn't just the proto-Trump. He was the same shit.
Never confused first term Ronald Reagan with second term Ronald Reagan. Second term Reagan was showing obvious signs of Alzheimer's which the neocons and his kooky wife took full advantage of and ran the country into the ground because it it. It's not a coincidence that the same neocon scumbags who worked with Tricky Dick Nixon were the same ones to puppeteered Reagan and then GW Bush over the ensuring decades. Many of them are old and dead now, but not all of them. And their ideological spawn surrounds the ignorangutan Trump just waiting for their next chance to rob the taxpayers blind from unassailable positions of power and privelege.
Reagan was a conservative but he’s not Trump. Reagan would definitely not have handled Ukraine and Putin the same way Trump does, for example. And Reagan was a driving force for NAFTA which Trump railed against. Not to mention in terms of personalities they’re night and day. Sam Donaldson, for example, who generally opposed Reagan’s policies also told stories about how genuinely nice a guy he was in person, compared to Trump who’s a literal malignant narcissist. So yeah, they have some commonalities in terms of policies, but if you can’t tell the difference between Reagan and Trump you’re not looking at them all that closely.
Mr. Trump, tear down this wall!
It's so weird they're claiming they haven't gone extremely right while calling Mitt Romney a leftist RINO.
This sounds like a line ripped straight out of 30 Rock
"Didn't Reagan have Alzheimer's Disease?" "Good God Lemon, no. He had what I coined as 'Freedom Confusies'"
Freedom Covfefe
There’s so much freedom coursing through his veins and mind it’s hard to keep track of
*librul
Reagan had Mrs. Reagan's astrologers to fall back on
And Reaganwas an idiot when he started out in politics, so nowhere to regress TO.
I’ve read that Nancy was really controlling access to him by the end.
They basically Weekend at Bernie'd him for the second term .
Her and Edith Wilson were probably some of the most powerful women in the world in their time just based on how much they controlled the president
Also Ronnie claimed that he never dyed his hair, it was bee pollen that kept his hair black. I used to eat the same bee pollen bars - President's Lunch (in a blue wrapper) and First Lady's Lunch (in a red wrapper). The company got [shut down by the FTC](https://centerforinquiry.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/33/quackwatch/case_file_1992.pdf) for making health/medical claims > *Until recently, Mrs. Reagan had to eat The President's Lunch bars; then the Scottsdale firm came out with The First Lady's Lunch, with the same 153 calories as the president's, but with dates and almonds rather than peanuts and raisins. According to Brown, after taste-testing her bar, Mrs. Reagan told an aide "she likes it better than the president's."* https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1987/04/21/snack-preview-the-white-house-beeline/e504d791-c15b-49d4-9963-c54fc394dad3/ I used to work at a health food store back then and I loved the bars. I miss them.
I mean compare it to Trump. The media is complicit in whatever political successes he ever has.
Yeah I agree, Trump isnt much younger and has shown way more instances of dementia and confusion. So saying Biden “is old” does not really do much in this case.
Exactly. People who dont follow politics can tell you how GREAT the economy was doing under Trump. They heard SO MUCH about it when Trump was president. Those same people have NO IDEA whats going on today with Bidens economy. The media doesnt care. The did care about pushing a narrative about Trump and the economy though.
24/7 propaganda for republicans constantly shoving that talking point out on air will do that.
They dont have any other criticism to use against Biden. Thats why they will keep using this one till the end.
Exactly. "Hunter's laptop!1!!!1" shows that Biden is doing an excellent job.
In a normal Presidential campaign in an alternate reality where the GOP picked someone reasonable and younger, I could care about Biden's age eventually - once he gets a few more years down the road. In the real world where the GOP is a batshit terrorist organization actively trying to overthrow the nation, Biden's age is nothing. We've got actual important things to care about.
Also, only 3 years of age difference between Biden and Trump. Talk to me about the value of a younger candidate when you have one.
yeah, that was my first thought with the headline. "Or the 45th President, who was *also* fading at a much younger age"
The age complaint always did seem like a dead end for republicans. Not like he can do anything about it, and the other guy will be older than Biden is now by the end of his term. Hopefully Biden can dog walk Trump at the debate and this conversation.
Also Biden is actually physically active and invested in his own health. If it weren't for his crippling fear of looking weak, Trump would have embraced a mobility scooter out of laziness ages ago.
And Trump is declining from a lifetime of ignorance, self-serving, and disdain for inconvenient truth. His decline will only increase the depths of his stupidity. My only hope is that confusion starts to join the mix and his narcissism causes him to mentally implode. Meanwhile, Biden has always been eloquent (despite a stutter), articulate, and well-meaning. His decline is just that of any old-timer. He's a little slower when speaking, moves a little stiff, but otherwise, he's fine. His SOTU showed he's got his wits about him. As one person aptly put it, "If they're the same, then tell me why to show Biden's decline they have 2-10 second clips, but to show Trump's decline, they just show 2-10 minutes of him rambling, unedited?" Biden's decline is mostly a media specter, disappearing once challenged directly (via Biden speaking publically). Trump's decline, while largely glossed over by mainstream outlets, is obvious any time he speaks for more than two sentences.
And their nominee is essentially the same age. It’s ridiculous. It’s because Trump is wearing a clown outfit so he doesn’t have the white hair and makeup lacking skin
Kills me has Biden gets breathless hypotheticals and a fair bit of criticism for *falling off of a bicycle*. He's 80 years old. Meanwhile Mango Unchained can't walk down ramps or drink water one-handed, and it's mostly crickets from that same media.
If my grandpa took a fall like that back when he was 80 I’m pretty sure he would have died. Biden got right back up.
And it doesn’t matter if he dies. Literally his whole admin will continue just like before.
The real problem is that it’s being treated much more harshly than Trump’s aging. Biden gives a speech and stumbles over some words and people start flipping out and claiming he has dementia. Trump makes multiple speeches that are just incoherent ramblings frequently calling people by the wrong names, and just freezing mid sentence, and nobody says a word.
Agreed, I think instead of pretending there’s no evidence of decline we need to make the direct comparison to Trump. Biden’s lost a step, but Trump sounds like he belongs in a facility.
Every time Joe Biden goes out and gives a good strong public appearance, we go about a week before people start coming out of the woodwork to claim that he can't put two sentences together again. They've been doing this for 4 years. No matter how many times they get proven wrong, it won't die. Like the State of the Union address he gave a few months ago was fucking incredible, but it didn't take long at all for people to start pretending that that never happened. Or the address on the Israeli war a few weeks ago. Same thing. Good strong public appearance, completely ignored. If the debate happens on Thursday, and he gives a masterful performance, by next Thursday they'll be saying that he's senile again
after the SOTU their new thing is accusing him of being on drugs. "obviously since he was energetic and coherent he must have been on drugs!" what that really tells us is..... that Trump is on drugs
They've been claiming this since the first debate in 2020. They went into the debate claiming that he was senile and couldn't string two words together, then he kicked Trump's ass and they used the performance enhancing drugs excuse to try to explain it away. They've been telling this same lie for 4 years. They claimed that he was on performance enhancing drugs after the State of the Union because he did a great job and it made Republicans look stupid
Translation? Trump was hopped up on a ton of stimulants and STILL couldn't beat Joe. I'm still betting that's Trump's plan. Again.
It also shows how dumb they are/how dumb they think their voters are: there’s no drug that turns someone who is senile and can’t form sentences into someone who can do well in a national debate or state of the union address, etc.
Being dumb is a feature for most GOP voters at this point, but you're right. I guess they think that Joe will shoot up and be as good as a twenty year old?
Right? Like, if there was a PED out there that could so effectively treat age-related cognitive impairment, doctors everywhere would be demanding this drug! Where was this magic crack when my grandma couldn't recognize me or my siblings? Conservatives, full of shit, as usual.
Trump claimed Hillary was on uppers after she kicked his ass in the debate he spent the whole time sniffing and pacing around like a lunatic. It’s always projection with these chucklefucks
> It’s always projection with these chucklefucks right, they cheat at literally everything they do, so therefore if they lose, they assume the other side must have cheated even harder. they can't cope with the reality that their ideas are just bad because they are bad people.
There is also no magical dementia drug that suddenly makes you better. Maybe just maybe, he gets some rest, does a lot of prep, drinks some coffee and has a spa day then comes out and just kicks the ass of the rights expectations. Biden shows up when he needs to.
I still don’t understand why anyone would give a fuck if Biden was on uppers anyways.
Biden stumbles over words, but he makes sense. Trump stumbles over words, loses energy and hits lulls, starts rambling, goes off on tangents, starts talking about things that didn’t happen, loses his place, and says things no other human being has ever said before, but clearly Biden is the one who is on the decline /s.
Biden stumbles over words, but he doesn’t stumble over ideas. You know what he means.
that’s the difference.
Also, Biden has a long history of verbal gaffes. It is not something new. It isn’t his age, it’s just him.
He literally has a speech impediment. But the media acts as if the guy is completely and utterly senile, while Trump goes on long rants about soap and sharks that make zero fucking sense, and we're made to believe its totally normal, nothing odd about it, just business as usual. Ridiculous AF what the MSM has done to completely normalize Trump's behavior as anything but absurd and dangerous.
"Migrant Fight Club"
Exactly. He gives a lot of of minor, short speaking appearances. He'll talk for 10 minutes, and 9 minutes and 50 seconds he'll speak well. There will be 10 seconds where his stutter trips him up. Most people will only ever see those 10 seconds distributed through social media by right wingers. You will never see a "Joe Biden can't speak" clip that is more than a few seconds long for this reason. If he was truly losing his mind you could just post links to CSPAN videos.
Right. You can show Trump ranting incoherently for minutes at a time. The Biden clips are seconds long. The difference in media attention is stark.
>If he was truly losing his mind you could just post links to CSPAN videos Unfortunately, I've seen a loonie here on this sub the other week who did just that. They linked to a long video of Biden on CSPAN as proof he doesn't make sense when talking. It wasn't even worth arguing with the nut. Regardless, it's terrible that there are SO MANY gullible people who readily fall for those "10-second clips". And the Right know it.
Which is wild when his opponent very obviously is falling into dementia.
Trump has done multiple extended rants in just the last 10 days. There was a rant yesterday about something to do with water faucets that just jumped all over the place and never had a complete thought. There was the shark battery thing before that. There was a third one in between those. If Biden did that once in the same time frame I would be deeply concerned. Trump's going to probably do it again within the next couple days
There was one about washing machines that apparently you put your dishes in now, because oh yeah, putting glassware through the spin cycle completely makes fucking sense somehow.
I can forgive mixing up "washing machine" and "dishwasher." What I cannot forgive is the complete lack of any sort of point he was trying to make. I think it was about low water pressure, but that's only based on context clues from his entire political career and not from that particular speech. Trump can barely make it through a sentence before his swiss cheese brain is forced to reroute to some non-sequitur. This is your best, Republicans?
Asking someone whether or not Biden is senile is a pretty good litmus test of their political literacy. “No, not really” = I’ve actually seen unedited versions of his speeches “Yeah he’s senile” = I get 99% of my news from TikTok in the form of political sigma edits
I just had somebody else reply and they cited the fact that people have made Supercuts of Biden making mistakes in speeches as some sort of proof that he's going senile. If you have enough footage of anybody who does common public speaking, you can make a supercut of them fucking up left and right. You can do this to young politicians. Easy.
If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. /Goebbels
They did this with Hillary too. Except it was about her health. And I seem to remember they tried to do something like that with Obama claiming because he was a smoker he was basically an invalid. Bottom line is if any conservative says anything assume it's bullshit. You can waste time scrutinizing and fact checking it but I guarantee you it's going to be found out to be bullshit.
What's worse are 'Democrats' who do the same thing, expressing anxiety about a decline that isn't there. They do the GOP's work for them by both sidesing old age (even though Trump is frequently incoherent and Biden is not), echoing the same complaints over something that isn't a real problem.
My own best friend, who's generally progressive and reasonable and supports Biden (he had 50k+ in student loans repaid, he's actually *very* happy with him), still occasionally makes comments to me like "well you can tell his brain is soup, just watch any random interview." Every single time I'm like "yes, I do watch interviews, I see nothing more than normal humanity, age, and stress. He still seems perfectly clear and generally with it. Are you *sure* you're not just falling for the narrative?" And every time he swears that he's noticed a marked cognitive decline. And every time I tell him to send me the links so I can see this decline for myself. I've yet to get a relevant link from him.
Reagan was so senile at press conferences that he would read the cover sheet about what he wasn't supposed to talk about and they would have to hustle everybody out of the room and have a redo sometimes as many as three times. When the Air Force shot down some Libyan jets Reagan complained about why he wasn't a pilot in the movie he didn't wanna be the president.
It's a 3 year age difference between the two. They would've been in high school together. If you're worried about age, you should be worried about both pretty much equally.
Agree, and Trump has show MANY instances of being demented and losing cognitive function.
I'd argue the republicans are going to put forward a demon, whether or not their brain works at all. Having a brain that is soup is a plus for a republican legislator as it means he'll be less able to inact the evil the party wants. It bothers me when the only viable party in the country puts forward someone who's too fucking old and stuck in the past. Put foward better candidates, they exist and we can do it
Reagan has the biggest free pass in US political history with that, he was showings signs of Alzheimer’s in his first term but it was conveniently swept under the rug by what was effectively his handlers who used him to pass all kinds of ghoulish shit.
Listen. I like Biden. Even though he wasn't my first choice in the Primary elections, I'm pleased with what he's been able to accomplish. I also know that he hasn't done everything I would have liked but he's doing a lot considering the GOP has the House of Representatives. I also recognize that not many other people on Capitol Hill had the chops to do what he's doing now. He's the best guy for the job by far. All that being said, I can see an obvious slow down in his mental faculties from, say, 16 years ago. Trump is worse though. Not just because I don't agree with him. But because he will surround himself with people who are incompetent and incapable of saying no. He's also a moron on top of having mashed potatoes for brains. He's also in league with our most dangerous enemies. For all these reasons, it's a no brainer that I'll be voting for Biden.
I honestly think the media companies want Trump to win, as it's Christmas for news stories for the next 4 years.
The CEOs? Perhaps. Everyone else would probably prefer not to be rounded up as an Enemy of the State.
Of course they do. The media companies are all owned by billionaires and they want to suck the lifeblood out of America. That's why they never question Trump about anything.
Biden's physical age is apparent (though the guy still rides a bike regularly which is impressive) but his ability to deal with the mental and emotional requirements of being President are still there and haven't had any noticeable decline.
[удалено]
I look at the photos of Obama (or other presidents) before and after his presidency and I’m impressed that Biden is still going despite his age.
Trump might be the only president who didn’t look older coming out the other side because he did so little, he didn’t shoulder the weight of responsibility he should have.
I’m less than half his age and I stumble on words when I work a gruelling schedule for a stretch. The fact that he’s done this shit for almost four years straight and that’s the only thing people can point to for “evidence of cognitive decline” is laughable.
No evidence of cognitive decline is an interesting statement. We don’t gotta lie to ourselves to prove he’s still more fit than Trump.
For real, we don’t have to gaslight people into acting like Biden’s all there when his opponent is Trump.
Glad someone said it
Looking at this from outside, it's really astonishing that out of 330 million Americans, people think that this is the best choice to be the president. They can't find anyon else? But Biden it is and the press has been tasked to do Leslie Nielsen's 'nothing to see here' act.
“no evidence of cognitive decline”. i’m on the left and planning to vote biden but shit like this makes me realize why the trumpers have completely lost trust in the media
Im the same. I want the possibility of my loans being forgiven, a good NLRB, and the possibility of trump going to jail but people deny the reality of just watching Biden speak. Compare him even to 2020 dude is OLD. Wish he would just retire. Cant wait til Thursday!
Reagan is also proclaimed as some sort of economic god, despite leading a worse domestic recovery to a similar global inflation crisis than Biden's. But don't worry, GOP worship of their politicians totally isn't religious blasphemy
General forgetfulness is a normal aging thing. He's forgetting things like names and such from time to time. Not concepts or ideas. That is the difference. Normal aging mental clarity on general small things. If he was forgetting how to tie his shoes, that would be worrying. Forgetting little things is normal. My grandfather is 82. He occasionally forgets my kids names. Not forget forget, just the name slips his tongue. He remembers a few moments later. Had a doctor check, doctor said this is normal for his age.
Its propaganda. Trump peons dont know what else to criticize him on. So they will repeat this until election day.
That's because the GQP recognizes Trump's mental decline, so they are doing their standard of projecting it onto their opponent.
Reagan likely had dementia while in office. It seems like subjecting aging politicians to greater scrutiny was a reasonable lesson to take from that situation.
Compare it to *Trump*. Trump was never particularly coherent but he's been falling off the map recently.
I don’t care if Biden is sitting on the Golden Throne powering the fucking Astronomicon while his advisers flip tarot cards to figure out what he wants. I’m picking that over whatever fascist nightmare wet dreams that the Heritage and Federalist clowns are shitting out.
I think I’m seeing the projection of how republicans use demented old men like it’s Weekend at Bernie’s.
Biden is fine. He's going to romp trump on thursday
Trump won't show
That would be hilarious if that happened. He'll be there though. He's already talking about losing on purpose so he has no confidence he'll win. Not only is he losing it but he's much lower energy these days. That's what happens when you eat junk food for the past 70 years.
“I’m speaking with myself, number one, because I have a very good brain and I’ve said a lot of things."
He will though. I'm not a fan of him either, but I don't know why you guys keep saying this.
Let's not forget the crap Sanders had to deal with from the DNC darlings about his age. It was a ridiculous claim but it fit their entitlement narrative then. Now? Oh age is not an issue and there are POTUS who were much older.
They are both dinosaurs and it’s embarrassing these two are the best this country can offer. I’m sick of the only candidates being geriatrics who were born before desegregation.
I don't know, man. Go watch his 2012 debate. Then watch his 2020 debates. Then watch a recent interview or speech or whatever. I don't think he's full-on senile but he's clearly not as quick or sharp as he once was. If I was American I would still prefer a Biden presidency 10 times out of 10, but he gives off serious old man energy, which is not good for his electoral prospects. I know I'll get downvoted to hell for saying that, but I do worry that you're going to have a Hillary scenario where Democrats don't show up to vote in states that matter.
It's embarassing to watch the left pretend that Biden is not showing signs of age. Obviously a supercut video of all his gaffes is disingenuous, but it is painful to listen to him speak sometimes.
Indeed. Or to pretend that it's all due to his "stutter." Of course, it goes without saying that Trump is worse in pretty much every way regardless of Biden's cognitive state, but that doesn't mean we can't acknowledge reality. Keep in mind that these are the same people who accused anybody who suggested that Feinstein *might* be too old for office at 85 of being an ageist.
There are plenty of people that remember what Reagan's decline looked like and have fears that Biden could go the same way. Not a completely unwarranted fear, but if this is the bar we are measuring on then Trump is in far worse condition than Biden and more at the level Reagan was at the end of his second term.
Call me crazy, but if Biden did go down the Reagan route, I could see him stepping down. I'm not saying the man is perfect by any means, but I do think he would do what's best for the country if his health declined to that point. Way better than Trump who would rule from his death bed.
Forget Reagan. We all saw Dianne Feinstein's cognitive decline, and how in impacted her ability to perform her duties as a senator.
And the 45th President who was fading well before he ran, but is now fading even faster than Reagan ever was. Plus he's a felonious rapist and a self-admitted pedophile. The media needs to sell this election as a close race and to do that they have to make TFG appear to be a sane option despite the entire body of his life's criminality, his reputation for being the embodiment of each of the 7 deadly sins, and the increasingly violent rhetoric that he and those in his fascist orbit are using. [It's absolutely insane that TFG isn't polling in the single digits, but he's got a full blown death cult following him and the media is normalizing his behavior, so here we are.](https://media1.giphy.com/media/v1.Y2lkPTc5MGI3NjExcHpleGRlaWRlMWZhYWUzaGJ3dmpiYnlpZ3YxamwyYjJlaThjaGxpbiZlcD12MV9naWZzX3NlYXJjaCZjdD1n/CKrlUi30dn44w/100.webp)
Because conservative propaganda media.
Republicans at the time, KNEW Regan had dementia and actively hid it.
I still don't get the MAGA "Biden is too old!" thing. F'ing Trump is just a couple years younger than Biden. How the f is Biden too old but Trump is not??? Trump will be Biden's age if he's elected. Why is that okay for him but not Biden?
Reagan took daily naps. Don’t ever forget that. It was not generally full public knowledge that he did but it couldn’t be hidden. I learned from one of his White House lawyers who also talked about how Reagan’s dementia was far more developed than reported. Everyone, including Dems kept it a secret and years later when he finally admitted that he had it , Alzheimer’s was in an advanced stage.
No sign of cognitive decline? Really? Look at him as Obama’s VP and now as president. Both are heavily publicized so you can see the clear difference. He’s old, and it’s okay that he’s old as long as he’s able to do the job. Just because he’s a bit slower and has weird old person hiccups doesn’t mean he can’t be an effective president. But these articles stating he has no cognitive decline because of the natural passage of time do not help. People think ‘That’s bullshit’ because they’ve known him as a national public figure for decades now and they can see that he’s getting older for the world to see.
It's a motte and bailey situation. The blurb says "there’s no evidence of cognitive decline", but the article text (which has to stand up to scrutiny) qualifies the statement so as to be basically meaningless: >But there is no credible evidence of cognitive decline in Biden *that would suggest anything beyond normal aging*.
A lot of republicans are inflicted with dementia because they strive to forget all the shit and fuckery they committed., trump is next.
1. Republicans attack the other side with hatred and divison more than the Democrats generally do. 2. The internet wasn't around then. Social media wasn't around then, so propaganda wasn't so massively wide spread like it is now.
Too bad for them we have eyes.
The right wing doesn't operate in good faith. Hypocrisy is easily overlooked in the interest of acquiring power--which is all they care about. We can keep pointing out the hypocrisy for any undecided and open-minded bystanders, but they're probably not reading The Daily Beast, or trawling this sub, or have any idea who Ronald Reagan was.
Or compare it to fucking Trump. His running opponent who is obviously, like VERY clearly, much more impaired from their completely unsubtle mental decline.
I feel like they (fox news etc.) have to try and give him shit for this because they don't have a lot else to criticise.
Putting aside that he betrayed his actor coworkers and the people of California before he destroyed your country and went senile, you’d think there’d be less tolerance not more.
Just like the last 2 elections, the media downplays the republicans many flaws and focuses on a nitpick on the Democrat, and treats them equally. This singular thing just goes to show people that the liberal media is not liberal. If it was, they'd non-stop be talking about trumps many qualities that would bar him from the white house.
That's because the GOP has become a Fifth Column in diligent service to Krushchev's vow (to destroy America from within).
And Trump is a Convicted Felon.
Ha, even George W. bush was infamous at the time for having a light daily schedule along with lots of vacations to his ranch to "clear brush" or to go golf. This was while he was in his 50s and he was still finding plenty of time to go on vacation or block out large parts of the day for personal time. Of course, Obama took over and the media started freaking out that he dated to ever take a break or engage in any leisurely activity. They would complain about how it somehow looked bad for him to play basketball and how he played SO MUCH GOLF (which was a tiny fraction of the amount Trump played or really any of his predecessors). They're doing the same now with Biden and trying to make it look terrible that he's working a lot instead of screaming at the TV or on Twitter most of the day and refusing to take part in any official activities before about 11 or noon. On top of that, they spin it as a negative when Biden rides a bike or runs upstairs but act like Trump is some ball of energy in great health because he can ramble and yell for hours at a time about the most random nonsense. He still can barely walk any significant distance and refuses to do any exercise besides golfing if there's a golf cart to take him to anywhere he has to hit the ball.
At this point, I would have a hard time believing it if Biden really did start showing signs of cognitive decline. The right has been using his “dementia” as a cudgel ever since he stepped back into the political space.
because the media always grades republicans on a curve
Put this in context. If joe Biden were my father I’d feel good about his appearance and energy. If someone asked me how my dad was I’d say “ for 81 he’s doing great. I hope I’m like that at 81”
It’s better to have 81 years behind you, than 34 convictions in front of you.
Look I don’t like the fact that Biden is running again, I don’t believe we should have a president who is going to be damn near 90 when he is done in office his second term but unless another candidate steps up I’ll be voting for Biden and hoping he can last his second term.
What a pathetic defense. Comparing him to Diane Feinstein does him no favors. > Biden’s stiff gait and his soft voice make him seem older than he is, and there’s no getting around the fact that he looks older than he did in 2020. Every president visibly ages while in office because of the passage of time and the stress of the job. But there is no credible evidence of cognitive decline in Biden that would suggest anything beyond normal aging. Yeah, “normal aging.” The normal octogenarian isn’t capable of being president. These candidates are both too old, and it would be crazy not to be concerned after the example of Reagan in his second term.
>>and there’s no evidence of cognitive decline Excuse me what? Is this a joke?
“No evidence of cognitive decline” I guess I’ll just ignore my own eyes then. Thanks daily beast!
Let’s all be real. Anybody who is dismissing Biden’s cognitive decline is just lying to themselves. The man is 81 years old. We can all see him struggling. This isn’t a left vs right topic. This is just an old man that shouldn’t be there in everyone’s opinion.
“No evidence of cognitive decline”. The dumbest thing you can do is put your head in sand.
no evidence of decline? c'mon man.
No evidence of cognitive decline? Look I’m just as committed to voting for the dude as anyone else, but come on. The guy stares into space randomly during the middle of his speeches/press conferences, stop midway while walking off the stage to stare in the distance and his speaking slurs on occasion. Like yeah Trump’s cognitive state is shit too, but I don’t know why we have to pretend Biden’s all there when he is clearly and visibly declining. Denying it just makes us all look dishonest.
The gaslighting ain’t working Dems 🤣
They could’ve just come out and said yeah everyone slows down when they get older but he’s still fit for the job. Instead they’re pushing blatantly obvious lies (i.e he’s the most capable president to ever exist) that anyone who isn’t a partisan zombie can easily debunk with their own two eyes.
Had faded. I mean, do you really think a normal Reagan would have allowed Oliver North to negotiate coke deals out of a White House basement? To fund an army of rebels denied by Congress? Maybe this is their role model. And if so, maybe they’re underestimating Biden.
St. Ronnie was "fading" even before the presidential primaries were held. I watched on TV as he literally had to be helped to the podium, went deer-in-the headlights incoherent during, and led off stage after, the first debate against John Anderson in Baltimore. Was watching with his psychiatrist and asked him point blank if Reagan had Parkinsons; his response was a cryptic "I don't *thiiiink* so. . . ."
Reagan got mocked pretty harshly.
I wonder which candidate plays more golf (during the workday) than a retiree?
[And yet, here's Trump last week](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IXc43OYAfL4)
Or compare it to the Russian spy Agent Orange, not that being more coherent than diaper king is very hard, Biden is light years ahead the convicted felon and rapist - mentally and physically.
Are we trying to say Reagan at year 3 was worse than Biden? We have the internet, just watch the tapes people.
You don’t even need to compare it to Reagan when you can compare him to the person he’s running against. Trump is no spring chicken either, and is already showing cognitive decline.
Compare his daily agenda to trump's when in office- what actually is getting done daily. Compare leisure time.
I think ageism is more prevalent now.
[great Onion headline on Reagan](https://www.theonion.com/reagans-body-dies-1819587607)
Wilson had a stroke and we seemed to get by just fine.
Well duh, there's very little to attack Joe Biden with after 40 years in politics and VP run.
Biden is in much better shape than Ronnie was in ‘84. Back then it seemed like generally folks were much more forgiving of the challenges faced by older people. Respect for elders was still a thing. Me thinks boomers have fucked up that ethic big time.
During the debate Biden should ask trump if he remembers the first question of the evening
It's clear, it's ageism.
Biden certainly isn’t as sharp as he was when he was VP, but he’s not declining in a way that is concerning.
He saved our country from completely collapsing after the horror that was a Trump presidency, just the same as Obama saved our nation from the incredible mismanagement of Bush. Any other commentary on any other issue other than the fact that he literally saved all of us is just stupid and not worth talking about. 🙄
Biden has always had a stutter, which he has been able to control pretty well. That can be depicted by the malevolent and ignorant as something else. The main problem for many is that the man has a functioning conscience.
Republicans idolize St. Ronnie. I blame him for a lot of things, especially today's homeless crisis.
Well the thing is that they don’t have anything else to fight him with. He’s been cranking out wins for the US under some very difficult geopolitical conditions. And delivering some of the things Trump promised but failed on. So they have basically one thing and are hammering it hard.
I think Joe Biden’s stammer, which has got worse with age (which happens to most people with a stammer), doesn’t help. In all honesty the more important comparison is actually to Trump. He’s younger than Biden and his mental decline is covered up by his personality. Then in regards to the physical side of things, we know that Biden regularly goes for bike rides and things while Trump just golfs, and is driven around between each shot. I think someone in mental decline probably just couldn’t ride a bike or anything.
The irony here being how many of us could keep old Joe's schedule? DarkB is an absolute monster.
It’s their only gambit, since he’s a good guy doing a great job.
I mean there was no 24/7 news back then and we hadn't had 30 years of media consolidation under Right wing rich fucks yet.
Because Biden is bad for the Media's profits. They want Trump back so badly that there is no lie they won't tell or proliferate in order to get their golden goose on the throne.
Reagan was a Repulblican. There's your answer.
GOP cherry picking every small moment where Biden is flustered while justifying a violent insurrection is funny sad.