Physician sees 'presenile dementia' in Bush's faltering speech

[donsu]

http://www.onlinejournal.com/Special_Reports/091804Mazza/091804mazza.html

-snip-

Quoting Fallows, Dr. Carson also agrees with him that "The main problem with these theories is that through his forties Bush was perfectly articulate." Yet, Dr. Carson stated he felt "that something organic was wrong with President Bush, most probably dyslexia, but . . . 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." He was as Fallows said, "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." As Dr. Carson suggests, "Consider, in contrast, the present: 'the informal Q&A he has tried to avoid,' 'Bush's recent faltering performances,' 'his stalling, defensive pose when put on the spot,' 'speaking more slowly and less gracefully.'"

-snip-

Dr. Carson adds, "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." Dr. Carson adds, " President Bush's 'mangled' words are a demonstration of what physicians call 'confabulation,' and are almost specific to diagnosis of a true dementia." His advice: "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."

-snip-
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couldn't videos be put together to show smirk's regression?

[wickywom]

1. I thought he was just

speaking in tongues.

[readmylips]

4. Thanks for the laugh....

something is really toast with bush's brain.

[wickywom]

7. no, really...

there was something about that on this site a while back--
had to do w/ the mini stroke theory...
the power of the lord is so great it overcomes him...
That'll be the spin anyway-- infidels are just jealous.

[koopie57]

2. the next headline will read

Bush to allow stem cell research no matter if they have to kill the mom to get to the fetus!

[kerry-is-my-prez]

3. If he really has this problem - he could be "toast" after the debates.

If he looks like a complete moron.

[Strelnikov_]

8. No, The Media Will Say He Won Decisively No Matter What

Remember Reagan/Carter, Boosh/Gore?

[kerry-is-my-prez]

11. I know WHAT was I thinking. I forgot that our media has been "hijacked"

by a bunch of whores and administration "yes-men." For a while there, I was actually thinking back to the days when we had people like Cronkite, etc.

[Trahurn]

25. Bush, mentally ill.

Of course you all realize Bush has his finger on all our nuclear weapons. I remember when he went ballistic when reporters were grilling him on Enron and he said something like "get these motherfuckers out of here" or something like that. Something showing real discipline and statesmanship.
Now what would happen if Bush got that enraged at another country?
OMG. I don't even want to go there. This is why Kerry must be elected. American needs to be liberated. World peace lays in the balance.

[tibbiit]

14. Yes true

He will be shown to be that folksy downhome hero of texas air national guard we have all been told is jeebus's chosen to lead.

really, dont get hopes up about debates people. Kerry will win, but the sheeple will be told how stiff and stuffy he is next to that man of the people.
tib

[rock]

5. "eventually, death, but at a relatively early age"

Ouch! I bit my tongue so hard, it bled.

[asjr]

6. We already know he has caretakers. How else would

he manage. More reason to think he is a puppet. I think the Repub cabal got more than they bargained for when he is allowed to go off on his own. Sometimes he just doesn't keep to the script. They probably wanted Jeb to begin with but realized they would not be able to "control" him and had to settle for the bottom of the barrel.

[Lancer]

9. I dislike * and hate his policies as much

as the next person, but when I first read this piece I felt pity for the man, and embarrassment for him and the country.

I am only a layperson, but a relatively observant one, and I have seen * slide further and further downhill in recent years, due to factors that appear to be neurological. The speech problems are well documented, but he has nervous tics and other peculiarities and a demonstrated lack of motor function that I find equally troubling.

(I think of Pres. Bartlet on The West Wing, who refused to let his MS keep him from seeking a second term, despite the pleas of advisers. While one could argue that both are fictional characters, still, the disease afflicting Pres. Bartlett in no way impaired his mental functions. And no rational, sensitive person can say the same of *).

IMHO

[wickywom]

10. I pity him too..

but he wouldn't get elected the principal of a school if he wasn't who he is..
President of a condo.. maybe.
I've never touched coke in my life.. and he is a good example of why.

He could have a future in just say no PSA's.

[zbdent]

12. This has about as much validity as the RWers' "clinical assessments"

of Al Gore, Howard Dean, etc.

Meaning, if they can claim psychological problems based on an isolated few seconds of videotape, then we can submit (whole) videos of George W. Bush, Zell Miller, etc. as evidence of dementia.

Hell, suddenly Pickles is an expert on how to tell if a document is a forgery!

[Lancer]

13. I respectfully disagree

that this assessment of the President's faltering speech, etc. is based merely on glancing at a "few seconds of videotape."

James Fallows' article in the Atlantic Monthly, to which the linked article above is a follow-up, is cause for concern, even among those—perhaps especially among those—who hate, loath and despise the President.

I think most of us are capable of ferreting out the trash on the internet from a legitimate, thoughtful, preliminary medical diagnosis made by a licensed physician. When a serious medical condition is suspected in one who is on live television 365 days a year, and not merely as a shadowy, distant figure boarding airplanes or hiking on his ranch, but onstage, his face filling the TV screen under hot lights, then yes, I take this analysis seriously.

If the man is truly ill, nothing will be done about it, of course.

Maybe I just have too much charity in my soul.

[zbdent]

26. My point was that Rush, etc. made "clinical diagnosis" from a few seconds

of tape, while this person may have studied the tapes.

Yet RUsh and co. took things like the "Dean Scream" and painted Dean as psycho. Do you think that they will run this article anytime soon, except to try to dismiss it as a bunch of "junk science" (unlike their own assessments, based on no science!)?

[Judi Lynn]

15. Republicans seem to like some of their public figures manegeable

Just getting a socially acceptable warm body into the needed position matters. Once they've got him in there, he can last indefinitely, if he doesn't go off and die on them.



Incidently, the use of the new term, "Pre-Senile Dementia" is a stretch, isn't it? Wouldn't it seem there was an original state, "Dementia," and that when it appeared to occur late in life, at that time it became termed "Senile Dementia?" Seems a dreadful way to use "language" when the intention is to obsfucate.

[kayell]

16. I can't believe you didn't include the classic example!

Too obvious I guess.

[Judi Lynn]

18. Oh, GOSH, yes! All others pale by comparison!

The conservative GOD! How they still refer to him with such reverance as "The Great Communicator." They hoped he'd pull them out of the hole they'd fallen into after Richard Nixon. Looks like it worked, too, using their special formula of a front man, and a gang of thugs behind him, plotting, scheming away as they mold the government to suit their specific needs, while the rest of the country falls farther and farther behind.

[soothsayer]

23. Yeah, I think they drug them to keep them that way, regardless of the long

term ill effects. They're just puppets with the CIA or whomever pulling the strings.

Thank God Dems prefer intelligent candidates...!

[kayell]

17. Pre-senile or alcohol related dementia?

I'm not convinced that * stayed dry for any length of time after his supposed "born again" renouncing of alcohol. There is good evidence that he was drinking in (1996?) from the wedding video. Even if he had reduced the quantity enough for a while to moderate his behavior, I suspect he is currently heavily self-medicating with something (alcohol, cocaine, something special from his good bud Rush?).

If it's presenile dementia, I'd guess at one of these types, although given * past history of wierd behavior, who knows how much is just is underlying sociopathic personality.

Presenile dementia with delusional features
Presenile dementia, paranoid type

[chaska]

19. Geez, like this guy needs a stronger sympathy vote. Let's keep this story

alive. sarcasm off.

[Nordic]

20. actually I think it would make a great 60 minutes piece

I wish somebody would pursue this.

Remember the MTP interview? The guy could hardly make any sense at all. It was weird.

[carpetbagger]

21. Joseph M Price is a total crackpot.

Just google the guy. He claims to know how to cure baldness, and thinks we get heart disease from chlorinated drinking water.

I know a good bit about dementia, and I think Price is just as whacked.

Bush has risen to power on his ability to backslap, crack jokes, and reframe dung as gold. Sometimes he's done better at his lines, sometimes not as well. I'm sure he'll memorize his lines by the time the debates come around once again. However, he's always been out to lunch when he's tried to actually think on his own. It's not dementia, it's ignorance. Ignorance works in Texas, and the press thought it was cute in 2000. After the attacks, they thought the guy was John Wayne and that this was part of being John Wayne.

Same ignorant little man.

[Ezlivin]

22. I thought he said "Penile Dementia"...

But hasn't Bush been talking to his Dick all along?

[TrustingDog]

24. I took it as Prehensile Dementia

Greedy, grasping monkey.