I was all over this Biden dementia thing a year ago too.
That was from his performances in the debates. He was unimpressive in the town hall the other day. Prepared speeches or lower pressure situations he's fine.
This gets back to his stutter, which is probably getting worse, and as he's aging he's having more trouble getting the right word when he needs it. It's hard enough for me to do that, and I need to just find the right word from my vocabulary, Biden needs to find the right word that works in the context of the words preceeding and following it to not trigger the stutter. The prepared speeches are designed to flow with his various difficulties.
But when you consider his strategy and decision making, it's been very artful so far.
Joe Manchin just announced he will vote to confirm Deb Haaland. She's a good pick for a lot of reasons, but her background would put a dimmer on fracking and coal, which Manchin supports, being a blue dog from a state basically propped up by coal and nat gas.
So why does he vote yes? He loses power if he always votes no, and he voted down Neera Tanden. Tanden was an odd pick, people were bagging on Biden for the choice given a lot of things in her background that didn't really require the CIA to do opposition research. Then Schumer schedules the two votes in succession, Manchin opposes Tanden, and then oh shit he can't vote against Haaland, so he votes yes then Biden rolls out his real pick for OMB.
This isn't just Biden, he has a savvy staff, but he knows how things work, and that edge is still there.
Recent
A place to celebrate cele...
by Miles Leonard Let's talk about somethin... by Custard
Total Members: 142