• dhork@lemmy.world
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    6 months ago

    He was a favorite in the 1988 presidential primary because he was such a a great public speaker

    Were you alive back then? As I remember it, he was a perennial also-ran because he couldn’t help but stay stupid shit now and then. It’s as if the word “Gaffe” in politics was invented to describe stupid things Joe Biden said. And saying stuff like that stopped campaigns cold back then. (remember when Howard Dean’s campaign got killed over screaming the wrong way?)

    But then Trump happened, and all of a sudden saying stupid shit all the time was no longer a liability.

    • agent_flounder@lemmy.world
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      6 months ago

      I was alive and eligible to vote in 88 but I was a dumb kid that voted but didn’t pay attention to the primaries so I don’t remember him at all.

      And he wasn’t a “great public speaker” in that he was known for saying dumb shit as you say. (If anything gaffe was a term that applied earlier to Dan Quayle, former VP).

      I don’t recall for sure if the stutter was present then or to what degree.

      I also don’t see a lot of evidence that he is mentally unfit (for his age) as far as I am aware.

      • PopcornTin@lemmy.world
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        6 months ago

        I also don’t see a lot of evidence that he is mentally unfit (for his age) as far as I am aware.

        Curious, have you even heard of his gaffes and other funny stuff (Corn Pop, pony soldier, trueananashabadapressure, falling, not knowing where to go after a speech)? There are so many funny moments from his speeches. People put together “best of” compilations on every video site. They don’t get reported on CNN and stuff, you do have to look for them.

        The mental fitness stuff is exaggerated for the most part, but he does lose track of his line of thinking when speaking off the cuff, without a teleprompter. He will start reciting a story he’s told 1000x, then he just sighs and says, “anyways…”

        I would say, as with Trump, to go to as original of a source as you can. Watch an hour long campaign really or whatever to hear the whole speech in context. Don’t just read a headline or synopsis from the media.