Trump is not well - has trouble using stairs and ramps

[Eric]

This is making the rounds on Twitter, he does seem to struggle with steps, ramps, etc. and appears physically unstable. We also don't know what's up with the secret visit to Walter Reed either.

https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1299672115571023872/

 

[Scepticalscribe]

Firstly, in 2016, I thought that the gleeful commentary - and fake expressions of concern - by some conservatives about Secretary Clinton's health - on one occasion, if memory serves, she stumbled and fell, - struck me as appalling, along with the unspoken (but assumed) argument that she was, as a consequence, unfit to hold public office.

And secondly: People do stumble, and trip, and lose their footing, and it has no further significance than an accident, or incident, in time. Yes, it can point to the presence of underlying conditions, but it can also point to stiffening knees.

However, it doesn't really bother me as a criterion for the selection of candidates for office as president. Instead, I would have far more pressing concerns when determining Mr Trump's fitness for office. These concern both mental competence or capacity, and questions of character.

One of the best presidents of the twentieth century, FDR (the second individual to bear the Roosevelt name to hold the office of the president) was wheelchair bound (not that much of his electorate were aware of that at the time), a legacy of his having contracted polio as a young man.

Personally, I'm far more concerned with Mr Trump's mental - and intellectual capacity, - which I think inadequate, or insufficient, for the distinguished office he holds, and I am even more concerned about the man's character, that gaping black hole - a black hole of cosmic dimensions - where an ethical core that informs how he chooses to live his life, and takes the decisions relating to public policy that follows on from that - should reside.

 

[Eric]

Firstly, in 2016, I thought the gleeful commentary - and fake expression of concern - by some conservatives about Secretary Clinton's health - on one occasion, if memory serves, she stumbled and fell, - struck me as appalling, along with the unspoken (but assumed) argument that she was, as a consequence, unfit to hold public office.

People do stumble, and trip, and lose their footing, and it has no further significance than an accident, or incident, in time. Yes, it can point to the presence of underlying conditions, and it can also point to stiffening knees.

However, it doesn't really bother.

One of the best presidents of the twentieth century, FDR (the second individual to bear the Roosevelt name to hold the office of the president) was wheelchair bound (not that much of his electorate were aware of that at the time), a legacy of his having contracted polio as a young man.

Personally, I'm far more concerned with Mr Trump's mental - and intellectual capacity, - which I think inadequate, or insufficient, for the distinguished office he holds, and I am even more concerned about the man's character, that gaping black hole - a black hole of cosmic dimensions - where an ethical core that informs how he chooses to live his life, and takes the decisions relating to public policy that follows on from that - should reside.

Yeah, I am of the opinion that Hillary's fall/episode along with all the hacking she was doing really gave the appearance of poor health and cost her. It didn't help that the news played it over and over on an endless loop. It's funny how people will put up with a lot from a candidate but if you have the appearance of being physically weak it seems to be taken much more seriously.

It seemed like FDR was also accepted as already having the condition from childhood, but you're right about people not knowing so much. They didn't have social media to instantly broadcast every little movement he made.

 

[Thomas Veil]

Hillary was done in by, among other things, the hate campaign that started with the Arkansas Project back when her husband was president. She had her faults, some of them big, but they basically made her out to be a Bond villain. By the time she ran, she had been smeared by over two decades of that crap. So all you heard in 2016 was, “Oh, I couldn’t vote for her! She’s evil.”

 

[Scepticalscribe]

Re Secretary Clinton, I think that the old double standard (as is often applied to women) held, and was reinforced by good old-fashioned misogyny.

However, re Mr Trump's stumbles, well, were I to complain loudly, I would show myself to be somewhat hypocritical, as I thought it irrelevant i 2016, and - broadly - think it irrelevant now.

I'm much more concerned about his mental fitness - or capacity - and even more concerned about his character, which I think wholly unfit for public office.

And, if the US electorate (notwithstanding the impressive example of F D Roosevelt) are more worried about physical fitness than mental capacity and key questions of character in candidates, it strikes me as an unfortunate reflection of the attitudes that seem to prevail in the wider society.

 

[Scepticalscribe]

Yeah, I am of the opinion that Hillary's fall/episode along with all the hacking she was doing really gave the appearance of poor health and cost her. It didn't help that the news played it over and over on an endless loop. It's funny how people will put up with a lot from a candidate but if you have the appearance of being physically weak it seems to be taken much more seriously.

It seemed like FDR was also accepted as already having the condition from childhood, but you're right about people not knowing so much. They didn't have social media to instantly broadcast every little movement he made.

Hillary was done in by, among other things, the hate campaign that started with the Arkansas Project back when her husband was president. She had her faults, some of them big, but they basically made her out to be a Bond villain. By the time she ran, she had been smeared by over two decades of that crap. So all you heard in 2016 was, “Oh, I couldn’t vote for her! She’s evil.”

Absolutely everything Secretary Clinton said or did was interpreted in the worst possible light both by the GOP and their fellow travellers, as well as by what passes in the US for those on the "left", such as the"Bernie Bros", and this process had been in train for well over a decade - if not two - by then.