Around 16 months ago, I found myself sitting at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium in Annapolis, Maryland, trying desperately not to fall asleep at the end of Commissioning Week. It was a time of formality and celebration that culminated in the graduation and promotion of 1,100 first-class midshipmen to Second Lieutenants of the U.S. Marine Corps, or Ensigns of the U.S. Navy. As a third-class midshipman required to be in the stands, I managed to stay awake long enough to capture the most picture-worthy moment of the event so I could then post it to my social media – the sight of President Joe Biden walking across the stage to address all the people gathered there that day.
Almost as soon as he began to speak, the chuckling began from some of the other lower-class midshipmen who were sitting around me. We were all thinking about it: how long would it be before this man stumbled. The answer, if you look up the transcript on whitehouse.gov, was not long. The first three paragraphs, which at the time I could only tell were part of a personal anecdote, were not made fully coherent to me until I reviewed his words over a year later while writing this piece.
However, the rest of the speech was entirely unmemorable. This is part of a larger trend I have noticed with the President’s public speaking. I most consistently see him make mistakes at the beginning of an improvised portion or new section of his speech. If you leave him be, however, his remarks streamline into a speech more reminiscent of a typical politician. In personal conversations with friends and aides, as recounted by those who have been there in the room, he is a person asking how people’s families are doing, debating new ideas, arguing over controversial topics and discussing other things you would expect a relatively normal person to be doing while in the office of the President.
Although I am no speech pathologist, the times at which Biden gaffes seems less to be signs of an imminent mental breakdown and more the resurgence of his lifelong speech impediment during the portions of a speech or debate that are naturally the most uncomfortable. I am not sure how recently you, dear reader, may have had to give a speech, but I am sure many can attest to the fact that getting started or switching gears is in fact one of the most difficult parts of public speaking.
Enter the man who will run against Biden barring some unexpectedly quick conviction: Donald Trump. This is the man who said that he “beat Obama” when no one expected him to win. This is the man who said he would prevent the Russo-Ukrainian War from blowing up into “World War III” if he was president. While Biden is debating foreign policy at a public forum and spearheading negotiations at the G20 – of course with the help of his aides, since no single human can be trusted with such a task alone – Trump is on X (formerly Twitter) ranting about how we should have kept the Panama Canal. What American thinks keeping more colonies abroad is exactly what is needed to solve our problems right now?
You may dislike Biden because you disagree with his decision to arm Ukraine, or you hold him responsible for the economic issues we are having right now. Although I would heavily contest both of those points, those are legitimate concerns to have. I would not resent anyone who voted against Biden while believing it was the best way to ensure enough food ends up on the table at night. However, if you are voting against him because he looks like he is teetering over the mental precipice, I strongly encourage you to weigh his sanity and wisdom evenly and fairly against Trump’s, whose own lack thereof is overshadowed by the random craziness of his ramblings.
Janagan Ramanathan is a Sartell High School alum, former U.S. Naval Academy midshipman and current aerospace engineering major at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities.
