Last night needs to be seen as an urgent wake-up call for Joe Biden. His campaign conducted a standard debate prep and it was the exact wrong thing. Joe was sick and seemed weak. He was hoarse, gasping for breath and lacked focus. Instead of simply calling Trump a liar and speaking directly to the American people, he let Trump bait him into being defensive. I have choked that badly myself (as a much younger person, I might add.) It happens. In life, it’s not how you fall. It’s how you get up and how you keep trying.
Here is what Joe needs now.
1. A vocal coach. Professional speakers and singers know how to manage colds and conserve their energy before and during a professional engagement. Joe needs a vocal coach to make sure he is able to manage his vocal energy properly during the campaign.
2. Massage therapy, acupunture, physical therapy
and/or chiropractic treatment. Joe seems stiff and low energy at times. Doctors, even geriatric specialists, often focus on the actual health of the patient but Joe needs the Hollywood treatment. If Dick Van Dyke can seem vigorous at 97, Joe Biden and manage the same in his early 80s.
3. Joe needs to focus on the campaign. Being the leader of the free world is exhausting and makes any functioning president seem older. Joe needs to take some of the weight off of himself and delegate more.
I say all this as someone with a 90-year-old quadriplegic dad. After an accident, dad went from being a vigorous 85-year-old to a weak, shriveled old man overnight. After his recovery from emergency surgery for a broken neck, physical therapy and gave him back the use of his arms and hands and added strength to his legs and trunk. Speech therapy helped him work with his weakened diaphragm. Adding back in arthritis medication for stiffness after his spine healed and providing hot wax treatments helped him to feel more like himself. If dad can do it with spinal cord damage, surely Joe Biden can do it with a generally healthy body and mind.
Donald Trump gives a weak, rambling performance multiple times a week and Republicans just shrug. Democrats need to stop acting like a bunch of Chicken Littles. The sky is not falling because someone had an off night.
As a side note, if you or someone you love has a spinal cord injury or spinal problems, contact the Christopher and Dana Reeves foundation. Not all heroes wear capes, but a cape-wearing hero has transformed the world of spinal cord injuries and illness in ways that seemed like a pipe dream only a few decades ago.