I rely on you for reliable, Left commentary on America, particularly pertaining to the Dems, for whom my sons vote even though the Dems are a "broad (centre-right) church"! However, at Uni, I studied linguistics (as well as language & literature), so your comments 'inspired' me to listen to the whole of the SOTU speech. Rather long, wasn't it? Anyway, I also note 2 things: I believe Biden had a stutter as a child, something which recurs into adulthood when under stress, and 2) he is old...don't know how frail, but he's elderly. Both these factors contribute to a less-than-perfect delivery of an important speech to Congress.

Having worked for >20 years for politicians of all ages, education and ethnicity, I didn't find Biden's address egregious in terms of cogency, literacy or delivery. His stumbles were no more than I've heard from ones half his age and without speech impediments. It's true I'm not a speech pathologist, but over the decades and literally hundreds of speeches I've had to witness, his was no better or worse than most I've seen. He was folksy (which drove me nuts), he repeated his next campaign mantra so often it was comical but sadly not atypical of campaigning ("Let's finish the job!"), biut generally he was on-topic and perfectly clear. The syntactical errors were few, his delivery passable and the inaudible or incoherent mumbles or slurs were not inconsistent with pressure (maybe he'd been warned about the Chinese balloon?!), distraction or plain getting old. If he's had a stroke, he's doing well. My friend's mum has had a stroke, & it's heart-breaking. BUT...

This doesn't get over the unassailable fact he's gotta go. He can't do another term without falling down. Sadly, age has taken its toll...but should he stand again, I hope you're right he'll leave mid-term, though pity help you if you get Harris - you'll be sending Aus to the Taiwan Straits in a heartbeat, as the US is running out of wars to prosecute!

Kind regards,