Stutterers in the White House?
#3
Joe Biden has the potential of becoming the next Vice President of the US. Although even up here in Canada people are watching this election very closely, I’m not really into politics (I do vote and I’m greatful to our vetrans for the right, I’m just tired of all the media hoopla and mud sligning).
Finding out that Joe Biden is a stutterer certainly got my attention!
Actually, Mr. Biden used to stutter as a kid and teenager. I found out about this on the Stuttering Chat mailing list where someone mentioned that Joe Biden was a keynote speaker at a National Stuttering Association convention a few years ago. in his speech, he shared his personal experiences with stuttering.
I don’t know what ‘used to’ means exactly. Maybe he hides it well or is a master at his spech tools. Or maybe he actually did outgrow his stutter (is that even possible?). I think it’s an interesting addition to what everyone is referring this election as historic. A black man and a woman (Hillary Clinton) were racing against each other. Both a first. Now there’s a stutter (former?) in the mix :)
The media, such as NPR, the New York Times and the BBC, is already talking about Joe Biden’s stuttering. From around the web, I learned that as a stutterer, Joe, would memorize the pages of his books before reading them aloud in front of the class (that would have never, ever worked for me!). Part of his regular pratice was reciting long poems in front of the mirror.
In college, Joe Biden regularly practiced his speech with a fellow stutterer.
Also of interest is the speculation among my mailing list members that Barack Obama also stutters. Wouldn’t that be quite the twist? Leaders of the US (well, the rest of the free world as well, I guess) are stutterers. True, we won’t hear them stutter, but still. Baby steps, I always say.
I haven’t seen a video of Obama’s announcement but I read that he mentioned Biden’s stutter and stuttering nickname as a kid. Yup, all this puts stuttering into the lime light. I hope.
That happened in the UK when Gareth Gates, a severe stammerer (as the Brits call it) won Pop Idol. I have a friend who went to school in England during that time and he told me that whenever he revealed that he stuttered, he was an instant celebrity.
Tags: Barack Obama, Joe Biden, stammering, stuttering
I did get to know about Gareth Gate’s stuttering sometime back when I stumbled across an interview of his where he talks about his stuttering. Quiet interestingly he still stutterers and he uses all the speech tools to surpass the blocks. I’d say hats off! He’s been attending the famous McGuire program for the last 2 years and now he’s an easy-speaker as I’d call it. It’s truly motivational to see a stutterer achieve such great heights specially in a field where speech is utilized to the maximum!
As for Barack Obama, there was some speculation that he stuttered, it was during one of his speeches, when he was faced with a really sensitive/heavy question regarding his ignorance towards the black community. And as they as, all of stutter at sometime or the other and so did he. But all in all, I wouldn’t say he has a stuttering problem.
We’ve had quite a few stutterers who’ve scaled great heights, some of them “used to” stutter, some of them still do. Leads me to a question? Was it getting over their stuttering that enabled them to reach such great heights or they scaled them despite their stutter? All in all, stuttering does open our eyes to a new world which I’m sure will take us a long way.
August 24th, 2008 at 12:51 amCool story!
August 24th, 2008 at 8:32 amthis stuff is interesting!! well as a matter of fact i stutter too.. though now as an adult i stutter a lot lesser than i used to as a kid.. and i gotta say stuttering makes you stronger,confident,energetic,determined etc.. there are a lot of positive aspects to stuttering.. as joe biden mentioned , ” it is one of the most debilitating impediments” but as he also stated ,” one of the most beneficial things in my life has been my stuttering.. i will never trade my severe struggle with stuttering in the past with anything else”..
hats off to people like Joe who show the world that it is who you are that matters.. and stutter or not, you can be an effective confident communicator who is very inspiring too!!
November 13th, 2008 at 12:29 pm