The telling tell is just how orgasmic the Elite Media are at the possibilities. They are not even trying to hide their jubilation.
Check out this Free Republic thead from 9/2/99: WHO ELSE IS CONCERNED ABOUT RUSH SLURRING WORDS?
And that wasn't the only such discussion; I remember several from back then, and it wasn't a one-day occurrence. Plus I heard it myself and noticed that his voice wasn't normal -- it definitely had a "slurred" quality to it, like he was half asleep. It was different from his speech problems later, which were caused by his deafness, they had a very different quality to them. I work with a deaf person, and my wife has often taken painkillers due to chronic health problems, so I'm familiar with the difference between the type of speech modifications that occur because you can't "monitor" your own voice, and the kind that arise because you're sleepy or medicated/sedated.