Rick had obviously spent long hours working on questions and the appropriate responses. Sadly, tonight he displayed symptoms of a neurological problem, not just a momentary memory lapse. When you combine his speech patterns and deer-in-the-headlights moments with this latest ‘brain freeze’, I’m afraid Mrs. Perry needs to take Rick home and enjoy what time they have left together. He is a nice amn, and he means well, but he is not well, IMHO. The stress is not good for him at this stage in whatever is wrong.
There is something wrong with him.
Some sort of chemical imbalance involving neurotransmitters. Hopefully it is not being caused by anything more serious than stress and burn-out. He needs to get physically checked out.
This is of a piece with the over-animated gesturing we saw before.
Maybe the particular pain-killers he has been prescribed for his back surgery have over-taxed his nervous system.
I haven’t posted to you since you told me not to while you were defending Cain’s inconsistency on abortion law a few weeks ago. However, you have crossed a very important line here by giving a medical opinion that you are not in any way qualified to make. A practicing neurologist wouldn’t be able to make a positive diagnosis from these debates.
However, as a Family Physician, I can rule out syndromes.
I would be very comfortable confirming that forgetting a point while speaking is not a sign of a neurological problem. He is logical, goal oriented, his memory is otherwise intact and organized and connected for complex concepts and collections.
The pattern that I’ve noticed is that he appears to be thinking the issues through anew, as he goes along, rather than spewing slogans and sound bites.
I wonder if people who know Perry have noticed any changes in the last few years.