I had a stutter until 4th grade. The stutter still shows up when I am very tried. I got to meet Joe twice in 2019 and fundraisers and we discussed stuttering at one fundraiser. I got a Joe Biden hug when I told him about my stutter.
I really love the King's Speech and I was pleased to see that Joe Biden loved it.
Sheehan told me about a night when he came home with his wife and saw the answering-machine light blinking: “Hey, Michael, it’s Joe Biden. I just was watching The King’s Speech with my granddaughter, and I just thought I’d give you a call, because it made me think of you. Goodbye!” He says the message felt like a secret fraternity handshake: “You and I have both been there, and only people in that society know what that is about.”
In Biden’s office, the first time I bring up his current stuttering, he asks me whether I’ve seen The King’s Speech. He speaks almost mystically about the award-winning 2010 film. “When King George VI, when he stood up in 1939, everyone knew he stuttered, and they knew what courage it took for him to stand up at that stadium and try to speak—and it gave them courage … I could feel that. It was that sinking feeling, like—oh my God, I remember how you felt. You feel like, I don’t know … almost like you’re being sucked into a black hole.”
I could detect some pauses and word choices in Tuesday's SOTU speech that made smile. Joe has overcome this stutter but there are signs if you know what to look for.
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