Biden was ridiculed for suggesting jet lag affected the debate, but it probably did - and Clooney's fundraiser even more

[highplainsdem]

I ran across a reminder this evening of how much traveling Biden had done last month.

He went straight from the G7 to LA for Clooney's fundraiser, crossing 9 time zones.

I did some googling and discovered that it can take a day, maybe a day and a half, for each time zone crossed, to recover from jet lag. More for older people.

So it's likely that after crossing 9 time zones to get to Clooney's June 15 fundraiser, Biden would not only have been severely jet lagged then, but would have continued to feel the effects through the June 27 debate - by which time he was also dealing with a really bad cold.

I went back and checked Clooney's opinion piece on wanting Biden to step aside, and citing how he'd seemed at that fundraiser.

Not one damn word there about Biden's travels or possible jet lag. And Clooney has talked about jet lag he's dealt with himself in some old interviews I found. And I ran across one article that mentioned he'd once been so jet lagged he woke up in the middle of the night with no idea where he was.

Biden was not relaxing at Clooney's fundraiser. From a Washington Post article (MSN link):

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/other/inside-the-glitzy-fundraiser-where-biden-lost-george-clooney/ar-BB1pRpFW

Others who attended said they felt Biden had been engaging and energetic, particularly given the circumstances.

“You’d be tired too after two overseas trips to Europe in a matter of days, plus just getting off an 11-hour flight with a nine-hour time zone change, standing and shaking 200 hands for a couple of hours, and then heading into a giant event to perform,” said Kimberly Marteau Emerson, an attorney whom Biden appointed to the United States Holocaust Memorial Council last year. “Given all that, I think he did a fantastic job.”

We also know, because of an article on the debate prep that I posted here last month, that Biden's prep team had him working on that almost every spare second in Europe and on Air Force One, even before the fundraiser.

Possibly Clooney didn't know Biden had been given almost no time to relax and rest. But he knew how far Biden was flying to get to his fundraiser.

And he knows enough about jet lag to realize that could easily have explained Biden not being at his best, just as lingering jet lag plus a bad cold could have explained the debate.

Clooney should have mentioned that in the opinion piece. Apparently he chose not to. I guess he realized it might have undercut his argument that Biden was simply too old.

[niyad]

1. KNR

[Bev54]

2. When I was flying between Asia and west coast my jet lag hit me about 3 days in

and it took a week to get over, and I was much younger then. It seems worse when you are flying against the time zone than with it.

[betsuni]

7. Takes me about a week and a half to two to even start to get over it.

I can relate to the joke in "Hannah and Her Sisters": "Remember that summer in France? Hannah, you had jet lag for six straight weeks."

[GoCubsGo]

19. Same here.

Just going between Eastern Time and Mountain or Pacific Time was enough to throw me off for a good week. That was back even in my 20s. Hell, even the one-hour switch back and forth from Daylight Savings Time messes me up for days, and I'm much younger than Joe.

[Qutzupalotl]

3. "Excuse me for being a little tired...

“I've only been rescuing the economy and saving the goddamned free world. You're welcome.”

[WarGamer]

4. Having traveled to and from China literally 20 times...

And talking to others who made the trip...

The longest jet lag I've ever heard of is maybe 3 days.

Me personally... LAX to CAN, I arrived at the facility housing unit and slept for 12 hrs and watched tv and ate for the next 12 hours. Fine after that. CAN to LAX maybe a full day of down time...

[highplainsdem]

5. I checked several sites, including WebMD. All gave roughly the same info. A day or more to recover

per time zone crossed, more for older people.

[WarGamer]

6. Well my last flight from China I was still under 50...

So it could be a lot different when you're 80...

[vanlassie]

8. Ya think? How about if you also happen

to be a very hard working President of the United States of America? And campaigning on the side?

[highplainsdem]

9. Almost all the websites I looked at mentioned age making jet lag worse. And more than one site

recommended arriving a few days early for anything important you have scheduled. One of those was the Mayo Clinic:

https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/jet-lag/symptoms-causes/syc-20374027#:~:text=A%20few%20basic%20steps%20may

Arrive early. If you have an important meeting or other event that requires you to be in top form, try to arrive a few days early to give your body a chance to adjust.

And being a frequent flyer makes it worse.

Biden really had no time to recover from jet lag early last month...and that was also when he heard the verdict in his son's trial. From the NYT June 12:

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/12/us/politics/biden-europe-travel.html

Still, most American presidents will try to avoid making two back-to-back round trips to Europe, separated by about 60 hours on the ground at home. Yet that is what President Biden is pulling off this week.

-snip-

Mr. Biden left the United States for D-Day celebrations in France last Wednesday, June 5; stayed the weekend for a state dinner in Paris; and returned to his home in Delaware late Sunday. He left Washington again early Wednesday, June 12, to fly to the southeast coast of Italy for the annual gathering the Group of 7, the traditional summit of leaders of Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy and Japan.

When Mr. Biden looks back at those two round trips — roughly a day and a half of flying, all told — he may remember only what happened in between: the conviction of his only living son, Hunter Biden, on charges of lying to obtain a gun permit.

But the two round trips raise the question: Why didn’t he just stay in Europe for a couple days, play a round of golf, visit some American troops, maybe huddle with a foreign leader or two? He is, after all, 81, and some of his aides who are half his age were complaining about lost sleep cycles.

[Cha]

13. I read he said his staff tole him not

to do it.. they were right.

[Lucky Luciano]

12. You're one of the lucky ones.

Last edited Sat Jul 20, 2024, 08:49 AM - Edit history (1)

I fly business class to Japan with a layover in Tokyo to get to Osaka and even then I can’t sleep at all when I lie flat. After that long ass flight I usually arrive in the early evening. Then we have dinner with my wife’s family and I survive until 10:00 or so thinking I made it!

Then after being awake 24+ hours I crash hard…and I wake up at 2:00 wide awake. Then I lay in bed until 4:00 hoping to sleep…then I give up and grab my iPad and just read and browse the net until 6:00 when I fully give up and start the next day. Then I fight very hard to make it to 10:00 the next day with variations of this schedule slightly improving each day over the course of a week until I recover.

Something like the above happens every time. My age never played a role. Also probably around 20 trips to Asia.

[dchill]

14. 'Kay.

[KS Toronado]

10. Hell when I lose 1 hour of sleep because of daylight savings

it affects me about 3 days.

[brush]

11. IMO his schedulers didn't do him any favors with the two overseas trips followed quickly by the west coast one.

All of that traveling wears on the body, tires one out. Hell, all that milage would wear out even younger people.

Adjustments have to be made to his schedule. Too late now to make up for the poor debate performance, but no more over-scheduling pls.

[Patton French]

15. His schedulers and his debate prep team clearly let him down.

Add to that CNN moderators who let trump tell lie after lie unchallenged.

[Dorian Gray]

16. The thing is

that if the worry is he doesn't have the stamina to campaign and perform the duties of POTUS, and jet lag (from trips fulfilling his duty as POTUS and to campaign) is compromising him.... then the problem is it seems he doesn't have the stamina to do both things well.

Of course jet lag affects people. But also, you gotta roll with it if you're POTUS and campaigning to be POTUS.

[DFW]

17. Jet lag affects just about everybody.

Each time I come back to North America, the day is 6-7 hours longer. Each time I go back to Europe, the night is 6-7 hours shorter. It left me a mess when I was 35, and it still leaves me a mess when I’m 72. I have always needed a week to recover completely. I still do it several times a year, and I’m always out on the road again way too soon. And—i’m not even President!

[highplainsdem]

21. Factor in his worries about Hunter, too. The verdict in early June. He was dealing with incredible

amounts of stress, in addition to jet lag and overscheduling, both the unavoidable work as president and the debate prep team trying to get him to do what amounted to cramming for a test whenever there was a spare moment.

I wouldn't expect even a 20something to handle that level of work + jet lag + stress at all well.

[brush]

22. True, but his schedulers need to do a better job, make adjustments.

Last edited Sat Jul 20, 2024, 10:05 PM - Edit history (1)

Hell, those two overseas trips, then quickly to the West Coast would wear out a young person. The schedulers need to look out for the candidate better.

[Dorian Gray]

23. The overseas trip

are part of his job description.

And campaigning and fundraising are what he needs to do to get re-elected.

Again, if he can't do that without the results we've been seeing in debates and interviews, I don't know that he can keep this up to win in November.

I think Harris has it in her to do it.

[brush]

24. Get with the program. Until Biden says different he's the nominee.

[Dorian Gray]

25. Guess he said different.

Thanks for the feedback tho.

[brush]

27. Now that he's out, that's the program and we're on to the new.

[ITAL]

18. I've always recovered really fast from jet lag

As in basically Day 2. Even one vacation to Europe where we lost 9 hours, I was more or less normal the following day (maybe helped that I've always tended to run on less sleep than most people). My wife on the other hand was not.

LOL.

She was pretty drowsy for several days. It really affects everyone differently. And age surely makes it worse, I was only 40 at the time of that trip.

[Bengus81]

20. I've done the trip from the Midwest to Hawaii several times since 1981

It's four hours difference (earlier) when we could go. I don't care how old you are it hits you. First time I went I was 21,felt ok when getting there in the evening. The next day we crashed at 6pm and slept all night. After than I've always been fine. Coming back the time diff seems to make little difference. I've also been to London twice and have hit lag both times.

It will hit everyone,I can imagine how much worse it can be when older. What world traveler Clooney could have done was cut Biden some GD slack ASSHAT.

Don't LIE Clooney,you've been there done that when it comes to jet lag.

[Stargleamer]

26. Having a cold was perhaps even worse n/t