Jean Chrétien, former Prime Minister of Canada, had Bell’s Palsy. It didn’t slow him down at all, but it did lead to very distinctive political cartoons. The pictures I’ve found of him appear remarkably normal.
I was watching the C-span splitscreen, and I couldn’t take my eyes off of his mouth. When he smiled, the right side of his mouth didn’t move. Only when he was grimacing did the two halves of his mouth match. At first I thought it was just me, but my SO saw it, too. And now I know my fellow Dopers saw it. In four years of watching Bush, I’d never noticed it before. Something has changed.
Bell’s Palsy seems to be caused by a herpes virus settling in the 7th cranial nerve. It generally goes away within a few months even if untreated, so M. Chretien may simply have not taken any photos while he had it.
Even if Bush’s droop was droopier than normal, it wasn’t paralyzed. There are photos from last night that show him moving that side of his lip.
I know next to nothing about strokes, however. Let’s go with the stroke theory! 
Sorry, WhyNot, but those photos do not show him moving the right side of his mouth. Notice that on the 4th and 5th pics (in the menu on the left) the right side of his mouth droops at about the same angle. In the 4th pic, he is seen shaking hands with Senator Kerry. The affected side of his face (the left side–I think I incorrectly called it the right side of his face earlier) is toward the camera and it is drooping noticeably. In the 5th pic, the President appears to be trying to smile, but only the right side of his mouth is curving upward. The left side is at the same angle as in pic 4. This is especially evident in the thumbnail, which is a closeup of the President.
I too noticed the rather odd appearance last night. I also noticed that some of his responses, the way in which in responded, didn’t seem to be in character.
My guess is he had taken a relaxant or stimulant to improve debate performance.
I noticed it to, but decieded it was just a result of listening to his handlers and the media deconstruct his facial expressions for two weeks after the first debate. I think that he was afraid to let his face show what he was thinking and was concentrating on not letting it show any natural expression while Kerry was talking. Sort of rudiculous, but beliving the fate of the nation might rest on what a hundred million people saw as they stared intently at my face for an hour and a half while I tried to juggle answering questions without saying anything that would alientate half a hundred different constituancies would lead a lot of us to have some very strange facial expressions.
As for the stroke, I’m not aware of Bush having been out of the public eye for more the a day or two in the last two years, so I don’t think they could have covered one up.
I noticed it to, but decieded it was just a result of listening to his handlers and the media deconstruct his facial expressions for two weeks after the first debate. I think that he was afraid to let his face show what he was thinking and was concentrating on not letting it show any natural expression while Kerry was talking. Sort of rudiculous, but beliving the fate of the nation might rest on what a hundred million people saw as they stared intently at my face for an hour and a half while I tried to juggle answering questions without saying anything that would alientate half a hundred different constituancies would lead a lot of us to have some very strange facial expressions.
As for the stroke, I’m not aware of Bush having been out of the public eye for more the a day or two in the last two years, so I don’t think they could have covered one up.
…and I did it again. Sorry. I’m having trouble with the whole right/left thing. To be clear, I’m talking about the left side of the president’s face.
Maybe it was Botox gone bad.
That’s not an outlandish possibility.
His mouth was droopy in the same way for the first debate. So the cause of droopy-mouth (whatever it was) preceded that. So he could have had a stroke before, during or after the debates…
Actually I was surprised to see how droopy it was in debate #1. I just went to Google to look at pics of GWB, and his mouth is definitely not droopy in most of them. So it must have happened recently.
Remember when he had that thing on his face?
Maybe it happened from kissing Cheney. They both have it!
Last night I saw a commercial for Fahrenheit 9/11. The commercial showed a clip of Bush saying “bring 'em on” a few years ago, and the mouth droop was evident back then. So if he’s had a stroke, it wasn’t recently.
I have to say that this talk of Bush suffering some sort of stroke seems a little rediculous. I’ve seen people truly struck by aphasia, and it doesn’t look like Bush last night.
He certainly could have stood to be a little quicker on his feet and of a sharper tongue, and he came around a lot in the last half of the debate, but it was just a poor debate performance, IMHO, nothing more or less.
WOW - I can’t believe no one has mentioned this yet…all stroke and bells palsy talk aside - **Did anyone notice at the very beginning of the debate, Bush would not square-up to Kerry when he was talking? Instead he would turn his head until his chin was almost directly over his right shoulder…instead of turning his shoulders to square up to the senator? **
My wife and I immediately noticed that. Then we were thinking Bells Palsy right off the bat. Not stroke though, that would have been too hard for him to debate had he had a stroke…
A speed user friend of mine speculated just this thing, based on perceived teeth-grinding.
I didn’t watch, so I don’t have a personally informed opinion.
How would that indicate Bell’s Palsy?
Oh Jesus. Not you again.