Essential Tremors in a Senate Race

 Susan Collins (R-ME), running for re-election at 73, has announced she has long had a benign essential tremor.

I've got one of these, that I've had at least since I was a teenager. It affected my career choice.  Going to med school seemed like a bad idea, since when doing chem, biology or physiology labs in college our team would typically divide the work up so the steadier hands would do the actual fine work, such as dissection, and I would tend to do the lab reports.  A fine division of labor that got us all better grades.

The tremor had a few positive benefits. Because my hands would shake when I was trying to read evidence cards as a debater, when I did extemporaneous speaking I always spoke without notes so I wouldn't have to have shaky hands while referring to notes. This made me a better speaker in high school extemp contests (one year I finished second in the Greater St. Louis speech league), and this confidence carried over to the many business presentations I made later.

The best article I've seen on this condition is this one from the Cleveland Clinic.

Essential tremor tends to get worse over time. I've clearly noticed this, and go to a neurologist for a thorough exam to reassure myself that it wasn't Parkinsons, or something else more serious. At some point, I will likely need to start beta blockers or other treatment.

It's natural for voters in Maine to wonder about Collins' increased shakiness. Older politicians tend to hang on longer than they should. Biden should not have tried for a second term. Trump clearly shows signs of dementia in public utterances.  Reagan seems to have had some dementia in his second term, but hid it pretty well.  And in a tight Senate race, political opponents will try to make something out of this. But while there may be reasons to vote for or against Susan Collins, her tremor is not one of them.