Ronald Reagan Had Alzheimer's as President

[Davy Jones]

So says his son:

http://www.usnews.com/news/blogs/washington-whispers/2011/01/14/reagan-son-claims-dad-had-alzheimers-as-president

Scary if you ask me.

http://img121.imageshack.us/img121/4282/hvvimmunityidole.jpg

[Kalaby]

Not particularly scary to me.

I think it's quite possible that he was in the very earliest stages (barely detectable) of Alzheimer's on the back end of his 2nd term. Slippage of instantaneous name/factual recognition, but really not much more than that. The 15.5 years he lived beyond the close of his presidency would tend to support the notion that he really wasn't in poor mental health during the late 1980s.

[TNG]

Not particularly scary to me.

I think it's quite possible that he was in the very earliest stages (barely detectable) of Alzheimer's on the back end of his 2nd term. Slippage of instantaneous name/factual recognition, but really not much more than that. The 15.5 years he lived beyond the close of his presidency would tend to support the notion that he really wasn't in poor mental health during the late 1980s.

IMO the barely detectable period was at the end of his first term. His 1st debate with Mondale was pretty tell tale and from then on there were moments that indicated he wasn't quite right, but like many late stage Alzheimer's patients intermixed were moments of exceptional insight and clarity.

The length of life for people with late onset Alzheimers is very dependent of the acessibility to quality care and the overall health of the patient when they presented with noticeable symptoms. I think on both of those issues Reagan was in upper half of the upper half of the highest quintile.

[Kalaby]

IMO the barely detectable period was at the end of his first term. His 1st debate with Mondale was pretty tell tale and from then on there were moments that indicated he wasn't quite right, but like many late stage Alzheimer's patients intermixed were moments of exceptional insight and clarity.

The length of life for people with late onset Alzheimers is very dependent of the acessibility to quality care and the overall health of the patient when they presented with noticeable symptoms. I think on both of those issues Reagan was in upper half of the upper half of the highest quintile.

I'm not going to quibble with that, but the exact timing on these things (i.e. when Alzheimer's actually started) is definitely an inexact science and open to our interpretation. People lose focus and some clarity of thought as they age and it need not be Alzheimer's. It's impossible to say whether Reagan clinically became an Alzheimer's victim in 1984, 1985, 1986, 1987, etc. We'll never know, but we of course will have our opinions. I really don't think he was greatly compromised mentally while in office, certainly not to the point where his ability to serve effectively as president was in question, and to me, that's the most important issue at hand.

Just food for thought, though Reagan surely had superior healthcare and was a very robust individual, he still dealt with a very serious gunshot wound as a 70 year old man, and some moderate cancer issues (colon and skin) while in office and plenty of other medical issues both before and after his presidency; so, I think that has to play into the ultimate assessment of his physical health profile.

[hoegher]

I thought this was already pretty well accepted :confused:

[Funnage]

Reagan really was going to nuke the Soviets, he just forgot the launch codes.

[lou ghilk]

A little off topic but that never stopped me or anybody else before. Muhahahaha...

But seriously...Does anybody back indside a year after Reagan's death, the Discovery Channel ran a short-lived TV series called the Greatest American where millions of viewers actually got to vote on who they felt the greatest American in history was? The reason I bring this up is because Reagan won it, beating out Lincoln, MLK, George Washington, and Ben Franklin just to round out the top five. Hilariously George W. Bush was 6th and some other interesting polling results showed Billy Graham, Elvis, and Oprah before Thomas Jefferson, and Walt Disney before Einstein and Edison. That just about describes the merit of the polling any better than I could possibly hope to. Reagan's then-recent passing almost certainly played a huge role in his ranking. It's five or six years old now, but I was just wondering if anyone else remembered this...and found it as ridiculous as I did?

[eh000]

A little off topic but that never stopped me or anybody else before. Muhahahaha...

But seriously...Does anybody back indside a year after Reagan's death, the Discovery Channel ran a short-lived TV series called the Greatest American where millions of viewers actually got to vote on who they felt the greatest American in history was? The reason I bring this up is because Reagan won it, beating out Lincoln, MLK, George Washington, and Ben Franklin just to round out the top five. Hilariously George W. Bush was 6th and some other interesting polling results showed Billy Graham, Elvis, and Oprah before Thomas Jefferson, and Walt Disney before Einstein and Edison. That just about describes the merit of the polling any better than I could possibly hope to. Reagan's then-recent passing almost certainly played a huge role in his ranking. It's five or six years old now, but I was just wondering if anyone else remembered this...and found it as ridiculous as I did?

My friend and I happened to be watching TV when that happened, and we (having nothing better to do) watched it. It was beyond ridiculous.

**** Edison, though.

I thought this was already pretty well accepted :confused:

I was under this impression as well. Then I mentioned it to a conservative I know, and he went ape****, so I guess not.

[southkakrun]

So he wasn't lying about CONTRA then