Atlantis Online
March 28, 2024, 05:35:17 am
Welcome, Guest. Please login or register.

Login with username, password and session length
News: Satellite images 'show Atlantis'
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/3766863.stm
 
  Home Help Arcade Gallery Links Staff List Calendar Login Register  

Reagan Had Alzheimer's As President, Says Son

Pages: [1]   Go Down
  Print  
Author Topic: Reagan Had Alzheimer's As President, Says Son  (Read 261 times)
0 Members and 16 Guests are viewing this topic.
Kristina
Superhero Member
******
Posts: 4558



« on: January 16, 2011, 12:02:42 am »

Reagan Had Alzheimer's As President, Says Son

  01/15/11 07:12 AM   AP



Ron Reagan, son of former President Ronald Reagan

NEW YORK — Ronald Reagan's son suggests in a new book that his father suffered from the beginning stages of Alzheimer's disease while he was still in the White House.

The memoir quotes excerpts from Ron Reagan's book "My Father at 100," published by Viking, an imprint of Penguin Group (USA).

Reagan's son writes that he believes his father would have left office before his second term ended in 1989 had the disease been diagnosed then. U.S. News & World Report was the first to break the publishing embargo.

"I've seen no evidence that my father (or anyone else) was aware of his medical condition while he was in office," Reagan writes. "Had the diagnosis been made in, say 1987, would he have stepped down? I believe he would have."

Ronald Reagan was diagnosed with Alzheimer's in 1994, five years after leaving office. The popular Republican president died in 2004 at age 93 from complications of the disease.

The younger Reagan recalls how his father became uncharacteristically lost for words and looked "lost and bewildered" during the 1984 presidential debates with Democratic rival Walter Mondale. He says his father may have suspected the onset of Alzheimer's in 1986 when he was flying over familiar canyons north of Los Angeles and became alarmed that he could no longer remember their names.

But Reagan says the issue of his father's health should not tarnish his legacy as the nation's 40th president.

"Does this delegitimize his presidency? Only to the extent that President Kennedy's Addison's disease or Lincoln's clinical depression undermine theirs," Reagan writes. "Better, it seems to me, to judge our presidents by what they actually accomplish than what hidden factors may be weighing on them."

He continues: "That likely condition, though, serves as a reminder that when we elect presidents, we elect human beings with all their foibles and weaknesses, psychological and physiological."
« Last Edit: January 16, 2011, 12:07:55 am by Kristina » Report Spam   Logged

"Nothing gives one person so much advantage over another as to remain always cool and unruffled under all circumstances."

Thomas Jefferson

Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

Goddess of Love, Hate & Fury
Superhero Member
******
Posts: 3200



« Reply #1 on: January 16, 2011, 02:06:31 pm »

And this is news?
Report Spam   Logged
Tom Hebert
Superhero Member
******
Posts: 1370


« Reply #2 on: January 16, 2011, 02:22:57 pm »

My thoughts exactly!  But it's nice to have it confirmed by a family member.
Report Spam   Logged
Zodiac
Superhero Member
******
Posts: 4530



« Reply #3 on: January 16, 2011, 11:54:50 pm »

Yeah, you could tell in that first debate with Mondale (back in 1984 for you youngsters) that he was losing it. He must have had boatloads of coffee to get up to snub for the second one.
Report Spam   Logged
Pages: [1]   Go Up
  Print  
 
Jump to:  

Powered by EzPortal
Bookmark this site! | Upgrade This Forum
SMF For Free - Create your own Forum
Powered by SMF | SMF © 2016, Simple Machines
Privacy Policy