Reagan diagnosed with Alzheimer's in 1987

acgoldis

From an article I just saw:
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2011 is a big year for Ronald Reagan fans, being the centennial of his February 6 birth in Tampico, Ill. But youngest son Ron Reagan is spoiling the good cheer with a new book that suggests the Gipper suffered from Alzheimer's disease while in the White House, a claim dismissed by Reagan's [COLOR=#005497 !important][COLOR=#005497 !important]doctors[/COLOR][/COLOR] and outside experts. "Had the diagnosis been made in, say, 1987, would he have stepped down?" Ron asks, regarding the disease confirmed in 1994. "I believe he would have," he writes in My Father At 100: A Memoir, due in bookstores Tuesday.

Let's start with the Alzheimer's diagnosis. It was announced in 1994. While it prompted some to suggest they knew Reagan had the disease as president, his four White House doctors said they saw no evidence of it. But Ron, who became a liberal and atheist, disappointing his dad, suggests he saw hints of confusion and "an out-of-touch president" during the 1984 campaign and again in 1986, when his father couldn't recall the names of California canyons he was flying over. Arguing his case in the book, Ron adds that doctors today know that the disease can be in evidence before being recognized. "The question, then, of whether my father suffered from the beginning stages of Alzheimer's while in office more or less answers itself," he writes.
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Suppose he is diagnosed with Alzheimer's, splitting the difference, in 1985 (edited from 1987). He has just issued his second Inaugural Address. Continue from there.
 
Thande

Thande

Donor
I tend to think it would have been suppressed and dismissed as a smear campaign. After all, what would it say about American voters for them just to have delivered one of the biggest landslide victories ever to a man diagnosed a month or two later to be mentally incapable? The whole country would be a laughingstock on the world stage. Even political enemies of Reagan would hesitate to exploit such a thing.
 

Tothlord

!987 may be late

I remember an ABC news story in 1982 of Reagan confusing movie plots with real events. This was when he would wing a speech. There was video tape of the incident. If more events like this were reported then maybe people might start to question Reagan's mental state. Remember Gerald Ford and his stumbles and how Chevy Chase turned that into a weekly skit on SNL.
 

Apollo 20

Reagan's mental faculties actually came up as a 1984 campaign issue after a particularly bad debate performance, but were disposed of with a perfomance in another debate that was perceived to have been as good as the other was bad, mainly after a joke that came at the expense of Walter Mondale and gently poked fun at the controversy. Something along the lines of "I will not, for political purposes, exploit the age and inexperience of my opponent." Even Mondale laughed at it.

If Reagan had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's in 1987, it seems to me that there are two ways it could have gone. One would have been resignation, the other a voluntary or involuntary invocation of the 25th Amendment leaving VP Bush as Acting President. I think it very unlikely that there would have been a Wilson-style coverup of his condition. For one thing, there was far more media coverage of the White House and, for another, a President with degraded mental faculties during the Cold War would have been a very dangerous thing as well as a tremendous lost opportunity; this was the time of progress in arms control and one-on-one work with Gorbachev to lessen tensions. While one can't ever be completely certain, it seems to me rather likely that someone in the Administration would have leaked this to the press if the official line was less than forthcoming. Howard Baker was WH CoS in '87-'88 and not the kind of guy I would consider a likely participant in a conspiracy to prop up Reagan in office when his condition made him unfit to serve.
 

teg

Tothlord said:
I remember an ABC news story in 1982 of Reagan confusing movie plots with real events. This was when he would wing a speech. There was video tape of the incident. If more events like this were reported then maybe people might start to question Reagan's mental state. Remember Gerald Ford and his stumbles and how Chevy Chase turned that into a weekly skit on SNL.
Click to expand...

Not to mention that swamp rabbit incident....:rolleyes:
 

Paul V McNutt

Banned
I think ITTL thinks proceed much as they did OTL
I don't see how this convinces Mario Cuomo or Dick Gaphart to run in 92. Bill Clinton wins the nomination and with the bad econmy he wins in November
 

Mr Qwerty

Technically, they couldn't have a diagnosis of Alzheimer's in 1987 unless he died... The early stages of the disease are fairly easy to cover up, especially with others cooperating. I agree with the poster who said it would be labeled as a Democrat smear campaign. At most, it could be a flap about equivalent to Nancy's using astrologers for advice (not much, as I recall). In fact, it's probably true! They probably were covering for his lapses quite a bit by '89.
 

TRX

As long as he could be controlled by his staff, I don't see much changing. Woodrow Wilson finished his term "vahnting to be aloan", for example.
 
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