I know there was a “gentleman’s agreement” to not show him in his chair while President, but obviously things are different now. So could his disability stop him from being elected today?
I think that the sort of people who would be reluctant to vote for someone in a wheelchair would be disproportionately found in places like Texas… but Texas still managed to elect Greg Abbott. So I don’t think that the sort of person that would be swayed by that is common enough to make much difference.
There have been lots of physically disabled American politicians:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_physically_disabled_politicians#United_States
I’d argue war injuries fall under a different category when running for office I.e. you can spin them to appeal to voters perhaps more easily than you can, say, polio. I may well be wrong.
No. Because he’s dead.
I actually don’t think his disability would keep him from being elected. But part of the reason I think that is that we now have the example of FDR to look back at.