# What if the POTUS was a huge drunk or stoner? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [January 17, 2016, 9:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-the-potus-was-a-huge-drunk-or-stoner/743394 "2016-01-17T09:39:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2016, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-the-potus-was-a-huge-drunk-or-stoner/743394/41 "2016-01-18T18:05:56Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > Emphasis added on the last one. > > Since this is GQ: cite, cite and cite? For the last one, please note that you used the term “brain dead”. Be sure you cite confirms that. **John Mace** , I don’t agree with the position taken, but apparently in **Bill O’Reilly** ’s book Shooting Reagan, he asserts that the shooting left Reagan a lot more affected than first thought and that his mental functions began slipping then. George Will called O’Reilly out on the statements and they had a silly fight about it. ---
**Author:** ![bup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6bbea6/32.png) [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2016, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-the-potus-was-a-huge-drunk-or-stoner/743394/42 "2016-01-18T18:38:57Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > Emphasis added on the last one. > > Since this is GQ: cite, cite and cite? For the last one, please note that you used the term “brain dead”. Be sure you cite confirms that. I’m glad you called these out. I accepted without question that Nixon got drunk to the point of blacking out each night, but in trying to find a cite to answer you, I learned that the drunken phone call from the Frost/Nixon movie was fiction, and that a secret service “tell all” book revealed that toward the end of his presidency, when he was pretty stressed, he’d down [_two martinis every other night_](http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2717322/Richard-Nixon-ate-dog-biscuits-got-looped-martinis-walked-beach-suit-lace-ups-spied-Ted-Kennedy-New-book-reveals-Tricky-Dicks-bizarre-behavior-forced-resign-presidency-40-years-ago.html). :eek: ---
**Author:** ![TSBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/77aa72/32.png) [@TSBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TSBG)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2016, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-the-potus-was-a-huge-drunk-or-stoner/743394/43 "2016-01-19T02:24:47Z")
> [@bup](#): > > I’m glad you called these out. I accepted without question that Nixon got drunk to the point of blacking out each night, but in trying to find a cite to answer you, I learned that the drunken phone call from the Frost/Nixon movie was fiction, and that a secret service “tell all” book revealed that toward the end of his presidency, when he was pretty stressed, he’d down [_two martinis every other night_](http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2717322/Richard-Nixon-ate-dog-biscuits-got-looped-martinis-walked-beach-suit-lace-ups-spied-Ted-Kennedy-New-book-reveals-Tricky-Dicks-bizarre-behavior-forced-resign-presidency-40-years-ago.html). :eek: On the other hand, there is a recording of Kissinger telling Scowcroft that Nixon was too drunk to speak to the British Prime Minister when the Yom Kippur War broke out; and Kissinger told his aides that Nixon was frequently too drunk to function. ---
**Author:** ![j666](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9de0a6/32.png) [@j666](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/j666)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2016, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-the-potus-was-a-huge-drunk-or-stoner/743394/44 "2016-01-19T03:10:29Z")
> [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](#): > > What’s the first? “Money is the root of all evil” > [@pkbites](#): > > Like when someone says “I could care less” when, like me at your ire, they could **n’t** care less? That would be sarcasm, and not a quote. ---
**Author:** ![pkbites](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pkbites/32/204_2.png) [@pkbites](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pkbites)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2016, 5:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-the-potus-was-a-huge-drunk-or-stoner/743394/45 "2016-01-19T05:25:45Z")
> [@IvoryTowerDenizen](#): > > In his quote it was obvious since he was making the winter=death analogy. No he wasn’t. ---
**Author:** ![Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eyebrows_0f_doom/32/3119_2.png) [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eyebrows_0f_Doom)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2016, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-the-potus-was-a-huge-drunk-or-stoner/743394/46 "2016-01-19T15:36:22Z")
> [@pkbites](#): > > No he wasn’t. You misread it, it happens. ---
**Author:** ![IvoryTowerDenizen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ivorytowerdenizen/32/17937_2.png) [@IvoryTowerDenizen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IvoryTowerDenizen)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2016, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-the-potus-was-a-huge-drunk-or-stoner/743394/47 "2016-01-19T16:19:28Z")
> [@pkbites](#): > > No he wasn’t. Were that true, it makes _Interstellar_ a funnier movie. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2016, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-the-potus-was-a-huge-drunk-or-stoner/743394/48 "2016-01-23T22:59:44Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > IOW, you don’t have a cite. I didn’t think so. Obviously he can’t cite Reagan being brain dead while president, as that would mean he was in some sort of coma or dead. Hence it was obvious hyperbole. If you didn’t get that, that’s on you. ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2016, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-the-potus-was-a-huge-drunk-or-stoner/743394/49 "2016-01-24T00:31:33Z")
This is the most weirdly fucked-up thread I’ve seen here in quite a while. Do you have to be stoned or drunk to post in it? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-the-potus-was-a-huge-drunk-or-stoner/743394.md?page=2)