# What presidents were mentally unstable while president? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [June 22, 2009, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-presidents-were-mentally-unstable-while-president/500656 "2009-06-22T22:37:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![zenith](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e19b73/32.png) [@zenith](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zenith)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2009, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-presidents-were-mentally-unstable-while-president/500656/41 "2009-06-24T14:21:23Z")
Bob Haldeman wrote that Nixon took amphetamines and confided that he wished that he didn’t have to sleep at all. ---
**Author:** ![bup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6bbea6/32.png) [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2009, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-presidents-were-mentally-unstable-while-president/500656/42 "2009-06-24T17:20:52Z")
Lesley Stahl claims that though she had known Reagan for years, in his second term he sometimes seemed not to recognize her, and here’s a claim that sometimes he couldn’t answer basic questions: [http://www.tvrage.com/person/id-59873/Lesley+Stahl](http://www.tvrage.com/person/id-59873/Lesley+Stahl) ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2009, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-presidents-were-mentally-unstable-while-president/500656/43 "2009-06-24T17:24:07Z")
> [@Munch](#): > > Oh - I TOTALLY glossed over that. I just went straight to the part where you started frothing at the mouth. Tell me - what was the purpose of that second sentence? Isn’t Obama a Muslim? Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![Sailboat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sailboat/32/461_2.png) [@Sailboat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sailboat)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2009, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-presidents-were-mentally-unstable-while-president/500656/44 "2009-06-24T17:41:41Z")
> [@zenith](#): > > Bob Haldeman wrote that Nixon took amphetamines and confided that he wished that he didn’t have to sleep at all. That’s sad. Why would anyone want to spend MORE time being Richard Nixon? ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2009, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-presidents-were-mentally-unstable-while-president/500656/45 "2009-06-24T17:47:51Z")
Speaking of “Old Hickory’s” cane, he owned at least one walking stick that was a gun. They weren’t terribly uncommon at the time- pull back the knob then jam it down fast and hopefully it would fire a single ball without blowing up in your hand (they were extremely unreliable and strictly “extreme close range/last resort” weapons). I’m not sure if Jackson ever walked with it (he seems the kind who would have more likely just had a brace of pistols and a couple of knives in his belt) but it’s on display with his other canes at the Hermitage. Of course with Jackson, walking around armed wasn’t evidence of paranoia as many people really _did_ wish him dead. The would be assassin was the exception in that he was a pathetic psychotic who didn’t really have anything against Jackson personally (IIRC he thought he was the rightful heir to the English throne and thus Jackson was an enemy). Most of the men who shot at or shot him did so because they weren’t deluded. ---
**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2009, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-presidents-were-mentally-unstable-while-president/500656/46 "2009-06-24T18:13:32Z")
> [@Oslo\_Ostragoth](#): > > I thought LBJ’s hair, post presidency, was kinda cool. From PBS’s [The American Experience: The Presidents](http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/presidents/36_l_johnson/filmmore/filmscript.html) _Historian Ronnie Dugger:: He was – he had this long white hair, and it’s all curled - you know, it kind of curled to the back of his hair, and he looked like a hippie. I think he chose to look like a hippie because he contained everything. He looked like he was identifying with the kids who’d been demonstrating against the war. Maybe he was trying to say to them, “Hey, I understand. If I’d have been young, I might have done the same thing.”_ I believe **Koxinga** ’s picture (the best) was from 1972. The only other I could find was from [Life Magazine, May of '71.](http://www.minortweaks.com/archives/lyndonandlady1.bmp) ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2009, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-presidents-were-mentally-unstable-while-president/500656/47 "2009-06-24T19:19:48Z")
> [@NicePete](#): > > How dare you impugn the reputation of Saint Ronnie! Why, I’ll have you know that he was such a good and true American that diseases which would attack us lesser humans would never _dream_ of infecting the Greatest. President. EVAR! > > Little known fact – Ronnie, er, pardon, President Reagan – had the beginnings of a case of athlete’s foot in 1985. However, after a few stern words from Ed Meece and Lee Atwater about respecting the greatest leader the free world has ever known (or will ever) the fungus was overcome with shame and beat a hasty retreat from the President’s wingtips. So that **Shodan** doesn’t feel lonely, this registered Democrat who worked for Obama would also like to call for a cite on the claim that President Reagan had Alzheimer’s while in office. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2009, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-presidents-were-mentally-unstable-while-president/500656/48 "2009-06-24T20:11:24Z")
> [@Koxinga](#): > > Regarding Wilson, I thought it was common knowledge that his stroke left him more or less incapacitated in the last months of his presidency, leaving his wife to run things more or less. Or is that still just theory? [Nope, it’s a pretty well known fact.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Presidency_of_Woodrow_Wilson#Incapacity) Jesus, **Shodan** , why is speculating on whether or not Reagan might have been suffering the early onset of Alzheimers (which with he was eventually diagnosed), such a horrible, insulting thing? Comparable to conspiracy theories about Clinton having Vince Foster killed, or Obama being a secret Muslim? He did seem to show moments of fatigue and mental instability during his second term. No one made a definite statement – just that it’s a possibility. Christ, you’d think someone kicked your grandfather in the balls or something. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2009, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-presidents-were-mentally-unstable-while-president/500656/49 "2009-06-24T20:40:01Z")
Lincoln wrestled with depression, as did both Franklin Pierce and Calvin Coolidge after the tragic deaths of their sons. LBJ went through some very rocky times in the last two years or so of his administration. I’ve read pretty extensively about JFK, and would agree that he was far too attached to the painkillers that helped him deal with his chronic back pain. He also probably would meet a contemporary definition of sex addiction. I’ve never read any reliable account of him ever taking LSD, though. Nixon is probably the best example of a mentally-disturbed president. He had a serious after-hours drinking problem that once led his aides to cover for him when the British prime minister called for a chat. In the latter days of the Watergate scandal, he was widely reported to be wandering the halls of the White House, talking to portraits of his predecessors. He was a deeply paranoid man. From Wiki (although I’ve read it elsewhere, too): _During President Nixon’s last days in the White House during the Watergate crisis, when the President’s mental stability was doubted by some, [Secretary of Defense James] Schlesinger is thought to have instructed the Joint Chiefs of Staff to check with him before carrying out any of Nixon’s orders regarding nuclear weapons. He also drew up contingency plans for an emergency deployment of the 82nd Airborne to Washington D.C. in the event of Nixon refusing to step down if impeached…_ Two more pics of LBJ’s long post-White House hair (I’m surprised I couldn’t find more online; I know I’ve seen them in books): [![](http://www.forttumbleweed.net/KubiakandLBJ.jpg) ](http://www.forttumbleweed.net/KubiakandLBJ.jpg) [http://www.utexas.edu/lbj/archive/anniversary/graphics/lbj\_class.jpg](http://www.utexas.edu/lbj/archive/anniversary/graphics/lbj_class.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![Munch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/munch/32/5281_2.png) [@Munch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Munch)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2009, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-presidents-were-mentally-unstable-while-president/500656/50 "2009-06-24T20:51:28Z")
> [@Shodan](#): > > Isn’t Obama a Muslim? No, I don’t believe he is. There’s been a lot of discussion on the internet (in fact, I’m sure you’ve participated in a few threads here), but there’s really no way to confirm or refute whether that’s a fact or not. Obama’s made it clear himself that’s he’s a Christian and not a Muslim, but that’s not always convincing to a lot of people. See? That wasn’t hard, and I didn’t swallow my own tongue doing so. It’s called being courteous, and realizing that not all questions on topics you disagree with need to be met with spittle and frothing. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2009, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-presidents-were-mentally-unstable-while-president/500656/51 "2009-06-24T21:29:22Z")
> [@bup](#): > > Lesley Stahl claims that though she had known Reagan for years, in his second term he sometimes seemed not to recognize her, … Shades of another Reagan gaffe: “My name is Ronald Reagan. What’s yours?” “I’m your son, Mike.” “Oh, I didn’t recognize you.” This is from 1964. They guy had long term problems. ---
**Author:** ![Rilchiam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2bfe46/32.png) [@Rilchiam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rilchiam)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2009, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-presidents-were-mentally-unstable-while-president/500656/52 "2009-06-24T22:01:34Z")
I thought that was supposed to illustrate that he didn’t care as much for his adopted son as he did for his bio children. But perhaps not. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2009, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-presidents-were-mentally-unstable-while-president/500656/53 "2009-06-24T22:43:16Z")
There were flashbacks to 1984 in 2004. I was a few weeks too young to vote in that election and not really terribly well versed in politics anyway at 17, but many of the adults I knew who were and even who were Democrats generally had the KERRY '04 dilemma of “I don’t like Reagan, but… the other guy is Mondale”. The memories of the (gasp!) $1.00+ per gallon gasoline and emasculating non-handling of the Iranian hostages and some of his gaffes did not endear Carter (under whom Mondale was VP [I mention for the benefit of Dopelings]) even to his fellow Deep South Democrats (who were already a minority) and Mondale said nothing that inspired confidence. Plus, _in general_ the economy was going well (my family was in the toilet but we were the exception). Interest rates had come down to 11.25% for prime (young people can’t believe that my father had _excellent_ credit yet the mortgage on our house was 17.5%), so those with money in the bank were still getting good returns on savings (not what they _had_ been) but those looking to buy were in a manageable area as well, so— things could have been a whole lot worse. While I can’t imagine what would have given Mondale the victory (I can’t remember which comedian said at the time “The guy only carried 3 more states than I did and I didn’t run”) it would be an interesting conjecture of what 4 Mondali years would have been. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2009, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-presidents-were-mentally-unstable-while-president/500656/54 "2009-06-25T00:00:26Z")
Recall too that Reagan used to make a LOT of claims that weren’t true – for example, claiming he had been in Europe, filming the concentration camps. (He wasn’t, during WWII, he was in Hollywood, making training films) And Iran-Contra – IF, as he claimed, he didn’t know anything about, it’s fucking frightening how uninvolved he was that his staff could get away with something of that magnitude right under his nose. IF he WAS involved, then he should have been impeached. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2009, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-presidents-were-mentally-unstable-while-president/500656/55 "2009-06-25T02:46:59Z")
> [@Guinastasia](#): > > And Iran-Contra – IF, as he claimed, he didn’t know anything about, it’s fucking frightening how uninvolved he was that his staff could get away with something of that magnitude right under his nose. IF he WAS involved, then he should have been impeached. In interest of bipartisanship I’ll point to an example of Democratic pundits simultaneously adhering to two or more mutually exclusive allegations (e.g. the way some Republicans believe Obama is a Muslim who was under the thumb of Christian minister Jeremiah Wright). Some of the same anti-Reagan pundits and talking heads who had claimed for years that he was a scatterbrained old fool were, in the early 90s, calling for him to be questioned or even indicted over Iran-Contra and alleged improprieties in the deregulation of the S&Ls (which led to the bailouts back in them days when a quarter trillion still seemed like a heap of money to us). When the Reagan family announced that he had signs of Alzheimers related dementia (1994), there was a chorus of “yeah, right, sure he does” by some of the same figures who were claiming this was an obvious dodge, though earlier they themselves had claimed he was senile. Personally I think he was nearly a complete figurehead for his entire second term and probably most of his first and couldn’t have answered the first question about most of the more complicated aspects of Iran-Contra or the S&L deregs if he hadn’t been senile. One of the most damning things about him is that Edmund Morris, the Pulitzer winning biographer of Teddy Roosevelt who was Reagan’s _official_ biographer, referred to him as “a man of encyclopedic ignorance” on political and financial matters, and actually wrote a [novel](http://www.amazon.com/Dutch-Memoir-Ronald-Edmund-Morris/dp/0394555082) rather than a biography because > [@](#): > > He was truly one of the strangest men who’s ever lived,… Nobody around him understood him. I, every person I interviewed, almost without exception, eventually would say, 'You know, I could never really figure him out. In _defending_ his father Ron Jr. (among the more pathetic Presi-spawn imo) actually said “It’s true my dad is intellectually lazy, but…”. This is a phrase I hope to never again hear reference an American president, though compared to Dubya old ‘Dutch’ was probably damned near Jefferson, or at least Garfield. (One of three things I will concede about Bush Sr., along with the facts he is a bonafide WW2 hero and to my knowledge has never kicked a homeless person, is that he did seem intelligent and “presidential” in interviews, however repulsive some of his stances.) ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2009, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-presidents-were-mentally-unstable-while-president/500656/56 "2009-06-25T03:17:04Z")
Well, yeah, I don’t think Reagan was in charge all that much – he definitely seemed to delegate authority, to an alarming rate. (However, when I pointed out that he was a figurehead before, I got my ass creamed) Most of those who worked with him – even those who were his political opponents though – felt that he was a hell of a nice guy. Just, well, an airhead. (Tip O’Neill and him, for all that they were bitter opponents in politics, were always “after five friends”, as Reagan would put it. They never seemed to make it personal) ---
**Author:** ![Oslo\_Ostragoth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/a9a28c/32.png) [@Oslo\_Ostragoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oslo_Ostragoth)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2009, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-presidents-were-mentally-unstable-while-president/500656/57 "2009-06-25T03:39:33Z")
I’ve been looking at LBJ pictures. [This](http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington/images/2008/07/10/lbj_2.jpg) may be what I was thinking of when I posted that I thought his post-presidency long hair was cool. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2009, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-presidents-were-mentally-unstable-while-president/500656/58 "2009-06-25T03:45:27Z")
> [@Oslo\_Ostragoth](#): > > I’ve been looking at LBJ pictures. [This](http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington/images/2008/07/10/lbj_2.jpg) may be what I was thinking of when I posted that I thought his post-presidency long hair was cool. Well, it beats looking at his gall bladder scar. ---
**Author:** ![NicePete](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ee7513/32.png) [@NicePete](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NicePete)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2009, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-presidents-were-mentally-unstable-while-president/500656/59 "2009-06-25T03:59:40Z")
My OP was intended merely as a comment on **Shodan’s** knee-jerk defensiveness. I have no idea whether or no Reagan had Alzheimer’s at any time. Nor am I much interested in the issue, other than as a historical curiosity. Impaired or not, the country survived. Shodan, why does it matter so much to you? Even if it was true would it lessen your opinion of the man? He’s not being accused of anything – we are only considering the possibility that he was affected by an impartial disease. I know that if he did have Alzheimer’s, much as I detest his politics and governance, I would pity him and his family. ---
**Author:** ![Koxinga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/4af34b/32.png) [@Koxinga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Koxinga)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2009, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-presidents-were-mentally-unstable-while-president/500656/60 "2009-06-25T04:04:25Z")
> [@Guinastasia](#): > > Well, yeah, I don’t think Reagan was in charge all that much – he definitely seemed to delegate authority, to an alarming rate. (However, when I pointed out that he was a figurehead before, I got my ass creamed) I remember Tip O’Neil once said something like Reagan might not go down as a great president, but he would have made a great king. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-presidents-were-mentally-unstable-while-president/500656.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-presidents-were-mentally-unstable-while-president/500656.md?page=4)