I’m surprised nobody has yet said “You gotta be a little off in the head to want that job!”.
Damn you Rocketeer! That’s what I wanted to post. It’s an interesting theory, anyway.
Good one, ShibbOleth!
As for Lyndon, if anyone can recall, long hair was quite fashionable back then.
I can’t remember where I read it, but I do remember seeing somewhere fairly recently that Eisenhower was “known” (in the open secret way, like JFK’s women) to be a pretty mean drunk.
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?
Right, right - and Obama is a Muslim, and Clinton had all those people killed, and so on.
If Jack Chick were a Democrat, he would be a valued resource for the SDMB.
Regards,
Shodan
I thought that Alzheimer’s isn’t definitively diagnosed until after death. Thus no one can be said to have it “officially” and certainly no doctor’s diagnosis could be made for Shodan’s benefit.
In general, I’d think that performing in public as well as Reagan did despite possible Alzheimer’s, if that’s what indeed happened, would be a badge of honor and not a slur on the man. Overcoming adversity and keeping it together is admirable. It’s not like Democrats (in this day and age, anyway) insist that Franklin Delano Roosevelt could walk.
They had a shot of him during a Dallas Cowboys game sometime in the '60’s, and to my teen eyes, his stringy shoulder-length hair looked a bit creepy and sad, kind of like that caretaker guy in Harry Potter.
JFK was a very sick man, there is good evidence that he was addicted to amphetamines (supplied by Dr. Max Jacobson). In addition, Kennedy was a sex addict, and had his offic manager ( Dave Powers) regularly bring prostitutes into the White House> CITE: “THE DARK SIDE of CAMELOT” Seymour Hersch, 1997.
As far as Saint Ronnie goes, he was clearly mentally challenged as early as the 1960s. His gaffes and clueless looks were famous. It just got noticably worse when he was president. Whether it was just generic dementia or Alzheimer’s at that point doesn’t matter. The guy was practically a drooling idiot.
The video of his testimony shortly after leaving office is a must see to anyone that has any doubts of his mental incapacity while president. No one goes from sane to can’t remember basic facts in a few months. Saint Ronnie has a horde of spin doctors, but if you ignore their spin and just watch that video you’ll understand.
LBJ drank himself to death within 4 years of leaving office. People talked quite a bit about his change in mood once he realized that Vietnam was going to be the blackhole that would destroy his legacy. It got worse after he decided not to run again and especially after the Chicago convention when he saw his party hand the election to Nixon. I think he was just continuing his “usual” heavy drinking at this time and didn’t go on a strongly liquid diet until after leaving office.
Compared to Nixon’s break during his last days, LBJ was not as severely depressed but was depressed for a long period.
Eisenhower had a temper, but it was Mamie (his wife) who was rumored to be the family drunk.
You mean… the liberals got their butts kicked year in and year out for 20+ years by a senile, drooling idiot?
Boy, THAT must make you proud!!!
Jesus H. Christ. Did you miss the question mark in the post you quoted?
After he left office it was revealed that Reagan was far more seriously injured and that his inner circle was far more concerned for his life initially) than the news accounts let on. IANAD but I would not be surprised if that didn’t hasten any mental infirmities that came afterwards. (Even a 30 year old in the prime of health having that same gunshot wound would take some time to recover.)
No idea how true they are, but there are several accounts that JFK was a periodic LSD user (not that there was anything illegal about that at the time).
Gah. I was in my prime in the '70’s. Now I feel like a senile, babbling idiot.
Reagan was pretty much in decline for like the last 6 years of his Presidency. Let’s be honest. I remember those debates with Mondale – the stammering, the long pauses, the desperate mental searching for an answer to the word, “hello.” It was a bumpy ride for Reagan supporters. I was one of them at the time. We were all terrified that his obvious senility would kill him in the election. It didn’t. I was one of the idiots who voted for him, knowing that his brain was gone (and it’s a brain that was never better than average to begin with), but reassuring ourselves that he was surrounded by advisors who wouldn’t let him push any buttons or walk in front of a bus.
Would Boris Yeltsin count ? I don’t think he was deranged per se, but in his later years he certainly appeared to spend most of his waking hours rip-roaring drunk. And not the good natured, jolly yet functional, Churchill kind of drunk. More like vomit-on-the-ambassador’s-wife-then-pass-out drunk.
No. Did you miss the first four words of my post?
Regards,
Shodan
This is fair. Sure - the op called for conjecture, but I suggest that we instead adhere to the criteria established by Shodan and limit our discussions to only those leaders with a confirmed, verifiable medical diagnosis.
(cue crickets . . . . . . )
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?