How many years was Reagan in office with Alzheimers?

[milestogo]

People must have known but nothing was done.

[unblock]

1. Officially, they insisted he didn't have it until a year out of office.

Semantics and official diagnosis aside, he was clearly deteriorating and fairly-to-quite out of it the last 2-3 years of his second term, iirc

[synni]

31. He was out of it during his 1984 debate with Walter Mondale

One of the iconic moments from that debate was when Mondale looked at Reagan with pity, while the latter rambled on incoherently.

[unblock]

32. Yes, there were signs even in his first term.

Alzheimer's doesn't come out of nowhere. In the first term they could largely spin it away, I don't blame the media for not highlighting the issue then.

The second term they couldn't ignore. They did downplay it, though, and they decided they can't call it Alzheimer's until the Reagan camp confirmed it, which of course they never were going to do while he was still president.

But basically everyone knew it was a big problem, Nancy was covering for him, the cabinet was running wild without him able to exercise any authority, and for the most part the public knew this. Supporters generally agreeed he was fading but they were ok with it.

With Donnie it's different, as the message simply isn't getting through to half the country. They think he's sharp as ever and insist any dementia talk is "fake news".

[leftstreet]

2. Imagine if we'd had social media then

The press controlled what we knew and helped the Admin hide his condition

[Emile]

3. At least two years.

[haele]

4. Reagan wasn't that far along, though.

He was more first term or Biden era *rump than where *rump currently is.
He was retired at the Santa Barbara Ranch by the time he got this bad.
Also, I think his dementia was a different type, with different causes.

[stopdiggin]

6. And Reagan NEVER gave a speech or address that sounded anything like ..... -(nt)-

[Ocelot II]

5. It was pretty gradual - not very obvious to the public until the last couple of years

of his second term, but one of his sons said that he started noticing some signs before that - that sometimes he seemed tired and at a loss for words - but he was not formally diagnosed until five years after he was out of office. I remember a fair amount of speculation during his second term, but while he was president he was never as obviously deteriorating and messed up as Trump is now.

[ABC123Easy]

7. I was 7 in 1981 when he took office

I was 15 in 1989 when HW Bush took over. I remember talking in school around 86 or 87 about how Bush was really in charge because Ronny Raygun was out of it.

[quaint]

8. Reagan had Nancy, not Melania.

?si=N48AMIuxBDo_6QTP

[ProudMNDemocrat]

26. Melania is a PAID ESCORT. She sees $$$$$$$$$$$$ for her bank account!

The few times she has been seen with her "sugar daddy", she remains silent. The last time she was seen in public, was at the so-called Kennedy Center Honor ceremony at the White House. She smiled when she needed to.

At least, Nancy Reagan was an actual FLOTUS for her time.

[Maru Kitteh]

34. Bet he wishes he could upgrade to an English-speaking wife now!

[ananda]

9. Also, Nancy was running things anyway.

So it didn't make that much difference.

[BlueKota]

11. In college we always thought she was

running things too.

[Ocelot II]

12. Kind of like Edith Wilson.

At least in his second term, in public appearances Reagan often seemed vague and somewhat befuddled, but he never came across as completely barking mad like Trump. He never went on word-salad rants, made up obviously crazy stuff, or insulted reporters or most of the rest of the world. I was not and am not a fan of ol' Ronnie - he did enormous damage, especially to US economic policy. But he was only borderline senile, not absolutely and dangerously nuts.

In 1986 SNL did a clever skit about Reagan pretending to be clueless and confused while he was actually an evil genius mastermind.

[Tommy Carcetti]

13. Which is why I think there's more than just age-related decline with Trump

And an unfiltered indication of Trump being who he always has been--a dangerous, malicious narcissist.

[Ocelot II]

16. He was always an awful person, but dementia is removing whatever flimsy filters he might once have had.

His terrible personality is becoming disinhibited and fully manifest.

[indusurb]

10. It started being noticeable to me in '84

But then again my grandma had Alzheimer's so I knew what to look for and what I was seeing.

[artemisia1]

21. That's the year I noticed he was no longer good at "off the cuff" remarks and needed more prepared lines. /nt

[Mossfern]

14. Except Reagan

was not a malicious narcissist.
Trump has dementia on top of a severe personality disorder.
They cannot be compared.

[Skittles]

23. Reagan was a real piece of shit

he just hid it under his ridiculous "folksy" demeanor - I was NEVER fooled by him

[Mossfern]

25. True, but

he did not have a personality disorder.
There's a distinct difference.

BTW, I make absolutely no excuses for Reagan - his policies were instrumental in getting us where we are now.

[mopinko]

15. it was an open secret in d.c. his whole 2nd term.

my late bil worked for the dea for yrs. he kept in touch after going into criminal defense, most drug cases. his pals at dea told him about it early in his 2nd term.

[chowmama]

17. Even in his first term.

Someone had a story about meeting him at the first inauguration and having him start on a story about how he'd been present when the Allies liberated the death camps. Of course, he never left the US during the war and did his service in Hollywood. The storyteller was well aware of this at the time.

Nancy intervened immediately and steered him to somebody across the room who he 'just had to talk to'. It was her job and she was very good at it.

[Jack Valentino]

18. I don't believe Reagan actually "had Alzheimers" before he was out of the White House,

(although you might call it "pre-Alzheimers"....)


If he actually had it starting before 1989, I don't believe he would have lived until 2004.

My own mother had it, so I have that as a basis for comparison...

When it first became clear that she couldn't remember shared experiences,
she died within ten years of that time....
(which coincides with the announcement about Reagan in 1994,
and his death ten years later).

[Xolodno]

19. We're going to beat this dead horse again?

Even if he did, Alzheimer's wasn't very well understood back then. Remember the old term "just having a senior moment"?

Nor does it progress the same for everyone or for that matter at the same speed. It's not a mathematical function. Also he was very sharp at times, toward the end of his last term, he went to a baseball game and sat in the announce booth and started calling the game. Only missed one call, the actual guy who was supposed to call it said he agreed with him and the umpire missed it.

Kick the baby on this one.

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/Auku4ySPCiw

[Raine]

20. Most of his second term IMO. nt

[BlueTsunami2018]

22. Eight.

Reagan was the ultimate puppet President.

[mucholderthandirt]

24. All eight of them. He was a good enough actor he could follow a script and fooled a lot of people.

And the press even then was going easy on him. But he was gone before he even campaigned, so eight plus years at least.

Bush was a dry drunk (Bush the Lesser) for decades, and dumb as a box of rocks to boot.

Trump was always stupid, lazy and insane, he hid it better -- or had better drugs he actually took -- the first four years. Now he just don't care, he's not planning on leaving so what difference does it make?

[bucolic_frolic]

27. * Ding, ding, ding! * Winner, winner, chicken dinner! /nt

[Coldwater]

28. From what I remember

towards the end of his administration Nancy and her white house psychic were running the show

[ms liberty]

29. At least 6, but it was not really observable by everyone until soon after the second term began

His was pretty mild until after he left office, compared to the Orange Monster, probably because Reagan wasn't a supremely dysfunctional pervert, just your average Republican ahole. They manged him better too, once he began really showing the symptoms.

[WmChris]

30. Republicans don't care

As long as their goals are pushed they obviously would back even an orange orangutan.

[MustLoveBeagles]

33. I don't know about Alzheimer's but there was an incident in 83 or 84

Tom Brokaw was interviewed Reagan and he suddenly stopped and had a blank look on his face. Nancy was frightened. After a short time he continued were he left off. Tom told Nancy they wouldn't broadcast the incident.

Into his his second tem he seemed out of it. When questioned about Iran/Contra he seemed confused. I didn't get the impression that he was bullshiting his way through it.