Reagan's Speeches Analyzed for Dementia

[DonViejo]

Source: TDB/NYT

Researchers at Arizona State University have analyzed Ronald Reagan's speech patterns and detected subtle changes that is linked to the onset of dementia before he was diagnosed with Alzheimer's Disease in 1994. The study did not prove Reagan's signs of dementia would have impacted his judgment, as some believed at the time, but showed that early signs of Alzheimer's and other conditions can be detected via speech before significant brain damage occurs. The study also analyzed George H. Bush, but found no sign changes in speaking patterns, while Reagan increasingly used repetitive words and the word "thing" subbed in for nouns.

Read it at The New York Times

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Read more: http://www.thedailybeast.com/cheats/2015/03/30/reagan-s-speeches-analyzed-for-dementia.html

[Journeyman]

1. Might be easier to analyze them all for sense and intelligence. Less to look for . . .

[greatauntoftriplets]

3. Absolutely!

Those were seriously lacking.

[forest444]

4. Bazinga.

There you go again!

In any case, they'd be looking for dementia in Lyn Nofziger and Peggy Noonan, since the only word Reagan probably ever said without their help was "well..."

[Warpy]

2. My mother spotted it in 1982.

I wonder how soon their analysis spotted it and whether or not it detected any recovery after the initial expected memory problems during his recovery from being shot.

I also wonder how they managed it since his baseline was rather poor unless he was reading a speech written by someone else.

They should never have propped him up in 1984. That they did and the voters went for it completely shattered any faith I still had in our system.

[homegirl]

5. I spotted

it and described it as senility when he rambled on and on about driving down the Pacific Coast Highway at the end of one of the debates for the second term. The moderator had to stop him after he went on for a long time after his 90 seconds were up. I guess Nancy was running the country for the entire second term.

[cilla4progress]

26. Yes - me too

Was a breathtaking moment..

[villager]

30. Completely agree. After seeing that rambling at the end of the debate w/ Mondale.../.

...I excitedly phoned an old childhood pal -- we'd been following politics together since growing up under Reagan as, unfortunately, our governor -- and we were each convinced he'd just "thrown" the election toward Mondale.

That no one mentioned it, called him on it, etc., similarly shattered my faith in the electorate. You knew how deeply fool-able they'd always be.

I wonder if things would've been different had there been an interwebs then to keep the story in play, since it was much easier for the MSM to simply politely agree that the Emperor had new clothes, after all...

[DBoon]

34. Nancy wasn't ruinning the country

Her astrologer was.

So much for solid Christian values..

On edit - meant "running" the country, but after a second read I think "ruining" is closer to the truth

[mountain grammy]

6. I thought he sounded as confused in 1980 as he did later on.

As far as shattering faith, I couldn't agree more. I haven't felt like an American since 1980.

[Wash. state Desk Jet]

9. Your dear mothers keen insight

Something about something about something or other.

[Blue_Tires]

12. My dad (a doctor) spotted it in his second term...

[LuvNewcastle]

14. He didn't seem the same after he was shot,

or at least that's when I started noticing that he wasn't all there. That's also when Nancy started being so protective of him. I was only 11 when he was elected, so I didn't know anything about Alzheimer's, but I could tell that something was not right.

[niyad]

21. when it was finally admitted that he had alzheimers, I talked to a friend in CA, and asked her if

she and I were the only ones who realized he had it even when he was gov.

[Warpy]

23. He'd been out of office for at least a year

and I don't suppose they could deny it any longer because by then, he was nonverbal.

I don't think he had it when he was governor. He was just bone lazy and that made him one of the dullest knives in the block.

[niyad]

24. perhaps you are correct. I always thought there was something wrong with him. even his acting

was strange.

[Warpy]

39. I always expected him to pick something up and give a sales pitch

He was the best commercial pitchman Hollywood ever managed to produce, but it did affect what little acting ability (next to nil) the man had.

[mrmpa]

37. My late Dad and I spotted it......

about the same time. There was the rambling, going off subject, etc.

[Warpy]

38. My mother's comment was

"My god! He's maundering!!" which was a big deal for her. I hadn't watched him on TV since the fool got in, always changed the station if I was home during the news hour, or I'd have spotted it even sooner, I was working in neuropsychiatry at the time.

[PeteSelman]

7. It doesn't really matter.

He was naught but a figurehead anyway. We all know who really ran the country.

https://m.

[C Moon]

8. That is INSANE! Wow.

[question everything]

10. It was not dementia. Reagan had a vocabulary of 200 words

and that's what made him "the great communicator." Except when speech writers like Peggy Noonan wrote his formal speeches.

In another point, I once attended a presentation about the early signs of Alzheimer's. The presenter said that in the early signs one really cannot identify an Alzheimer's patient. He will appear normal, even "presidential." Yes, this was after we found out about Reagan.

[merrily]

32. The article points to changes in his speech patterns.

[Zorra]

11. We fully recognized Reagan's demented speech patterns back in the mid '60s ~

[niyad]

22. oh my, I remember that one!

[Midnight Writer]

40. Reminds me of FOXNEWS spring break coverage

except FOXNEWS runs the videos. The more things change, the more they stay the same.

Thanks for posting this. I recently read about it in Seth Rosenfeld's book, but it takes on more life when you actually see it.

[rainy]

13. They should analyze his last debate

Honestly I remember thinking there was something terribly wrong with him and wondered why the media were not talking about it.

[Romeo.lima333]

19. iokiyar

[bananas]

25. Ollie North put out a rumor he was distracted because Soviet migs were being shipped to Nicaragua

http://www.politicalforum.com/warfare-military/240938-us-lied-about-soviet-migs-nicaragua.html

US Lied About Soviet MIGS in Nicaragua
This is one of the stories that were planted in the media by the Office of Public Diplomacy.

Bill Moyers: The Secret Government

The Miami Herald: REAGAN AIDES AND THE 'SECRET' GOVERNMENT

by ALFONSO CHARDY, HERALD WASHINGTON BUREAU

ORCHESTRATED NEWS LEAKS

In addition to North's role as contra commander and fund-raiser, North became secret overseer of the State Department's Office of Public Diplomacy, through which the Reagan administration disseminated information that cast Nicaragua as a threat to its neighbors and the United States.

An intelligence source familiar with North's relationship with that office said North was directly involved in many of the best publicized news leaks, including the Nov. 4, 1984, Election Day announcement that Soviet-made MiG jet fighters were on their way to Nicaragua.

McFarlane is now believed to have been the senior administration official who told reporters that the Soviet cargo ship Bakuriani, en route to Nicaragua from a Soviet Black Sea port, was probably carrying MiGs.

The intelligence official said North apparently recommended that the information be leaked to the press on Election Day so it would reach millions of people watching election results. CBS and NBC broadcast the report that night.

CLARK HAD KEY ROLE

The leak led to a new clash between the regular bureaucracy and the president's advisers. The official State Department spokesman, John Hughes, tried hard to play down the report, pointing out that it was unproven that the Bakuriani was carrying MiGs. At the same time, employees of the Office of Public Diplomacy, acting under North's direction, insisted that the crates were inside the ship and that MiGs were still a possibility.

To take a closer look, the source said, North requested a high-flying SR-71 Blackbird spy aircraft be sent from Beale Air Force Base near Sacramento, Calif., to fly over the Nicaraguan port of Corinto while the Bakuriani unloaded its cargo. The pictures showed that the Bakuriani unloaded helicopters, not MiGs.

Last edited by Horhey; Mar 26 2012 at 11:56 PM.

[villager]

31. They all agreed that the Emperor still had clothes, after all, and no mention was made of it.

But I remember being shocked then, too.

I wonder if there'd been an internet then, if things would've been different...?

[Midnight Writer]

41. see Jane Mayer and Doyle McManus book "Landslide"

It was published while Reagan was still in office (1988). It reveals that Chief of Staff Howard Baker requested not one but two separate mental health evaluations of the President, and that the Cabinet met secretly to discuss if he should be removed from office.

Baker noticed that Reagan was totally disengaged and spent most of his time watching cowboy movies, and could not seem to focus on discussions, rambling at length about unrelated topics.

[rainy]

43. Wow why isn't this stuff ever

brought to tha attention of the public?

[davepc]

44. Because if the Soviets got wind of it there would be Red troops in Bonn by lunch!

Made him easier to easy to control too, I'm sure.

[project_bluebook]

15. What ever he suffered from then

it was nothing compared to the burning hell he's suffering now.

[Marthe48]

16. Analyze his devoted followers

while you're at it!

[CreekDog]

17. They should analyze his policies for Dementia too

[SoapBox]

20. ^This^

[Romeo.lima333]

18. the words that would come out of my fingers regarding my feelings for this lump of shit

would get me banned

[IDemo]

27. This was the moment I remember thinking he had problems:

As early as 1984, there had been signs that Reagan's faculties were in decline. When asked at a press conference in that year about his plans for talks with the Russians on space weapons, he had been unable to utter a word. "Tell them we're doing everything we can," hissed Mrs Reagan, through lips that barely moved. "We're doing everything we can," echoed the President.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/1463807/Ronald-Reagan.html

[3catwoman3]

28. That moment was pathetically memorable...

...and memorably pathetic.

[Kalidurga]

29. If his speeches were written by Peggy Noonan...

they should be analyzed for ranch dressing and croutons.

[merrily]

33. Showed signs through both his terms, maybe in his debate with Carter.

And Nancy seems to have known. She could not have been the only one around him who knew.

And no one told America.

Rivals a House of Cards story line.

[Laffy Kat]

35. Why in the world was he considered such a "great communicator"?

I NEVER got that. I worked for an Alzheimer's Association Chapter in Denver during part of his reign and we would watch him and just shake our heads. It was so obvious.

[Dr. Xavier]

36. I thought that he first showed signs of Alzheimer's

when he switched political parties in the 50's...

[dawnie51]

42. This is why we are continually blasted with the Myth of Reagan.....

by the rethugs: Reagan was magnificent, Reagan was the ultimate president, Reagan was God, etc . They all know that for at least 3/4 of his term, he was deeply demented. It's a mechanism to throw us off, so we don't look too closely, so we don't challenge the idiot decisions of that period, laws etc. Keep the mantra going of Reagan infallibility and greatness, and the opposition will be kept from investigating who actually was making decisions (I believe it was Bush and Cheney) during those years. Anyone who believes that Reagan wrote that tender goodbye letter in the 90s must also believe in Santa Claus. By that time, he probably didn't know what planet he was on.

[davepc]

45. Didn't he tell the same story over and over about going to the drug store to get magazines?

I have a vague recollection of that.