Toon: If FDR were Running Today….

[MFrohike]

42. Well

Kennedy actually had Bobby and someone else (India someone? I forget who) go on TV during the convention to publicly deny that he had Addison's, after John Connally made the accusation on behalf of LBJ. FDR definitely danced on the line of openly lying about his polio but he never outright denied it. Of course, FDR's people went to great lengths to prevent pictures and film of him not being able to easily move on his own, so it probably adds up to the same thing.

The above being said, I don't find a disability, disease, or what have you to be an automatic disqualification for office at any level. It really makes no sense to limit it to the able-bodied when that particular subset of the population has shown itself to be as full of idiots, liars, and thieves as any other. We might find a terrific mayor or president who happens to be paralyzed. We might not. It sure as hell wouldn't hurt us to look.