Who Could Doubt It? Even Then.

In a new book about his father the president, Ron Reagan says that he began exhibiting symptoms of Alzheimer's disease three years into his first term in the White House. This article has some excerpts from the book.

It turns out that the American people were lied to by the White House. (Now there's an unprecedented occurrence.) "President Reagan was said to have not experienced the 'tell-tale' signs of Alzheimer's until 1993, before his official diagnosis in late 1994. But if his son is correct, the history of a president lionized by virtually all of today's Republicans could come to be seen under a very different light."

Ya think? I thought the guy was half senile when he was elected in 1980, much less three years later. And I have to confess that until the advent of George W. Bush, the vile little pretender who occupied the White House for two long terms, I considered Reagan positively the dumbest guy ever to be president. I guess I'm going to have to cut him a little slack now. And then remember with a shiver that we had a really unstable guy at the helm for at least five years. Scary.