The mortal presidency

About this book

The presidency is hazardous to your health. Fully two-thirds of our presidents have died before reaching their life-expectancy - despite being wealthier, better educated, and better cared for than most Americans. Robert E. Gilbert looks at modern presidents including Coolidge, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, and Reagan. He shows - in some cases, for the first time - that all suffered from debilitating medical problems, physical and/or psychological, which they frequently managed to conceal from the public but which, in important ways, affected their political lives. He also looks more briefly at Presidents Clinton and Bush, both of whom suffered sudden and unpleasant indispositions that affected to some degree their presidencies. In addition, the book assesses the political impact of the health problems encountered by these presidents. For example, Gilbert links the Iran-Contra scandal to Reagan's cancer surgery, attributes a crisis in the Middle East to Eisenhower's health emergencies in 1955-56, re-examines Roosevelt's performance during the Yalta Conference just a few weeks before his death, and relates Johnson's deep interest in health-care legislation to the precarious state of his own health. In a masterful conclusion, the book analyzes the "presidential disability" amendment to the Constitution and explores what the inevitable prospect of presidential infirmity means for the life and health of the nation. Gilbert makes suggestions about what we should do about it in practical terms - including better organizing the White House and selecting better candidates for vice president.