Redux: Reagan's early-stage Alzheimer's incident

A few days ago I remarked that "Reagan had Alzheimer's since at least 1984." Someone asked me where I got that idea.

Does anybody remember the closing statements in the October 8, 1984 presidential debate with Democratic condidate Walter Mondale? Reagan started talking about driving down Highway 1 in California and how it made him think about how great this country was, and then he completely forgot what he was talking about and where he was, lost his place, started repeating himself, and ran out of time. The moderator gently interrupted him, and Reagan got this "What the-- what the hell's going on??" look on his face and shut up. Thus ended the debate.

At the time, I was convinced that this incident had demonstrated in front of the whole nation that Reagan was utterly out of it and couldn't be trusted with a can opener, much less the hydrogen bomb. But as it turned out, the incident was completely ignored and Reagan went on to win in a landslide.

Here's Chief of Staff James Baker commenting on the incident:

It's really important in a presidential debate that you open strong and close strong and generally speaking, the candidates are encouraged to memorize their closing statements. And President Reagan didn't do that and the Louisville debate and consequently he had trouble with it. If you go back and view the tape of that debate and he lost his track. But, that's the only time I remember an incident really where he didn't "do his homework."

Oh really? Let's see. It was 1994 when Reagan announced he had Alzheimer's, undoubtedly because family members and aides could no longer hide it. That was only six years after he left office. Believe me, it takes longer than six years between the onset of Alzheimer's and the day others can no longer deny you have it.