President Reagan’s health said to have deteriorated

[RBA]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5144264

Reagan’s health said to have deteriorated
Former president, 93, has Alzheimer’s disease
The Associated Press
Updated: 8:44 a.m. ET June 05, 2004PARIS - Former President Ronald Reagan’s health has deteriorated, the White House has been told.

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The White House was informed that the 93-year-old former president’s health had changed significantly in the past several days, a person familiar with Reagan’s condition told The Associated Press Saturday.

Reagan has been out of the public eye since disclosing a decade ago that he had Alzheimer’s disease. He has lived longer than any other U.S. president.

[RedsBaron]

Thanks for the post RBA. Alzheimer's is such a terrible disease, and so hard on the victim's family. I have a very good friend who now suffers from the disease.

[RosieRed]

They just said he died.

[SirFelixCat]

RIP President.

[Larkin Fan]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmp...us/reagan_obit

Former President Ronald Reagan Dies at 93

WASHINGTON - Ronald Reagan (news - web sites), the cheerful crusader who devoted his presidency to winning the Cold War, trying to scale back government and making people believe it was "morning again in America," died Saturday after a long twilight struggle with Alzheimer's disease (news - web sites), a family friend said. He was 93.

He died at his home in California, according to the friend, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The White House was told his health had taken a turn for the worse in the last several days.

Five years after leaving office, the nation's 40th president told the world in November 1994 that he had been diagnosed with the early stages of Alzheimer's, an incurable illness that destroys brain cells. He said he had begun "the journey that will lead me into the sunset of my life."

Reagan body was expected to be taken to his presidential library and museum in Simi Valley, Calif., and then flown to Washington to lie in state in the Capitol Rotunda. His funeral was expected to be at the National Cathedral, an event likely to draw world leaders. The body was to be returned to California for a sunset burial at his library.

Reagan lived longer than any U.S. president, spending his last decade in the shrouded seclusion wrought by his disease, tended by his wife, Nancy, whom he called Mommy, and the select few closest to him. Now, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton (news - web sites) are the surviving ex-presidents.

Although fiercely protective of Reagan's privacy, the former first lady let people know his mental condition had deteriorated terribly. Last month, she said: "Ronnie's long journey has finally taken him to a distant place where I can no longer reach him."

Reagan's oldest daughter, Maureen, from his first marriage, died in August 2001 at age 60 from cancer. Three other children survive: Michael, from his first marriage, and Patti Davis and Ron from his second.

Over two terms, from 1981 to 1989, Reagan reshaped the Republican Party in his conservative image, fixed his eye on the demise of the Soviet Union and Eastern European communism and tripled the national debt to $3 trillion in his singleminded competition with the other superpower.

Taking office at age 69, Reagan had already lived a career outside Washington, one that spanned work as a radio sports announcer, an actor, a television performer, a spokesman for the General Electric Co., and a two-term governor of California.

At the time of his retirement, his very name suggested a populist brand of conservative politics that still inspires the Republican Party.

He declared at the outset, "Government is not the solution, it's the problem," although reducing that government proved harder to do in reality than in his rhetoric.

Even so, he challenged the status quo on welfare and other programs that had put government on a growth spurt ever since Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal strengthened the federal presence in the lives of average Americans.

In foreign affairs, he built the arsenals of war while seeking and achieving arms control agreements with the Soviet Union.

In his second term, Reagan was dogged by revelations that he authorized secret arms sales to Iran while seeking Iranian aid to gain release of American hostages held in Lebanon. Some of the money was used to aid rebels fighting the leftist government of Nicaragua.

Despite the ensuing investigations, he left office in 1989 with the highest popularity rating of any retiring president in the history of modern-day public opinion polls.

That reflected, in part, his uncommon ability as a communicator and his way of connecting with ordinary Americans, even as his policies infuriated the left and as his simple verities made him the butt of jokes. "Morning again in America" became his re-election campaign mantra in 1984, but typified his appeal to patriotrism through both terms.

At 69, Reagan was the oldest man ever elected president when he was chosen on Nov. 4, 1980, by an unexpectedly large margin over incumbent Democrat Jimmy Carter.

Near-tragedy struck on his 70th day as president. On March 30, 1981, Reagan was leaving a Washington hotel after addressing labor leaders when a young drifter, John Hinckley, fired six shots at him. A bullet lodged an inch from Reagan's heart, but he recovered.

Four years later he was re-elected by an even greater margin, carrying 49 of the 50 states in defeating Democrat Walter F. Mondale, Carter's vice president.

[RedFanAlways1966]

RIP, President Reagan.

It is sad. However, the man lived a long and wonderful life. His life story is incredible... actor turned Governor turned U.S. President. A man who served as both a Democrat and a Republican. A man who was there when communism in Europe crumbled. A man who survived an assassination attempt and had to have a bullet removed from his body. The oldest U.S President ever elected. Like him or not, he has lived an incredible life. I believe that he served his country with honor and dignity. Politics aside, I believe he tried to make the world a better place. He wasn't perfect, but few are. It was sad to hear and know of his illness. An illness that has become more common in today's society. Perhaps a figure like him will bring more devotion to solving this strange disease. His one last service to the world.

It is always a sad day in America when one of our presidents passes away. Whether that person was a Democrat or Republican, it just leaves a depressed feeling in me. I was young when President Johnson passed away. I vaguely remember watching his funeral on TV w/ my parents. My folks are Rep., but I can remember feeling the sadness in our house that day. I always remembered it. President Nixon is the only other during my time. That saddened me as well. Maybe I am old-fashioned, but I like to think that all of our presidents are good people who are doing their best to help the U.S. and the world.

[Larkin Fan]

RIP President Reagan.

[RollyInRaleigh]

A truly great President, whom I always admired. In my opinion, the greatest President of my lifetime. RIP President Reagan.

[Red Thunder]

Ronald Reagan was a well respected man beyond the borders of the US, especially in Germany. May he rest in peace.

[Reds1]

An American Icon always is a little sad to hear, but he was ready to go back home!

[KronoRed]

Rest In Peace

[TeamCasey]

I'm watching the news now. They're talking about the route of the hearse, etc. I think the family deserves some respect, privacy and space. God! They irritate me sometimes.

[RedsBaron]

"Ronald Reagan won the Cold War without firing a shot"-Margaret Thatcher (herself in ill health now).
I always thiink of Reagan at the Berlin Wall in 1987, demanding "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall." Reagan had much to do with that wall finally coming down a couple of years later. R.I.P.

[Michael Allred]

RIP to the thousands of people who died of AIDS while Ronald Reagan did nothing.

Dying does not make you a better man or a saint (as some conservatives no doubt will claim he was anyway) but the deaths he contributed to while in office make it impossible for me to give him a pass.

[Reds4Life]

RIP to the thousands of people who died of AIDS while Ronald Reagan did nothing.

Dying does not make you a better man or a saint (as some conservatives no doubt will claim he was anyway) but the deaths he contributed to while in office make it impossible for me to give him a pass.

Oh give me a break.

Grow up, this isn't a political thread. A former President, and leader of the free world, just died. Please show a little respect. If you don't have anything nice to say, please do everyone a favor and shut the hell up.