White Houses, for decades, have denied presidential illnesses: FDR’s polio; JFK’s Addisons; Reagan’s Alzheimer’s, and now, perhaps, Biden’s decline. The power of the American presidency is incompatible with human frailty; it’s something I have seen close up, twice.
Some 30 years ago I was dispatched by The Guardian to write a piece about Ronald Reagan. He was in London to deliver a speech and even though he had been out of office for five years it still felt like a plum assignment for a young reporter. He was an American president after all and his swarm of security and their long black limos dwarfed the narrow Bloomsbury streets.
The room was in thrall as he strode towards the podium. What followed I have never forgotten. It was 20 minutes of that world-famous baritone speaking words, lots of words, words that individually made sense and that I recognized, but words he had strung together that made absolutely no sense at all.
