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As mentioned, Kennedy had chronic health problems which were successfully hidden from the general public with the connivance of his inner circle and the press.
While much has been made of Kennedy's youthful appearance he was only 4 years younger than Nixon, although Nixon looked older just because, well he just did.
Kennedy's assassination was obviously unexpected and no one expected he would die in office from natural causes.
Roosevelt may have been in a wheelchair but, again, his inner circle and the press worked together to keep that more or less secret so not many members of the general public knew it. I may be wrong, but I think there are only a couple pictures of him in a wheelchair.
Roosevelt was also very ill from hypertension and heart disease before/during the 1944 election, which was also hidden from the public. Given his ill health, the choice of Harry Truman for his running mate was extremely dangerous. The party bosses and FDR's inner circle put their party's interests above national interests, much like the Republicans did in 2008 when McCain named Palin as his VP candidate. That Truman turned out to be a good POTUS was just dumb luck; he had better credentials than Palin but certainly not what most would have considered "presidential quality". He could have turned out to be another Andrew Johnson or worse, especially since he, like most VPs except possibly Nixon until after Reagan, wasn't kept "in the loop" about what was going on in the WH.
The people whining about the media and about the primaries today are really clueless about how bad it used to be back "in the good ol' days" they pine for. Voters didn't have much say in who the candidates actually were until after the 1968 election. The nominations back then were all brokered.
His health wasn't an issue only because they concealed it. It wasn't until after his death that it came out he had Addison's disease and other chronic problems (colitis, recurring UTI's) and that his back problems were far worse than the public knew. One of his biographers, who was granted access to his medical records, wrote he took eight different medications a day just to deal with these conditions.
Life expectancy of someone with no health issues to speak of, with tremendous stamina and at the current age of 74 is higher than 5-10 years. Just look at Carter. He's still around. Same with Bush the first, Reagan also died old.
it's 11, but usually the last years are declining and aren't of optimal.....physically or mentally.
His death signicantly affected the direction of our country. Many have argued that he had no idea of escalating Vietnam involvement. 75 yes of age for any job much less a job like Potus takes a tremendous amount of energy, stamina, good health, mental clarity. Life expectancy of someone born in early 1940s is early 70s I believe. Kennedy waso well short of his life expectancy time period and it took a freak cause of death.....a 75 you old has a very high likelihood of death in his next 5-10 yrs.
The actuary charts I see tell me if one makes it to 75, they will be 92.
POTUS does not do anything strenuous. They have others to do yard, take care of the house,etc. POTUS uses their brain.
It has been my experience that folks who are dumb at 75 were dumb at 40.
Orrin Hatch made an excellent observation that Democrats can successfully run youthful candidates because of liberal media bias. Republicans, obviously, have no such luxury. In fact, I believe that the youngest GOP nominee over the past half-century was George W. Bush (who was already 54 in 2000).
One of many reasons why Marco Rubio was a fool to give up his Senate seat for a presidential run that was likely to fail. If Marco was just a bit more patient, he would have been the GOP nominee in 2020 or 2024, and would also have had the Bush money machine to support him in the process. (As it stands now, the Bush family hates Rubio's guts, because they think that Marco "betrayed" Jeb by running against him.)
The actuary charts I see tell me if one makes it to 75, they will be 92.
POTUS does not do anything strenuous. They have others to do yard, take care of the house,etc. POTUS uses their brain.
It has been my experience that folks who are dumb at 75 were dumb at 40.
So true on all counts. I will add that a president has a doctor just feet away when he's out and about and in the White House when the president is there. A president's health is better monitored than the average person's.
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