When FDR became President, he had been paralyzed for 12 years

[molova]

Thank God Twitter is a new thing.

In 1921, when he was 39 years of age, Franklin Delano Roosevelt contracted an illness characterized by: fever; protracted symmetric, ascending paralysis; facial paralysis; bladder and bowel dysfunction; numbness; and dysaesthesia. The symptoms gradually resolved except for paralysis of the lower extremities. The diagnosis at the onset of the illness and thereafter was paralytic poliomyelitis. Yet his age and many features of the illness are more consistent with a diagnosis of Guillain-Barré syndrome, an autoimmune polyneuritis. The likelihoods (posterior probabilities) of poliomyelitis and Guillain-Barré syndrome were investigated by Bayesian analysis. Posterior probabilities were calculated by multiplying the prior probability (disease incidence in Roosevelt's age group) by the symptom probability (likelihood of a symptom occurring in a disease). Six of eight posterior probabilities strongly favoured Guillain-Barré syndrome.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14562158

[unblock]

1. the media wasn't so much out to undermine a president on the basis of trivialities back then.

they knew, and in fact there were a few stories about it back then.

but they didn't cover it and dwell on it daily as if it were some scandal that made him somehow less capable of governing.

bizarre.

nowadays we know that things like sighing or wearing a helmet or wearing earth tones or sweaters are career-killers for politicians. well, democrats, anyway.

[tblue37]

2. The media also did not make an issue of JFK's poor health. But things are very different now, and

of course we also have the RW making a huge issue out of everything, no matter how innocuous, and the internet to make sure it gets spread everywhere immediately.

[Scruffy1]

3. He also worked very hard at hiding his disability.

He was careful to always be behind the podium on film. Of course there was no television and he was a master of radio. It wasn't a secrete, but somehow the right wing hate machine of the day (Colonel McCormick, et al) didn't seem to use it. Maybe because polio was so common before the vaccine. I grew up with people who were disabled by polio.

[Hell Hath No Fury]

4. And the American public was all but unaware --

of his health condition. His inability to walk was not on tape and about to be broadcast endlessly.

[doc03]

5. and few people knew. nt

[TheDormouse]

6. True. He also died in office.

[erpowers]

7. After Three Full Terms

Yes, he died in office, but only after finishing three terms and having been elected to a fourth term. So, he was in office for more than 12 years before he died.

[Hortensis]

8. Yes, and as I told Molova in another thread, FDR dropped dead

shortly after being sworn in for the last time. Actually, he didn't drop dead. He was very ill for a long time, and his death was only a surprise to the American people, from whom his ill health was kept as secret as possible. And perhaps Harry Truman, who'd been chosen by Democratic operatives and literally had no informative meeting with FDR, or even a letter from him ("toilet handle should be held down to count of three"?) between his election to VP and elevation to SCOTUS.

Interesting latest post, Molova, but your point? "Thank god Twitter is a new thing?" Obviously FDR's chronic ill health could not be hidden today. So, thank goodness HRC can't hide terminal illness, or what?